My stance on this is that the stadium could have eroded our transfer budget. Either directly due to the loans or indirectly through increased costs.
Historically, You'd be wrong.
Read the last three sets of accounts; factor in the new higher media payments and our increase in commercial rev's - look at our transfer spend over the last 7 - 10 windows. And calculate the merdian. Then project out new higther revenues from the stadium (around 150 mill p.a. and increase year on year from year 3).5
As for what *might* happen - no one can tell the future - but the info I orginally posted on the financial roadshow that put the syndicated project finance in place led by Rothschild, with a clear intention to replace it with long term finance and my bet is our actual transfer budgets will grow beyond contracted media income increases; most especially - if as I expect - we see a share placement that contributes significant capital to the balance sheet.
We're building from a solid base; not from sand, not from oil money, not from crooked Russian state pilfering - the legacy that Levy and Co might actually leave could be one of the greatest the football world has ever seen; the question should be when is the tipping point that will bring all this together to allow us to be financially competitive ? - Because this is what this game, this business is all about now - a pure play financial competition that expresses the advantage itself on the pitch.
We have a near £1.5 billion capital shortfall over most of our neighbours/peers to make up - in the absence of a crooked Russian, a disgusting oil dictatorship, owners that saddled the business with massive debt (a la ManUre), or ownership by billionaires that don't put money in (like le arse and us) - all we can do from a business perspective is to continue both our on-field and off-field performance improvement (we've seen many a billionaire owner blow his brains out and fail in the PL over the years - even though some fans still believe this is the panacea that cures all ills) - of course most sensible fans acknowledege that nothing improves in a straight line and that we're coming from a lower base than our other top 6 rivals. (You can blame whoever you like for that, pre- Scholar, Sugar, Enic and on and on)
People blame Levy for this, but he was never the billionaire owner who had a billion (or anything even remotely like it) at the business - only Uncle Joe could do that, and he simply never choose to. Joe invested first and foremost in ENIC, not Tottenham.
That's the reality, we can all bitch about it all day and night long, or we can appreciate what's been and is being achieved.
Long overdue ? Of course it is - but that's the hand we've been dealt and the restrictions Levy and the board have had to work within; some will understand that, most won't.
I still believe we could end up being one of the most stable, most successful clubs in the land and that the promised land really isn't that far away.
But each to their own !!