Never Red Fail.
New sponsor - Autonomy - for Prem games only. Apparently ENIC/Levy had shares in Autonomy Corporation PLC once upon a time (not sure if they still have minority shareholdings or not). Levy uses the word previously, so no bother either way - it's a good thing he's very familiar with them.
Anyone thinking the above mock up would be better with just the text or the logo (one or the other basically and not a mash-up of both)? Also - can we please get rid of the red dot please?
Anyways, who are they exactly? A global leader in infrastructure software. Not exactly sexy is it? But considering what they do, our shrewd chairman hasn't just bagged their cash but also their expertise (Autonomy will work with Tottenham Hotspur across a wide range of activities including significant consultancy support for enhanced services to fans and for the Club's new Stadium and Training Centre developments - from official Spurs news article). That's some nifty work.
No doubt Levy is also working hard at other commercial rights (i.e. stadium name), but then planning permission hasn't been officially granted and it's some time off - so the present is all about gaining money from a second shirt sponsor - for the domestic cups and (hopefully) CL group stages.
The thinking is if we qualify for the proper part of the Champions League, we'll bag a lucrative 12 month contract to cover it and the domestic cup competitions. Long term is always going to be dependent on where we finish in the league this season, so it's a risk for someone to offer us money and sign a long(er) contract for that reason. However, that's not to say we won't get a similar deal to our Prem one, which includes the option to extend it after 2 seasons. Guess we'll have to wait after the two qualifers.
Talking about money, it's around £20M or so from Autonomy (differing reports, some say £9M per season). Not bad, bit more than the Mansion deal. Nice work.
Watch this space is all we can do for the other remaining shirt sponsor.
In other news, according to the fabled ITK's (I read it on a forum) Harry has signed a new two-year extension. We await the oracle of the official site to confirm.