Tottenham's 40% Sponsorship Valuation Drop | Unpacking The Sponsor's 2026 Premier League Fair Market Value Index with Sean Connell

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1:54Jack:hello everybody welcome back to rule the rich podcasts welcome back sean connell here after Tottenham have stayed up, which is, if there's a bit more of a spring in my step today, mate, I'm sure you know why. Being an Everton fan yourself as well, obviously.

2:09Sean Connell:Yeah, well, we did you a big favour at the end there by not turning up at all.

2:14Jack:Sean did message me on the day being like, you literally have nothing to worry about today, mate. I was like, no, have you not seen us? Have you not seen us for the past year? I was there having visions of a 3-0 slumping at home, Everton victorious.

2:25Sean Connell:Yeah, it's been a while since I've seen Everton win 3-0, let's put it that way.

2:31Jack:I remember, just quickly on this one, I do remember a couple of years ago, Liverpool winning the league and you sort of in a not dissimilar position to what we'd found ourselves in. And thinking, God, I feel bad for Everton. This must be horrible. And now, now I've gotten to experience it myself. It's great, isn't it? It's lovely.

2:50Sean Connell:And that's exactly the way that I felt about Tottenham. I wanted Tottenham to stay up, partly because of Rich Arleson, because he did such a fantastic job for us, keeping us up. And I feel a bit sorry that he's been involved in another one. But I understand that dread of the scenario in which, you know, the enemy win the league and you go down. And, you know, that would be that, as far as football would be concerned for me.

3:18Jack:right well all all this sort of passer aside sean you are the editor of the sponsor um i'm sure many people listening to this will have seen or heard the news the uh of your fair market valuation report that was published yesterday that shows a 40 drop in tottenham's shirt sponsorship so is this

3:39Sean Connell:it is this front of shirt and sleeve sponsor yeah it's it's 40 on the front of shirts uh the sleeve sponsor I believe is a little bit less but around about the same okay well let's let's let's let's go into that um look it has plummeted sort of a considerable amount um can you walk us behind the

4:00Jack:sort of the the primary reason for that I mean I assume on face value one would say two 17th place finishes losing players like Kane and Son is it any deeper than that

4:12Sean Connell:well i think first you need to understand what really drives sponsorship value so if you look at the teams at the very top of our of our table they all combine uh you know a rich history of winning trophies high quality on the pitch performances and truly global brand reach achieved through you know champions league and fighting for titles and that kind of thing so when we look at sponsorship value we can have all the great sort of community engagement programs and this that and the other but ultimately that the number one driver of sponsorship value is brand exposure or brand reach so that is the amount of eyeballs that a club can put their sponsor in front of and the second to awareness is reputation so that is the some of the things that you were talking about it's it's the the cultural relevance you know star players like harry kane and and son you know that they don't provide the same value to top them or any value to top them now that they've left um the the quality on the pitch you know brands want to be associated with high quality high performing teams so those reputational attributes are very important now when we try and understand why topnum has fallen in value so much this year we actually need to look back at last year and if you and I were having this conversation last year right up until the last game of the season we would have been talking about a quite significant fall in sponsorship value for Tottenham Hotspur because of those reputational attributes the poor performance the finishing near the bottom of the league etc except we didn't have that conversation because of what happened in Tottenham's last game of the season which of course is that you won the Europa League.

6:03Sean Connell:And more important than any esteem from winning the Europa League was qualification to the Champions League and the increased exposure that that brings to the club's sponsors among the European audience. And given that exposure and awareness, as we know, is the primary driver of value, actually all that happened last year is Tottenham's decline went from, I think it was about 49.3 million down to 49.1, so a marginal decline. But what was actually happening behind the scenes is that the reputation value that Tottenham brings to a sponsor was significantly declined. Now, of course, what's happened this year is not only have we removed all of that European exposure, not just Champions League, no Europa League, no nothing, and what that has done has laid bare the very real decline in sponsorship value among those reputational attributes.

7:04Sean Connell:And actually those reputational attributes haven't just stayed the same. They've actually got worse. So it's more a case of jumping in two years of poor performance rather than a single year of decline. This is something that has been happening with Tottenham for three years now really.

7:24Jack:I'm interested, Sean, to sort of dive into this a little bit more, because if I outline what it was like a few years ago when we had Maurizio Pochettino in charge of the club, right, there was often an argument that he would throw the cup competitions, right? And I think there was a throwaway line from him once where he said something to the effect of winning an FA Cup or a League Cup is great for the fans, but it doesn't really mean anything for the club. we basically have our sights set on finishing in the Champions League and so on and so forth. And to what you're saying there is that, you know, ultimately the eyes on the prize for most clubs is going to be competing in the Champions League.

