Match day receipts are decreasing again

NEW STADIUM TALK

It is difficult for some to understand that a putting football first business model means creating a successful commercial business and increasing our income to be able to compete regularly at the top table.

If you don't generate that revenue you put your financial future at stake which means you won't be able to sustain paying top wages, players will leave and your club goes into decline, much in the way that has happened to Newcastle United and Aston Villa. Both are huge clubs historically, Newcastle are the 7th richest club in the country, but are playing Championship football. To suggest it can't happen to us is nonsense, without the right business model it could well happen to us.

Football alone can not generate the income required and it is lunacy to gamble with a clubs future by paying prices and wages you don't have the guaranteed income to afford. Remember a contract is usually 4 or 5 years, that can't be sustained by prize money or gate receipts. It is a fallacy that fans pay the players wages, they don't, commercial sponsorship deals and TV revenue do.

To invest in the team in the way some want we have to increase our income by £100-million, £200-million a season if we want to have the financial clout of Manchester United or Real Madrid.

Fortunately in Daniel Levy we have a chairman who understands where this club has to get to to be able to compete on even terms and is taking us there. That deserves our support and the new White Hart Lane is a part of that process.

At the moment Tottenham earn between £75m - £150-million less a season than the richer clubs and that gap was only going to increase. In 2014/15 for instance, we earned £102-million less than the 5th richest team Liverpool, despite us recording record revenue figures.

We recorded a 9% increase which came about as a result of a 38% (£17-million) increase in commercial income to £60-million. Our match day receipts actually decreased in 2015 from 2014 by 2.8% (£1.2-million). With a restricted stadium while construction goes on they will decrease again. Our wage bill rose by 0.4% keeping us in line with our rivals in terms of percentage of income spent on wages.

We are run on a sound financial footing and Daniel Levy seems to have felt much like myself, that you then find a quality manager who can make the difference, instead of a series of average managers who don't build the future of the club. Personally I think we have now found an exceptional manager who is here for the long-term to build something significant and will have the backing of the board to do so.

He is already being given more powers than previous managers and that is because he has earned Daniel Levy's trust. He is the first manager who looks as though he can deliver, rather than be a perennial unlucky loser and put it down to a lack of money. You listen to him and there are no excuses, you produce or you don't.

We are progressing hand in hand, football and business together at the moment, which makes us an attractive proposition for potential sponsors with Nike and Qatar investment Authority the two name currently high in the media's reports. We wait and see what will come of our negotiations.