Just returned from my annual pilgrimage to the UK ... was lucky enough to see Palace, City, Huddersfield and City (a) twice ... feckin' brilliant, even our loss on Saturday was still a great performance. Was also very fortunate to spend almost an entire day at the stadium, it's all been said before but the awesomeness is beyond words, from the Sky Bar (not good if you don't like heights) all the way down to the car park, it's just five star stuff.
Got some great incite on the financials, we are years ahead of where we expected to be, income is already 30% above plan with a lot more still to come. The debt is going to be around 650m (depending on the summer activity, and commercial activity) which will then be restructured, the size will depend on naming rights (200m?) and other sponsorship deals (100m?) this will probably not now be completed before 2020. Although 650m sounds a lot for a business with a turnover that will be approaching 500m next season it's very manageable.
Also some news on transfers, the club will look to raise 130m in sales, apparently if the right offenders come along then almost half the squad are available, not that half will be sold that just depends on the money offered and who we can get in to replace them. For new signings there will be the money raised in sales plus 50-100m additional if the right players are available, there are targets ranging from top players down to teenagers, no names were revealed. It was also mentioned (this was before the City CL win) that any additional money from CL this season will go straight into the transfer kitty, next season's budget does not include CL but is based on 6 EL fixtures, anything else will be a bonus.
The 'members' list has increased to 135,000 however the club recognise that many of these are not waiting for ST's merely trying to get match-day tickets, even so that's a huge number. When season tickets were offered for NWHL just over 1 in 3 took up the option, so 18,500 tickets were sold having been made available to 55,000 on the 'list' ... this was almost exactly in line with expectations. There are some long and convoluted discussions taking place around Loyalty Points, the club are aware the current system seems unfair and are looking at changes, however a massive review was undertaken in 2016 prior to NWHL so don't expect a revolution maybe just some tweaks.
Finally I was fortunate enough to sit in the 1882 section for the Huddersfield game, the atmosphere and fan base was no different from my seat higher up against Palace the game before, the availability of free food, drink, programme etc, was great but even more handy was the use of a bar with no queues ... I managed several additional pints just by not having to queue up ... for me it would be worth paying the extra cash if you were lucky enough to have it, certainly the fans I met were all just die-hard Spurs fans who'd done well in life, no prawn-sandwich brigade.
Can't believe how great the whole 'going to football' as a day out has become, not just for the hospitality and tourist fans but also for the hard core foot soldiers ... Spurs have done everyone proud.
Steve73
said & give your pal your log in code as well just as cover. Have both those bases covered and I reckon he's good to go