8:07Jack:But does there not come a sense where like one begets the other? If we're talking about sort of reputational growth, we're talking about a brand's value to a degree. It can't be great for, say, a club like Spurs. who until last year hadn't won anything for 17 years and were consistently linked with being the sort of the Spurs-y club that got to an FA Cup semi-final and bottled it or whatever that type of thing so you know even if the even if some of these sort of like shiny pots might seem as a bit of a magpie effect for fans in some way does this does this not contribute to the overall value i also think of a club like arsenal for example who all right barring the past couple of years had sort of been in their own wilderness phase but had still been picking up fa cups and

9:00Sean Connell:stuff for example well certainly winning those trophies does have a reputational increase on the reputation scores of a club but again if we look at this through the eyes of a sponsor what do we want we're more far more concerned about consistent exposure to the largest possible number of our target audience than we are from a single you know great day at Wembley a couple of years ago kind of thing um so those FA Cup wins of course they increase the reputation but in terms of the impact that has on the value of a sponsorship they there's no comparison really to the impact that that global exposure playing in the champions league has has for a sponsor um you know look at um qatar airways and psg you know that that they've been everywhere because of the champions league right we we don't really uh watch the well i don't watch the the french league that much but that's European exposure and so the same is true of English clubs that qualify for the Champions League it's a much more valuable opportunity in the eyes of a sponsor to reach their target audience to communicate the messages that they want to communicate winning a trophy is great you know that I'm sure AIA had a fantastic social media post when when Tottenham won the Europa League and said, hooray for our team that we sponsor.

10:34But it doesn't have the same reach

10:39Sean Connell:that that consistent Tuesday, Wednesday night all through the autumn has. And then for the most valuable sponsors, coming into those later knockout stages and the press headlines and everything that goes with it, that is where a brand gets a constant drumbeat of attention at the highest levels.

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12:38Jack:We'll see you next time.

12:54Jack:Ask your doctor, visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more. So we'll stick with AIA. That's a good segue you've provided me with there, Sean. Just for some context for anybody listening that hasn't seen the report yet, when we're talking about the sort of the fair market valuation of the sponsorship opportunities here, Tottenham are currently this year we're sitting at£29.8 million. And that's again for our front of shirt sponsor deal, is that Sean?

13:23Sean Connell:Yes, and the sleeve sponsorship has a value of£7.2 million. And in January of this year, we conducted the stadium naming rights value for 75 of Europe's largest stadiums and benchmarked against those stadiums, the New Camp, Allianz Arena and what have you, and the deals those clubs get. Tottenham had a fair market value of£11.2 million.

13:47Jack:pounds and it just in terms of the front of shirt sponsors i've got the table here so again for context we're looking at liverpool who are top of the table with a 61 million pound valuation there's much of a muchness between the top four clubs really liverpool man city man united arsenal then there's suddenly a stark drop so there's a half valuation there for chelsea who are sat on around well to be precise 33.6 million then spurs on 29.8 villa on 26.2 and then a bit of a drop down again to newcastle um so i guess the right now we've got this aia deal that's worth 40 million pounds but it's our last it's the last year of that deal um so i guess entering into a a market where we don't have betting sponsors available to us anymore.

14:47Jack:Spurs are riding this fairly turbulent on-pitch wave at the moment. Remains to be seen how things are going to change under Roberto De Zerbi or if the Lewis's make good on any of their promises. How difficult do you think this upcoming kind of negotiation cycle is going to be for Tottenham's commercial team?

15:08Sean Connell:well i think firstly it's important to actually acknowledge that topnam is still the sixth most valuable sponsorship opportunity in the premier league and as a premier league club that means it's one of the most valuable sponsorship opportunities in europe um and that is based on you know the fantastic infrastructure that the club has uh the london-centric audience that you know still very significant history the community engagements all of these sort of things come together so you know I think many clubs would would kill to be in the position that that Tottenham Hotspur are in in terms of the value they can provide to sponsors the difficulty that the commercial team are going to face coming into the market at this point is It is, I think, the most challenging sponsorship market that we've ever seen in the Premier League.

16:06Sean Connell:And that is driven by a number of factors. Firstly, the main one, gambling ban. There was an expectation that the gambling ban was going to significantly reduce the fair market value, particularly of the teams in the lower half of the division. that didn't really happen because in Europe there are still many football clubs that are achieving very strong deals with non-gambling brands and of course we must look at the wider European market um yeah you know a sponsor doesn't wake up one day and say I want to sponsor a Premier League club they say I want to reach this type of audience in this type of environment what are the vehicles that allow me to do that so in the context of the European market actually Premier League sponsorship values held fairly stable the challenge is that demand has been completely reduced the number of companies that are willing to put their hands in the pocket and fork out you know five to 15 20 million a year for sponsorship let alone you know 40 million is significantly reduced and that's not also just because of the gambling brands we need to understand that you know these these are companies that are operating in in very difficult economic times uh you know how how many how many wars are going on around the world at the moment you know what is what is the price of oil uh these are not environments where where you know brands are or rather they are environment where brands and companies are looking very closely at their expenditure and their costs so these things combined create a very difficult scenario and that's also further highlighted by the fact that it's not just Tottenham that are in this scenario if I am a sponsor and I am wanting to reach Premier League fans around the world well should I should I look at Tottenham or should I look at Chelsea or Newcastle's deal is going to be ending Everton Fulham any of the teams that have failed thus far to secure a sponsor are potential opportunities for me to invest in and that makes it a very strong buyers market so while topnum still has a lot of value to offer uh to sponsors they are competing in a very difficult environment and i think what we will see and indeed what the fear is from from most clubs is either a fear of underselling and locking themselves into a much lower valuation and being very difficult to then increase it in the future or starting the season with no sponsor at all.

