By Paul Nicholson
July 28 – English Premier League clubs on average generate almost twice as much revenue per seat than clubs in Spain. While Chelsea top the list of clubs making the most per seat from their fans at €78, compare this with Italian giants Inter Milan who make more than seven times less at €7 per seat.
The figures come from an analysis by KPMG’s Sport practice that looks at how much matchday income top European clubs generate.
Using what KPMG calls a Revenue Per Event Per Available Seat (RevPEPAS) ratio, it calculates the matchday revenue generated from each available seat from each home game, taking into account the matchday revenue generated by the club, the total number of home games played, as well as the respective stadium’s capacity.
The findings show that the Premier League is way ahead of its European neighbours with Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United all achieving a RevPEPAS in excess of €60.
But there are significant gaps within the Premier League. In contrast Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion generate a RevPEPAS of less than €15. The figures were taken for the 2013/14 season.
The performance of the leading English clubs is sigificantly ahead of Spanish rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid who achieved a RevPEPAS of over €40. Barcelona though pay in the largest stadium in Europe which will likely bring the ratio down. Both clubs are planning to renovate their stadiums which will boost revenue making oppoirtunities on matchdays.
KPMG says the finding point very clearly towards clubs that own their stadiums generate “a disproportionately large share of revenues compared to the rest of the clubs around Europe.”
In the 2013/14 season, over 50% of clubs participating in the ‘big five’ leagues generated a RevPEPAS of less than €15, with approximately 10% of clubs achieving a RevPEPAS of more than €45.
Privately-owned stadia, often newly built with revenue generation in mind, generally outperform older publicly-owned stadia in need of modernisation.
International popularity of the clubs and their leagues also appears to have a bearing on matchday revenue, says KPMG, with the biggest clubs from the biggest leagues generating the most money.
The biggest differential in a single market is in Italy where all clubs bar one have a RevPEPAS of less than €15. “For instance, the RevPEPAS of FC Internazionale Milano and AC Milan was €11 and €12 respectively, a similar figure to the likes of SC Bastia (Ligue 1) and Granada CF (La Liga). A combination of overcapacity compared to average demand in Milan is the reason of these poor results,” says KPMG.
Compare this to Juventus with a RevPEPAS of €37, more than three times higher than the two Milanese clubs. Juventus has combined a strong on-pitch performance that generates 28,000 season tickets per year, with the ability to sell out their 41,000-capacity stadium. Their new stadium opened in 2011 allowing them to achieve higher ticket yields.
France looks like being a market to watch in terms of pushing up its club income. In 2013/14 around 90% of French clubs achieved a RevPEPAS of less than €15. But with EURO2016 providing the opportunity for a number of French clubs to improve stadia, benefits are already being seen with a 6% growth in French first division attendances in 2014/15 – the highest growth rate amongst the top divisions in the ‘big five’ territories.
KPMG cites Olympique de Marseille as an example of a club whose matchday performance was impacted by the reduced capacity of Stade Vélodrome for renovation works, but has since benefited from an increased capacity and the addition of about 6,000 VIP seats.
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