Todd Kline: Chelsea to poach Tottenham commercial chief in shock move

Chelsea are set to poach Tottenham's chief commercial officer Todd Kline, who has resigned his post and been placed on gardening leave by the north London club.

Kline is close to finalising an agreement which Chelsea which would see him move across London once he is released by Spurs.

The American joined Tottenham in 2021 and was tipped to help them land a lucrative naming rights partner for their stadium, having previously secured a groundbreaking deal for NFL team the Miami Dolphins with Hard Rock, worth a reported £180million.

But three years on, Spurs' £1.2billion ground remains without a sponsor, although the club's commercial revenue rose by more than £30m for the year ending June 2022 and is expected to increase again when they release their latest financial results at the end of this month.

Kline's move to Chelsea may signal the Blues' intention to seek a naming rights sponsor for a new stadium, which they intend to start building in the next few years.

Chelsea are also currently searching for a new front-of-shirt sponsor for next season, when their deal with sports data company Infinite Athlete ends.

Kline will become the latest high-profile executive to join the club following the appointment of Chris Jurasek as chief executive from Clearlake Capital and Casper Stylsvig as chief revenue officer from AC Milan.

Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, has said that Spurs are still working to find "the right sponsor" for the ground, which has been called the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since it opened in 2019 and is still referred to as White Hart Lane by many supporters.

"It's quite a complicated process," Levy told a fan forum in September, when asked about naming rights.

"As much as we would like the right sponsor, it's really important to build our name globally and all the events that we've had at the stadium have just enlarged the profile of this club.

"So for us, we want to find the right sponsor, in the right sector at the right price and in the meantime, unless we get that, we won't put a name on the stadium. We'd rather just have Tottenham Hotspur."