18:51Sean Connell:And I think that's going to be an increasingly likely scenario as we move into the sort of August and the start of next season.

19:00Jack:I'm interested to know on that because I think, I'm not sure if Villa don't have a sponsor yet or not, but I have seen a lot of their promo for their new kit, seems to be sponsorless same with Chelsea as well why would a club go into a season without a sponsor what why would they you know even if they weren't say getting the deal that they necessarily felt was the best value for them is there not kind of a mentality that would dictate that any value is better than than none for a Premier League club with the sort of overheads that the majority of them have well you know that that's a that's a great question and it's one

19:37Sean Connell:that every club can must answer themselves you know Chelsea appear to be in a position where they can forego that that income if we look outside of you know not just the football world but we reported in the stadium valuations that we ran in January that the Welsh Rugby Union had accepted a agreement with principality that undervalued that that stadium by you know I think it was around 50 % or more. And this is because the Welsh Rugby Union was in a position that they had to take the deal. They had to take the best available deal that was on offer to them. And so it will be a real mix between the clubs that find themselves in that position.

20:21Sean Connell:And, you know, as all of your listeners will know, you know, fair market, sorry, financial fair play and the regulations around those are incredibly tight. So some clubs really do need every last bit of income they can get whereas others will be willing to hold the price now why would they be willing to hold the price well again anybody who works in sales will know that once you drop the price it's very hard to put it back up again and that is that the great fear that I think lots of these commercial directors at Premier League football clubs have at the moment is how long can we hold out for a better deal?

21:01Sean Connell:Because if we lock ourselves in at this level, we might be locking in for many, many years to come.

21:08Jack:Yeah, it's interesting. I know on the last pod we spoke a lot about Spurs not having a naming rights deal yet for the sponsor and the speculation that it being called the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium might be good for the overall brand of the club or not. I mean, we debated that as to whether or not that was the case. So if you are interested in that, go back and listen to the last pod I did with Sean. I won't get him to repeat himself on this one. I guess, you know, I can't help but look down the road a bit sometimes and I get in trouble for bringing them up on here. But, you know, it's my podcast.

21:44Jack:I can do what I want. So, look, yeah, Arsenal's fair market value has surged by 19 % this season. So I guess what is it that they're doing right other than winning i mean maybe it is that from the conversation we've had that's you know seen their valuation surge because i don't know you know i obviously don't have the data to hand but i feel like as i was saying previously regardless of the fact that you know this is their first title in 22 years it feels like arsenal have always managed to maintain some semblance of being a very relevant very successful club and look compared to most they are they've still won I think five or six FA Cups in the time since they last won the the Premier League title but when you when you compare that to you know Manchester United in that time Chelsea Manchester City even Liverpool latterly Arsenal haven't quite kept up I think you would you would say yet here they are now so one of the very top of the pile again so I think there's there's two parts

22:55Sean Connell:So that there's why has Arsenal's value increased? And then the second is how did they maintain it in those sort of the bad years? The why of it is, yeah, OK, they won the title this year. But as we talked about previously with, you know, when you were saying Pochettino about winning a cup, how much impact does that have? Yeah, of course, adding another trophy has an impact on Arsenal's reputation. What's really driven their value is that this is now the fourth or fifth year of very high consistent performances on the pitch. Champions League football consistently over those years. So when, again, we look at this through the lens of a sponsor, that is significantly less risk to our investment than, say, a club like Chelsea, which yo-yos in and out of the Champions League at the moment.

23:51Sean Connell:So when we get to sort of year four or five, as we are now of Arsenal competing at that level, what we have is a very solid sponsorship opportunity at a very good level. Now, that's predominantly what is driving their increased value. In terms of how they've weathered the storm when that wasn't the case, and again, I don't want to, this is a dangerous one, because I don't want to upset any of your listeners here, but, you know, Arsenal, should we say their history of winning titles is maybe a little bit better than Tottenham's at the moment?

24:30Jack:I think we can probably concede that. We can say that, right.

24:32Sean Connell:So Arsenal, when a sponsor looks at Arsenal in those bad times, they say, OK, well, you know, might not be the same level of exposure, but look at, you know, very successful club, rich history. We as a company, we also have a rich history of success. It aligns, it works. Who are the audience? And actually, there's a lot of similarities, obviously, with the two clubs being so close together in location. It's an affluent London centric audience. That is very attractive when we think about technology companies who are looking for enterprise customers and that kind of thing. So that all of those things combined and the large sort of status that Arsenal has in the community of North London, that's what makes Arsenal.