Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium redevelopment "is a significant step closer" after the club agreed to a £350M ($437M) funding package with three investment banks, according to Matt Hughes of the LONDON TIMES. HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch will "provide almost half of the money required" to complete the £750M ($936M) rebuilding of White Hart Lane. The rest of the funding "will come from advanced ticket sales, a ten-year ground rental arrangement with the NFL and a possible naming-rights deal." Confirmation of the commercial loans "is a big boost" for Tottenham as the club prepares to announce its departure at the end of the season from its home of 118 years. The plan is to "spend a year at Wembley before returning to a rebuilt ground." Club Chair Daniel Levy said that the move to Wembley would not be finalized "until there was greater clarity on the delivery of the new stadium," but the club is "confident about the original timetable." Tottenham is "committed to borrowing" £90M ($112.3M) more than Arsenal did when building the Emirates Stadium a decade ago and accepts that the funds available to Manager Mauricio Pochettino for transfers "will be limited for the next five years," much as they were for Arsène Wenger at Arsenal. Tottenham is "confident of gaining a substantially more lucrative naming rights deal" than the £2.8M-a-year contract Arsenal struck with Emirates in '04, with Levy targeting a £20M ($25M)-a-year deal for 20 years (LONDON TIMES, 3/30).
