By Paul Nicholson
August 6 – Barcelona published their 2014/15 financial statement showing revenue of €608 million, the largest ever by any sporting club. But this is peanuts as by 2021 the club says it will grow revenue to more than €1 billion annually. Football Benchmark, the data and analysis arm of KPMG’s sports practice, says this isn’t just idle talk.
Infact, says Football Benchmark, Barca could bust the €1 billion by “keeping up the annual growth rate of 10% that was achieved in the past 10 seasons.”
At the centre of achieving these projections is the redevelopment of the Camp Nou stadium and the extra matchday revenue that would generate, plus the expanded potential of new commercial and sponsorship.
The capacity of the stadium is to be increased to 105,000 in a build that will be carried out mainly in the close seasons between 2017 and 2021. The seats will all be covered and the high margin number of VIP seats will double to 7,500.
This will be achieved via a new ring of boxes and restaurants which will be added to the structure of the stadium, significantly boosting matchday revenue.
Barcelona is a sporting club as well as a football team – thought football provides more than 90% of its revenues – and the development will include a multi-use 10,000-seat indoor arena, the Palau Blaugrana, for other sports events, music and other conferencing. Next door to the Palau Blaugrana a smaller pavilion will be built with a capacity of 2,000 spectators. All will have food and beverage outlets which will be open year-round.
Football Benchmark says that new commercial and sponsorship initiatives will impact significantly on achieving higher revenues with the club’s announcement that it was going to retain a significant portion player’s marketing rights being an important part of this.
Driving much of the expansion of new revenue streams will be the ability to activate the club’s expansive digital and social footprint and turn these fans into buyers of Barcelona product – it has 41 official accounts on 12 online social platforms reaching 180 million fans (84 million Facebook likes alone)
The club shop at Camp Nou generates nearly €35 million annually and based on this success it is considering opening a chain of new stores in key territories around the world.
It also has renegotiations with its main sponsors Qatar Airways and Nike to conclude, plus other opportunities with sponsorship of the club’s training kit.
Andrea Sartori, KPMG Global Head of Sports practice, said: “The financial statements of FC Barcelona demonstrate that the club was able to profit from the on‐pitch success achieved by the team. However, there is still potential for further growth. Among others, the long awaited redevelopment of Camp Nou and the new sponsorship contracts could strengthen the club’s matchday and commercial revenue channels.”
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