What Should the New Tottenham Stadium Be Called?

Over the past year, soccer fans all over the world have waited for the London-based Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur to open their glistening new stadium. That excitement has been tempered by multiple ongoing delays. While the stadium appears to be closer and closer to fully operational—a couple of test events have been planned—it's a toss-up as to whether they'll be able to schedule five home games at the new field before the end of the year. If they can't, the Premier League has stated they'd prefer Spurs to stay put at Wembley Field, their temporary home for the past two seasons.

However, thanks to rumors last week, the speculation about the opening has turned into curiosity about what the stadium will be called when it does open. Some outlets even raced to announce a name:

However, Spurs officials would not confirm Nike as the owner of the stadium's naming rights. 

"A beIN SPORTS video tweeted on Friday shows Richard Keys revealing the name as 'The Nike Stadium' but Tottenham insiders have told Sportsmail it is not correct," reported the Daily Mail's sports vertical. "The video has since been deleted."

Nike is already the team's official outfitter, so a full extension into stadium naming rights is an easy enough concept to swallow. In a landscape littered with American stadiums named stuff like "Guaranteed Rate Field," Nike is a much easier brand name to align with. It has worldwide recognition, and hey, they're already selling Spurs gear with checks all over it. As far as naming rights go, the Spurs would be lucky to find a partner in Nike.

However, that's just one school of thought. Another idea is this: Name the damn thing after whoever gives you the most money possible. Naming rights are the easiest check a sports franchise is likely ever to get. Take for instance the Toronto Maple Leafs'/Toronto Raptors' Scotiabank Arena. They signed a 20-year/$800M naming rights deal, $40M a season just to change the name. I'm going to go ahead and guess that the team's costs associated with a name change are fairly minimal; you change the font on a few doors, and you're taking home an insane margin. If you're rooting for your team to get ahead competitively and financially, it's in your best interest to get as much money as possible for something as surface-y as naming rights. 

So, if you're the Spurs, you have all the incentive in the world to find the biggest check from a non-problematic company and take it straight to the bank, maybe even the very bank that cut the check. That new building ain't paying for itself.