Are Boom years for football over.

[spyinthesky]

Had a chat with someone who keeps a close eye on football finances and reckons that football club revenue may have hit the ceiling based on:

1.  Revenues from the bigger clubs, apart from Real Madrid who have extended their stadium capacity, only rose by around an average of 1% last season, probably 5% overall if Real Madrid's 26% was added in.
2. Revenues from sponsorship has more or less been exhausted as can be seen by the number of corporate logos on shirts.
   ManUtd, for example, have 41 brand partnerships and perhaps a few more could be added but this is likely to be at the expense of the main sponsors.
3. Broadcasters are not bidding crazy amounts for live TV games.
   The Premier League is the most valuable with a record £6.7b for 2025-29 rights but whilst sounding good it was only a small increase over the previous round.
   If inflation is factored in the Premier League is actually earning 31% less that the 2016-2019 package.
4. Viewing numbers for live games are falling with the subscription market highly competitive.
5. The big hope that one of the streaming giants would wade into the market has not transpired despite Amazon testing the market by buying  a few games.
6. Perhaps the biggest challenge is that there are too many matches especially with the beefed up European competitions and the Club World Cup.
   Fans are satiated and players forced to play too many games, despite being very well renumerated.
   When you think that most of our more established players were earning between £40k - £120k per week to win 12 points and more than 20,000 of us paid out an average of around £600 for our season tickets, it is not difficult to see how many people get disillusioned with the game.
   That said, it is testament to the loyalty of Saints fans that attendances home and away have been good.

[stknowle]

Probably not but hope they are.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, spyinthesky said:

Had a chat with someone who keeps a close eye on football finances and reckons that football club revenue may have hit the ceiling based on:

1.  Revenues from the bigger clubs, apart from Real Madrid who have extended their stadium capacity, only rose by around an average of 1% last season, probably 5% overall if Real Madrid's 26% was added in.
2. Revenues from sponsorship has more or less been exhausted as can be seen by the number of corporate logos on shirts.
   ManUtd, for example, have 41 brand partnerships and perhaps a few more could be added but this is likely to be at the expense of the main sponsors.
3. Broadcasters are not bidding crazy amounts for live TV games.
   The Premier League is the most valuable with a record £6.7b for 2025-29 rights but whilst sounding good it was only a small increase over the previous round.
   If inflation is factored in the Premier League is actually earning 31% less that the 2016-2019 package.
4. Viewing numbers for live games are falling with the subscription market highly competitive.
5. The big hope that one of the streaming giants would wade into the market has not transpired despite Amazon testing the market by buying  a few games.
6. Perhaps the biggest challenge is that there are too many matches especially with the beefed up European competitions and the Club World Cup.
   Fans are satiated and players forced to play too many games, despite being very well renumerated.
   When you think that most of our more established players were earning between £40k - £120k per week to win 12 points and more than 20,000 of us paid out an average of around £600 for our season tickets, it is not difficult to see how many people get disillusioned with the game.
   That said, it is testament to the loyalty of Saints fans that attendances home and away have been good.

Sky is saturating the market, close season clubs set up stupid tournaments, players are paid too much, Sky costs too much, tickets for live games cost too much, small clubs don't get their share of the pie, the fair play fiasco is a joke, international  breaks - I could go on.

[Tommy Mulgrew]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

small clubs don't get their share of the pie

Not according to those in charge of Birmingham, of all places:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5yv8qj0y0zo

That attitude will get only stronger, I’m afraid.  Sad.  What hope is there for almost all EFL clubs?

[Turkish]

Every few years this discussion comes up and the answer is always no

[Whitey Grandad]

6 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Every few years this discussion comes up and the answer is always no

That depends on who you ask.

[Wade Garrett]

8 hours ago, Tommy Mulgrew said:

Not according to those in charge of Birmingham, of all places:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5yv8qj0y0zo

That attitude will get only stronger, I’m afraid.  Sad.  What hope is there for almost all EFL clubs?

Not much hope at all.  Especially if the rumoured Prem 2 league comes about and there’s no promotion or relegation.

