- Aug 22, 2014
- 13,603
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There's a lot about your epic post that I agree with - this opening point, for one. I too would like to have seen more contrition and acknowledgement of mistakes; less self justification.
But just a couple of points that I do disagree with:
Levy didn't say that we are worse off than other clubs. Yes, he pointed out that we have the greatest amount of debt and that we will have lost out on more income than any other club. But that's not the same as being worse off. In terms of cashflow - which is key - we will be better off than all but a handful of clubs. We have the best wages to turnover ratio in the PL. And we have just secured £250m to ease any ongoing cashflow concerns.
I'm not sure that the club ever announced a budget. I saw all sorts of figures bandied about by fans and journalists but it all appeared to be guesswork. Regardless, the final project cost clearly exceeded the initial budget by a wide margin.
But it doesn't follow that it is attributable to impulsiveness or vanity on Levy's part, as you suggest. A revised budget is not the same thing as going over budget. It seems clear to me that the decision to go for top notch spec, state of the art technology, a unique sliding pitch system, a wealth of other facilities, and a forensic attention to detail was all about competitiveness and future proofing. It was very deliberate and very carefully considered. I mean, really......as if we would expect anything else of Daniel Levy!
Think of the context. Levy wants the stadium to generate money for the club on as many days as possible. A mere 25-30 home games a year is a waste of an asset when it could also host other sports, concerts, conferences etc. But we are in London - a uniquely competitive market because of the glut of big stadiums capable of hosting such events. Added to which, we are in a part of London that is far from the centre, hard to get to, and not very desirable.
We therefore needed something truly unique and special to beat off the opposition. Not just now but for years into the future. Prior to COVID, the stadium wasn't attracting blue chip event after blue chip event to run down north Tottenham just because it is of a decent size. It was doing so because it blows the opposition out of the water. Spectacularly so.
Appreciate your response and that you actually took the time to read it.
On your first point about cashflow, that's what I was hoping would be the case, that we would be in a position where we're better off than the vast majority of clubs in europe particular compared to France and my hope was that whilst yes we can't spend astronomical fee's that we would still be able to somewhat take of advantage of the situation. I always felt this was the point of us being so self sustainable that when a moment like this came that we would be in the driving seat. Of course teams like City/Chelsea will and are making the most of it, that's understandable as they don't rely on self sustained revenue solely but as you say relative to most, I'd hope we'd be doing better than most even if we're suffering from the loss of projected revenue.
I'd have hoped this was taken care off for the most part by our recent navigation of the Bank of America loan which covered the initial BoE loan.
On your points on the stadium. I wouldn't say it's impulsiveness or vanity that drove Levy but instead his perfectionism, I personally think he suffers from that which is why he fails to cede control in a lot of moments and I do think the stadium was another example of that perfectionism. There's a lot of upside to the perfectionism and what you laid out as the possibilities for the stadium are examples of why in certain moments perfectionism can be a great thing. However perfectionism can also cause things to spiral which can cause multiple problems such as going over budget or failing to meet deadlines because the desire to constantly strive to improve and get more out of something in there, there's a lot of artists out there who don't ship projects the vast majority of the world would think are brilliant because they keep adding more and more onto them or projects which spiral out of control because the creative director couldn't help themselves.
I do agree with the majority of what you're saying, if we're going to be run as self sustainable then we needed to do something to be able to compete, I do think the stadium will in the long run will be a resounding success for the club and I hope they're true to the world that it is indeed the team who reap the rewards of that.
However until that manifests then Levy does need to acknowledge that the reason the debt is what it is was because of his decision to go down the ambitious route on that project and spend what he did. If that decision is having an averse effect that makes the pandemic even more of a burden for than multiple clubs then I understand that and appreciate that, I just feel the tone of his message to the fans needs to be better. I think the level headed fans would respond to what I said before which is him holding his hands and taking responsibility for that decision and acknowledging that decision will affect us in the short term but that the decision will be vindicated and will prove to be the best thing to ever to happen to this club once the pandemic is behind us. I'm personally absolutely fine with that being the case, I'm just somebody who likes to see people take responsibility for situations, especially when taking responsibility now for the short term pain will yield huge vindication for him. I'd much prefer that than this propaganda piece, talking about FFP and claiming the reason for unrest is because you like to do things in private whilst also claiming you could protect yourself by blaming the imaginary man.