Revenue analysis - three pronged attack

Money League clubs vary in terms of both the level and proportion of revenue delivered by each of the three revenue sources – matchday, broadcasting and commercial.

Football clubs generate revenues from day to day football operations from three separate broad sources:

• Matchday revenue
  Largely derived from gate receipts (including season tickets and memberships);
• Broadcasting revenue
  From both domestic and international competitions; and
• Commercial revenue
  Including sponsorships and merchandising.

It is desirable for clubs to have a balanced revenue model, whereby each source contributes a relatively equal share of total revenues. This ensures that clubs diversify risk, reducing the potential impact of factors not wholly under the business’ control such as weaker on-pitch performance or adverse conditions in the broadcast or sponsorship market.

All rounder

So, how successful are Money League clubs at operating balanced revenue models? Perhaps surprisingly, Real Madrid and Manchester United are the only Money League clubs that do not rely on one source for at least 40% of their total revenues. Broadcasting revenue is the most dominant source with 14 Money League clubs earning more than 40% of total revenues in this area. This is as a result of it being the key driver behind Money League clubs recent revenue growth. Since 2005/06, the top 20 clubs’ total revenues have increased by €1 billion with broadcasting revenues contributing 54% of this growth, dwarfing the 19% and 27% provided by matchday and commercial revenues respectively.

Proportion of revenues generated from matchday, broadcasting, commercial activities (%)

Source: Deloitte analysis.

German clubs’ revenues have a different shape, being more reliant on sponsorship and other commercial income than other Money League clubs, reflecting both the fact that they operate in Europe’s largest commercial market and the relative immaturity of their Pay-TV market. Three of the four German clubs in the Money League top 20 generate at least 40% of revenues from commercial sources. They are the only clubs to do this.

Arsenal are the only Money League club to receive more than 40% of revenues from matchday activities. The move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006/07 provided a step change in the Gunners’ revenue with 2009/10 revenues 69% higher than only five years ago. The increased stadium capacity and premium pricing – and notably the expanded corporate hospitality capacity – have provided more than half of that growth. By contrast, commercial revenues have only provided 11% of the total revenue growth in that same period as the club entered into long term shirt front, kit and naming rights agreements to fund the development, constraining its ability to increase commercial deal values at the same rate.

In this article we go on to consider what the Money League would look like if clubs were ranked on their revenue generation from each individual stream. We also outline the key drivers behind the clubs’ success and identify the barriers which hinder the development of other revenue streams.  

Through the gate

Top 20 matchday revenue generating clubs

Source: Deloitte analysis.

Three clubs generate more than €100m (£81.9m) from matchday revenues – Real Madrid, Manchester United and Arsenal, with FC Barcelona just behind at €97.8m (£80.1m). Each of these club’s matchday revenue equates to more than €3.5m (£2.9m) from every home match they play. The seventh ranked club, Liverpool, earn only 53% of Barcelona’s total – and less than €2m (£1.6m) per match – highlighting the stark polarisation that exists, by this measure, between the top few clubs and the rest.

The seven English Money League clubs each feature in the matchday top 20. Each club is able to charge relatively high ticket prices (general admission and corporate hospitality) compared with their European peers, whilst attracting average attendances second only to the Bundesliga.

The stadia redevelopment programme for the 2006 FIFA World Cup continues to benefit German clubs who provide four of the matchday top 20. The Bundesliga’s high quality new, or redeveloped, stadia helped to attract the world’s highest average league attendance of 41,800 – 22% higher than the Premier League. However, significantly lower average ticket prices than their English counterparts ensured that Schalke 04 – who were 16th in the Money League – and Borussia Dortmund do not make the matchday top 20 despite average home league attendances of 61,300 and 77,200 respectively.

Most strikingly, only three clubs from outside Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues feature in any of our rankings. The Glasgow giants, Celtic and Rangers have not appeared in the Money League since 2006/07 and 2005/06 respectively but they still generated the 10th and 14th highest matchday revenues owing to their phenomenal support. Each club has average league attendances in excess of 45,000. However, the limited size of their domestic broadcast market means that, barring UEFA Champions League success, neither club is likely to reappear in the Money League top 20 in the foreseeable future.

The other club from a non-‘big five’ league to feature, Benfica, generated the 11th highest matchday revenue. Participation in the Champions League and Europa League in 2010/11 may see them return to the Money League for the first time since 2005/06.

Matchday revenue is a direct function of the number of matches played, therefore extended cup runs can provide a significant boost to clubs’ top line. The UEFA Europa League campaign for Atlético de Madrid and Valencia (Atlético knocked out Valencia in the quarter finals en route to winning the inaugural edition) saw each club playing 31 and 28 home matches respectively, joining Real Madrid and Barcelona in the matchday top 20.

Four of the five Money League clubs who did not make the matchday top 20 – AS Roma, Juventus, Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique de Marseille – are progressing with stadium (re)developments. Such projects are vital as each club only generates between 8% and 18% of revenues from matchday activities. Whilst market factors – including location, demographics etc. – may limit the actual growth potential, each club could realistically expect to significantly reduce the matchday revenue gap to the clubs above them should they complete such developments.  

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Beamer

Top 20 broadcast revenue generating clubs

Source: Deloitte analysis.

Clubs primarily receive broadcasting revenues from two sources – domestic competitions and UEFA competitions. In Spain and Italy clubs are able to market their own broadcast rights for domestic competitions (although Italian clubs have moved to a collective model in 2010/11 and in Spain a method of redistributing revenues more equally is being considered – see TV Times for more details). Individual selling allows larger clubs in each territory to collect the majority of broadcast revenue in that market, leading to significant polarisation between the “haves” and the “have-nots”. This competitive advantage extends across European borders with all of the top five coming from Spain and Italy. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid generated more than €130m (£106.4m) of broadcast revenue, excluding distributions received from UEFA – c.€50m (£40.9m) more than Manchester United from the same source, a significant advantage.

