Cost of European Football

[weecountyman]

Picking up from another thread this is something that I found interesting (having experience in 2 codes with such matters). The CBA, cost benefit analysis, of playing in Europe. A few years ago our company lookd after a couple of teams who were playing in Europe and I specifically remember how just one round of CL qualifying paid for itself and made a small profit. The percentages of one club went like this:

Revenue:
Gate Money 23%
Game day revenue 6%
Sponsors 8%
Television 18%
UEFA Prizemoney 38%
Sundry 7%

Outlay:
Travel and lodging 41%
Game day expenses 27%
Player Bonuses 22%
Sundry 10%

The profit on 2 legs of football was just under €20,000. Travel was by chartered plane. Players stayed in a 5-star hotel, domestic tv televised both matches (paying small amounts), the home game wasn't a sell out and ticket prices were low. The prizemoney from UEFA wasn't the greatest but still a large part of the pot.

The extra benefits (that weren't milked as they could have been) were increased profile for sponsorship opportunities, corporate package sales, block ticket sales, increased merchandise sales, attraction for players, access to local funds to "do up" home ground, media exposure for the club.

One way of lessening the cost of travel was (when chartering) bringing a supporters club contingent paying normal package prices. A pain for clubs is the fact that draws are made late and if you're depending on Ryanair then the prices will be hiked up. But the net is a dream for bookings and really helpful, so to is having someone get on the ground to find out what's what. And also being intelligent about where you stay etc, but saving pennies and losing pounds is also important.

[Dodge]

Problem with your income is the lack of television revenue (quite substamtial at 18% in your example). My team, St Pats, have played 7 home legs in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in the last 3 season, with only one of them been shown on TV.

While 2008 was an exceptional good year for us, with relatively low fares travel to Riga, Gothenburg and Berlin. 2009 was far more expensive with trips to Valletta, Samara and Bucharest.

Not once did Pats travel by charter.