Is Jeff Bezos Buying the Tottenham Stadium Naming Rights? Not Yet

The soccer (or football, in much of the world) stadium for Tottenham Hotspur has been waiting for a new sponsor for the two years since it opened in North London. The football club’s new venue opened in March 2019.

The impressive sports and concert venue has a capacity of 62,303 and cost about 1.2 billion pounds. Following a year of devastating closures and loss of revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the football club is hoping to bring in much-needed cash by selling the rights to name its new stadium.

So far, Jeff Bezos and Amazon have been mentioned by fans of the football club on Twitter and other social media platforms. Neither Bezos nor Amazon have indicated any plans to buy the naming rights to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

According to football.london, the football club was already 600 million pounds in debt when the new stadium opened. The annual cost to pay off the debt for the stadium is approximately 37 million pounds, although Tottenham has an option to make interest-only payments for the first 10 years.

The COVID-19 pandemic meant that the new stadium lost out on massive amounts of revenue from hosting fees, gate receipts, food and drink, and merchandise.

Daniel Levy is the chairman of the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. He needs to find a sponsor for the new stadium that will help improve its brand standing worldwide. He has said that a sponsorship deal must be right for all of the parties. Some people have reported 250 million pounds as the cost for naming rights, although the actual figure could be much higher.

Amazon is one of a few companies with the capital to afford a deal for the Tottenham stadium naming rights. The e-commerce company was mentioned as being “interested” in the club in April 2020, but has made no moves toward an agreement.

When unveiling the new stadium, Levy said, “Our stunning new stadium design and wider scheme will deliver an unrivalled fan experience and significant community benefits—creating a world class sports and entertainment destination for all—and in our birthplace of Tottenham.”

In September 2019, Social Finance, Inc. struck a deal to buy the exclusive naming rights for the new Los Angeles football stadium. The fintech startup more commonly called "SoFi" reportedly paid $400 million in a 20-year deal for the privilege of naming the new stadium to host the Rams and the Chargers.

In 2011, the insurance company MetLife entered into a 25-year agreement for the naming rights of the new home of the New York Jets and Giants. MetLife’s cost was approximately $17 million–$20 million per year, in a deal reached after the Jets and Giants organizations spent three years searching for the right sponsor.

In 2018, Canadian financial institution Scotiabank purchased the naming rights to the former Air Canada Centre for a whopping $800 million. In a 20-year sponsorship deal, the stadium for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Raptors was renamed Scotiabank Arena.