[Turkish]

7 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

That depends on who you ask.

Well yes depends how you look at it of course. For the traditional fan in England football has been over for years. For the global TV audience which is what they’re interested in now it’s never been bigger 

[Wurzel]

13 hours ago, saintant said:

Sky is saturating the market, close season clubs set up stupid tournaments, players are paid too much, Sky costs too much, tickets for live games cost too much, small clubs don't get their share of the pie, the fair play fiasco is a joke, international  breaks - I could go on.

BiB- but they're don't .Most PL games are  complete or close to sell outs. Lower leagues are seeing increasing attendances. Simple economics of supply and demand tells you that therefore tickets are not "too much".  There's probably a valid case that certain age groups/earning brackets have been priced out and/or the make up of the crowd is different to what it was 15- 20 years ago, but that's a different argument to whether they are priced too highly. 

Edited October 4 by Wurzel

[OldNick]

I dont know how many sit through and watch the whole of a PL game, but I for one get bored and either channel flick or look a social media. Football is quite dull with the constant side ways passing etc, I do like Bournemouths approach though, exciting stuff (I did not see the first half last night)

I find footballers who in the main are just jobbing footballers driving Bentleys and on massive money is a turn off as well. 

The cream deserve top money as they are a pull for viewers.

[rooney]

I thought Sky charges to consumers would drop when more competition came into the market but Amazon Prime and TNT Sports do not seem to have made any difference. It looks therefore that any reduction in Skys Payments to P L will not reduce anytime soon.Until they do PL players will still get those massive wages.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, OldNick said:

I dont know how many sit through and watch the whole of a PL game, but I for one get bored and either channel flick or look a social media. Football is quite dull with the constant side ways passing etc, I do like Bournemouths approach though, exciting stuff (I did not see the first half last night)

I find footballers who in the main are just jobbing footballers driving Bentleys and on massive money is a turn off as well. 

The cream deserve top money as they are a pull for viewers.

I have concluded that modern football and especially TV coverage is designed to be watched in a sports bar. Constant replays from multi angles with frequent shots of the crowd and the managers.  Football lovers who like to follow the match and get involved in it literally don't get a look in.

[die Mannyschaft]

22 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I have concluded that modern football and especially TV coverage is designed to be watched in a sports bar. Constant replays from multi angles with frequent shots of the crowd and the managers.  Football lovers who like to follow the match and get involved in it literally don't get a look in.

Shifted to those who govto games and TV subscription,  pubs. Its amazing how many clubs at lower level charge £10 to sream a game. Watching at a large fan area like Saints Northam or in one of the corp lounges for £10 with drink and curry as in last Pompey away was sold out so allways a new way to cash in. Watching in a pub is ridiculous how can you see anything!!

[LGTL]

The PL is indeed made for American sports bars with 30 screens, showing every game and fat yanks devouring endless portions of buffalo wings. 

For any actually English football fan, everyone knows the Championship, L1 and L2 is a better overall experience for your average bloke.

I actually feel sorry for the majority of ‘football’ fans, they’ll never get it. 

[die Mannyschaft]

I'm hoping the European super league gets created and get rid of City,  Liverpool,  Arsenal. Spurs, Man U etc. There will a correction in football then and the TV money will be less. Don't forget 90% of TV billions just goes on players wages and agents

[East Kent Saint]

4 hours ago, Turkish said:

Well yes depends how you look at it of course. For the traditional fan in England football has been over for years. For the global TV audience which is what they’re interested in now it’s never been bigger 

In USA all the screens are on but not many are actually watching , this applies at home as well as Gridiron games go on for ever 😄

[Whitey Grandad]

6 minutes ago, East Kent Saint said:

In USA all the screens are on but not many are actually watching , this applies at home as well as Gridiron games go on for ever 😄

"The screens are on but nobody's watching"

That typifies modern society.

It allso stupefies me how an American Football team (franchise) can up sticks and move to the other side of the country. I asked a bartender once what the fans thought of this. "They're pretty pissed" was his reply.