Matchday Money – Gameweek 20

Welcome to the first in a new series where we estimate the matchday gate receipts taken at all premier league games each week. We will compare the revenue generated between teams and compare their strategy for maximising matchday revenue.

The revenue is calculated based on an average of the highest and lowest prices offered to club members for each match. This amount is then multiplied by the number of tickets available for sale which for home teams is attendance less away ticket allocation and season tickets sold. Away teams is simply the away ticket allocation multiplied by the away ticket price. A separate article will analyse the season ticket revenue taken by each club.

The away allocation differs from game to game with it up to negotiation between the clubs. The lower of 10% of stadium capacity or 3,000 seats must be offered to away teams on each matchday, however this is not always taken up as clubs analyse the demand for the game among their fans and choose accordingly.

Here are the matchday results for gameweek 20:

Bournemouth 3 – 3 West Ham

Chelsea 2 – 0 Brighton

Crystal Palace 2 – 3 Arsenal

Huddersfield 1 – 1 Stoke

Liverpool 5 – 0 Swansea

Manchester United 2 – 2 Burnley

Newcastle 0 – 1 Manchester City

Tottenham 5 – 2 Southampton

Watford 2 – 1 Leicester

West Brom 0 – 0 Everton

Gameweek 20 Analysis

Chelsea led the way in stadium capacity percentage with 99.8% of the stadium filled as 41,568 fans flocked to their boxing day fixture, closely followed by Newcastle fans who watched their team play league leaders Manchester City. Unsurprisingly, Manchester United’s attendance of 75,046 was the highest by a distance with Tottenham second nearly 20,000 behind despite a stadium capacity percentage of 61.6% in their temporary 90,000 seater home.

Despite their lowly stadium capacity %, Tottenham led the way with gate receipts with takings of over £1.3m, in part due to their high ticket prices of £55 and the fact they only sold 28,000 season tickets for Wembley, meaning a more matchday tickets on sale equating to a higher taking each matchday.

Liverpool’s season ticket sales of 25,000 also allow them to benefit from more expensive matchday tickets. Manchester United and Chelsea complete the top 4 this week with Manchester United’s lower due to the 55,000 season tickets sold. These amounts are more secure, so there is always a trade off between the guaranteed selling of season tickets and the potential for empty seats on matchday.

Bournemouth’s 11,360 seat stadium, combined with season ticket sales of 7,000 mean their takings from games are low, something they will be hoping to rectify after stabilising in the Premier League.

For away teams the revenue is usually fairly balanced, with the away allocation always fairly similar. All premier league teams agreed to cap away ticket prices to £30, with Arsenal even taking it a step further at £26. Southampton playing away to spurs were allocated the full 3,000 meaning they lead the way in away matchday revenue, followed closely by Brighton, Burnley Manchester City and Swansea – who all played teams with stadium capita of over 45,000. West Ham lag the rest by far, playing at the smallest stadium in the top flight by far, Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium which boasts 11,360 seats. West Ham were only given an allocation of 2,000 seats.

Thats it for the first week of this matchday money series – any feedback would be greatly appreciated as we continue to refine the formula to get as accurate a read on matchday takings.

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December 8, 2017December 8, 2017

Puma Pounce to Sign Manchester City

Manchester City have agreed a huge £50m a year deal to replace current kit supplier Nike with Puma. The new deal represents another commercial win for the Premier League leaders, dwarfing their current £20m-a-year deal with Nike agreed in 2012. The Nike deal expires at the end of the current season and Manchester City have moved quickly to exploit their growing global presence after a strong start to the season.

The deal represents a coup for Puma who continue their dominance of premier league kit deals, with Manchester City being the 6th club to don the Puma logo, with Arsenal being the other big team as well as Newcastle, Leicester, Burnley and Huddersfield. This means that next season, Puma will potentially spend more than £85m on sponsoring current premier league clubs, unless Arsenal decide to leave …

Kit Sponsor's Premier League

Talking of Arsenal the deal will be of some annoyance, as their own Puma deal is at £20m significantly less. However there is substantial rumours of a deal set to be agreed with Adidas that will bring them in line with their title rivals. Liverpool and Tottenham will also want to renegotiate deals to avoid falling behind in commercial terms to their rivals.

The deal also means that the Premier league top 6 represent around 90% of the kit deal revenue brought into the league, further showcasing the gulf in spending power available. It makes sense for kit manufacturers such as Puma and Nike to invest in clubs like Manchester City due to their global nature and growing fan base, something smaller clubs cannot offer and as such, won’t bring in the kit sales that would make a larger investment profitable.

Kit sponsorship premier league

The deal shows the continued commercial awareness of Manchester City as they build on their early season success. Guardiola’s attractive brand of football is making the team great to watch and as such, attracts global brands to invest in them to build and maintain their own global presence.

It will be interesting to see where Nike go next, with only Chelsea and Tottenham being sponsored by them currently, they may look to Arsenal, Liverpool as potential sponsorship opportunities should they look to build their revenue to be in line with the deals of Manchester United, Chelsea and most recently, Manchester City.

Kit manufacturers in premier league

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November 15, 2017November 15, 2017

Manchester City are now fuelled by Gatorade

Manchester City announced the signing of Gatorade as their official sports nutrition partner on a multi-year deal. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, however Manchester City’s form this season will mean the deal will be fairly lucrative to the team.

Sam Erith, head of Manchester City’s Sport Science was commented on the deal: “We’re so excited about going into this partnership with Gatorade. The Gatorade Sports Science Institute can offer us a number of innovative ideas and concepts to help prepare our athletes better and help them recover quicker for games.”

The deal will involve Manchester City’s sports scientists working directly with Gatorade to optimise fitness and recovery of Manchester City players to ensure they are ready for the title race this seaon due to “Gatorade’s knowledge and commitment to sports nutrition through innovative scientific research speaks for itself”.

As part of deal, Gatorade will also recieve sponsorship areas within the Etihad Stadium as well as exclusive behind-the-scene videos and social media content that will give exposure to the PespiCo-owned brand among the Manchester City fans and travelling supporters.

Gatorade commented that “We look forward to a strong partnership with Manchester City by providing the team’s sports health and performance professionals with a variety of sports fuelling solutions to help maximise performance through customised sports science services.

It will be interesting to see whether similar deals occur elsewhere. Liverpool currently have a partnership with Science in Sport as of 2016. Clubs will have to balance the commercial success of a well-known brand with the quality of sports nutrition provided, with companies such as Gatorade not considered particularly healthy due to their sugar levels. However the drinks provided to athletes may differ to the general market.

This is still a relatively untapped market in football, with the majority of clubs yet to have a commercial sports nutrition partner. We here at Financial Football News will keep you up to date with any new sports nutrition deals and the finances behind them as and when they become available, stay tuned.

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