Tottenham Hotspur has announced losses of £63.9m for the year ending June 30, 2020, the club detailed how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the Premier League club.
The north London team, which made a profit of £68.6m in 2019, has seen revenue fall to £402.4m, down from £460.7m, which the club attributes to “lower Champions League receipts (it reached the final in 2019) and the extension of the season beyond the year end”.
Chairman Daniel Levy has warned losses could be even more significant in the next fiscal year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has kept fans out of stadiums.
The 2020-21 season has so far seen no fans at games, with the franchise missing out on third party events such as NFL, concerts, the closure of stores and visitor attractions.
Levy estimates that the potential loss of revenue for the current financial year, should the stadium remain closed to fans, is in excess of £150m.
He said in a statement: “We are currently in the midst of one of the most challenging times ever experienced. The impact of the pandemic on our revenue is material and could not have come at a worse time, having just completed a £1.2bn stadium build which is financed by club resources and long-term debt.
“However, whilst we have been unable to open our stadium to fans, we have opened it to the NHS. Over 41,000 antenatal appointments have been held in our stadium by the North Middlesex Hospital Outpatients Department, as we sought to assist with creating more space to treat patients in the hospital itself and provide a safer environment for outpatients. We opened our basement for COVID-19 testing and this still continues.”
He added that Tottenham has been working to support over 4,000 direct and indirect jobs together with the wider community, as well as spending the past months preparing the stadium, testing the digital ticketing process and registering ID validation for fans.
“Premier League clubs are entirely capable, similar to the experience in several other countries, of responsibly delivering outdoor events with social distancing, exemplary hygiene standards, qualified stewards, testing capabilities and diverse travel plans, operating in some of the most technologically advanced venues in the world,” Levy continued.
“We recognise that health and safety are paramount and we have been encouraged by the latest news on vaccine developments and potential Clinical Passports. We are immensely grateful to our fans and sponsors for their on-going support at this difficult time.”
Image: Bluejam/ Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International / Edited for size
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