By Paul Nicholson
August 27 – Euro2016 in France will be the first time the European Championships have been played in the expanded 24 team format. More matches mean more venues and the competition will be played in 10 venues across the country. Will this be the catalyst event that, like the 2006 World Cup in Germany, kick starts French football into a new era of glory?
Football Benchmark, the sports research arm of accountancy and consultancy giant KPMG, has been running the key numbers and come to the conclusion that the benefit for Ligue1 will be significant in comparison to Italy and Spain, but it is unlikely to catapult the French league above Germany’s Bundesliga or England’s Premier League.
Football Benchmark points out that the French investment in stadia – which is seeing the build of four new venues in Bordeaux, Lyon, Lille and Nice along with the renovation of six others – will increase the aggregate capacity of Ligue 1 stadia by about 86,000. This will create an average capacity of about 32,000, still below that of all the other ‘big five’ European leagues, based on the teams that are in these leagues in 2015/16 (see chart).
What is perhaps more important for French clubs is that the new and revamped stadia will increase the quality of the matchday experience for fans – with the associated boost in revenue from hospitality, food and beverage outlets, retail facilities, conference and exhibition space and, in some cases, even museums.
Early indications are that the French public is already responding with average attendances in Ligue1 in the 2014/15 season up by almost 6% from 21,155 to 22,362. This pushes Ligue1 above Serie A and closing in on Spain’s Primera (average attendance in 2014/15 about700). Football Benchmark says: “Assuming a static performance in La Liga, a compound annual growth rate of slightly more than 7% over the next two seasons is required in the average attendance of Ligue 1 in order to overtake Spain.”
More fans mean more revenue but a key indicator for Football Benchmark is their average revenue per attendee calculation (REVPA), which they put at €17 for Ligue 1 clubs compared to €19 in Italy and €27 in Spain. German and English clubs are more than double these numbers.
So for French clubs to compete financially with their European neighbours they are going to have to encourage their fans to spend more with them. Clearly the stadium is the much required first step. It is how they build on and sustain this momentum that will make the difference going forward, suggests the report.
For more information go to https://www.footballbenchmark.com/can_uefa_euro_2016_take_ligue1_to_the_next_level
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