The five Italian clubs in the broadcasting top 20 each receive between 53% and 65% of total revenues from this source. An over-reliance on broadcast revenue, to the neglect of other revenue streams, in particular matchday revenue – only the Milan clubs were in the matchday top 20 – will present a significant challenge to clubs from 2010/11 when they will not be able to market their own rights. It is critical that Italian clubs focus on other revenue streams to keep pace with their European peers.

The Premier League’s three year £2.8 billion (€3.4 billion) broadcasting contracts provided clubs with distributions of between £31.8m (€38.8m) and £53m (€64.7m) in 2009/10, enabling eight of the broadcasting top 20 to come from England. The Premier League’s broadcast revenue distribution model is the most equal of the ‘big five’ leagues – the club which received the highest distribution (Manchester United £53m, €64.7m) received 1.7x the revenue of the club which received the lowest distribution (Portsmouth £31.8m, €38.8m). A new set of broadcasting deals come online in 2010/11 – which will increase the three year value to £3.6 billion (€4.4 billion) – will not be sufficient to bridge the gulf in broadcast revenues received by the top English clubs compared with Barcelona and Real Madrid, but will widen the advantage that clubs outside of the Champions League qualifying places enjoy over their European peers.

Clubs’ other main source of broadcasting revenue comes from UEFA distributions for the Champions League and Europa League. All but three clubs in the broadcasting top 20 participated in the group phases of either the Champions League or Europa League, 15 clubs received Champions League distributions of between €15.1m (£12.4m, Atlético de Madrid) and €48.8m (£40m, Internazionale). These distributions typically provide around 20% of broadcasting revenue to the largest clubs who sell their domestic rights individually. This proportion increases to more than 30% of broadcasting revenue for clubs whose domestic rights are sold collectively. The highest proportion is the 54% of broadcasting revenues that UEFA distributions contributed to Bayern Munich, the sole German club in the broadcasting top 20. The lack of an established Pay-TV market in Germany, has constricted the growth of Bundesliga domestic broadcast revenues which are the lowest of the ‘big five’ European leagues.  

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Building partnerships

Top 20 commercial revenue generating clubs

Note: The structure of commercial contracts and sponsorship agreements varies from club to club, therefore revenues may not be directly comparable. For example certain clubs will have in house retail and/or catering operations and recognise sales as revenue (gross method) whilst other clubs outsource such operations to a third party, receiving revenue in the form of a royalty (net method).

Source: Deloitte analysis.

Generally, clubs which have established brands with history and tradition augmented by support that reaches beyond domestic markets are the most successful in driving commercial revenues.

Bayern Munich, the most successful German club, with the largest fanbase in Europe’s largest commercial market generated commercial revenue of €172.9m (£141.6m) including sponsorship and marketing of €82.6m (£67.6m), merchandising of €38.9m (£31.8m) and other stadia revenues of €38.2m (£31.3m). Based on commercial revenue alone, Bayern would hold a top ten Money League position. There are three other German clubs in the commercial top 20 including Borussia Dortmund who generated the tenth highest commercial revenues of any club, despite not being in the overall Money League top 20. The Bundesliga’s 2010/11 Herbstmeister (autumn champions), who headed into the winter break with a ten point lead, will be aiming for qualification for Champions League which would ensure that the club return to the Money League.

Six English clubs are included in the commercial top 20 with the clubs with the largest fanbase and global appeal able to record sponsorship deals such as Manchester United’s agreement with Aon and Liverpool’s deal with Standard Chartered which are each worth a reported €24.4m (£20m) per year. Further down the Premier League the market remains challenging with many clubs restricted to low value and/or short term deals. This picture is replicated across Europe with Barcelona securing a €165m (£135.1m) five and a half year deal with Qatar Foundation at the same time that three La Liga clubs are playing in 2010/11 without shirt front sponsors. Whilst this agreement has caused controversy with some of their support, the revenue increase will see Barcelona challenge Real Madrid at the top of the Money League in seasons to come.

Number of clubs in top 20 rankings by country

Source: Deloitte analysis.

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Leading edge

Each of the top nine Money League clubs feature prominently in all three categories with six clubs recording top ten positions in each list. At the top of the tree are the Money League top three of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United. While at least one club is able to displace one of them from the top three in each category, they each generate a minimum of c.€100m (£81.9m) from each source – a consistency other clubs cannot match.

The larger clubs, as football’s most recognisable brands with the largest fanbases will, barring crises, such as a prolonged period of reduced on-pitch performance and non-participation in the Champions League, remain at the top of the revenue lists for each stream in the years to come.

Below the top level, clubs typically rely on broadcasting to provide at least 40% of their revenues. With all but the elite clubs facing an increased challenge in delivering commercial revenue growth in the difficult economic climate, matchday revenues – which is the most controllable revenue stream on a day to day basis – have become increasingly important to clubs seeking to improve the balance of revenue from each source. Matchday and commercial revenues are significantly more polarised amongst the top 20 clubs than broadcasting, providing the opportunity to clubs to differentiate themselves from their peers.

Clubs who have recently completed stadia enhancements, or moved stadia, have shown the competitive advantage that can be gained on their peers. It is critical that clubs complete developments that are in the pipeline. Although the economic climate remains challenging, innovative pricing solutions and corporate hospitality offerings can help clubs maximise these more controllable revenues.

Polarisation by revenue stream

Source: Deloitte analysis.

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