Commercial revenue, the money earned from establishing working partnerships with commercial entities, either through sponsorship or licensing, merchandising etc., is constantly on the rise. The power of benefiting from the association with sports, like the most watched European football, has long established as a key marketing pillar. However, it also depends on how the business organization or brand utilise the power. For the rights holder, the commercial revenue stream has never-ending growth potential and is increasingly looking as the driver for overall revenue growth.
This is especially at a time when the broadcast revenue stream which once held the primary spot seems to be plateauing. Now is the best time for the clubs to step up on their other revenue streams namely, ticketing or stadium-based and commercial revenue. Stadium-based revenue might require a push in the form of stadium redevelopment, which in the long run pays very handsomely as we have seen in the case of Real Madrid, Newcastle or Tottenham. It is the commercial revenue stream that is becoming the focus area.
The important thing to note here that most of the avenues within commercial stream like sponsorship assets or scope of licensing arrangements is largely controlled by the club and it now becomes the club’s prerogative how they can maximise opportunities from this stream.
In this blog, we will look at how commercial revenue has grown over the years in European football and the way forward.
Top-Tier European Football
According to the UEFA European Club Financing and Licensing Report 2025, the aggregate commercial revenue generated by the 730+ top tier European clubs is €8.9bn in 2023 and is expected to grow by 12% in 2024, to approximate €9.96bn. Interestingly, commercial revenue is now a larger revenue contributor than broadcast revenue and merchandising is now the strongest growing revenue segment. Post pandemic period, from 2021, the commercial revenue stream has been growing at a healthy CAGR of 10%.
While it’s heartening to see the strong growth of commercial revenue, it is also true that the accumulated concentration of brand-pulling power in the twenty highest revenue generating clubs’ corner half of the entire commercial revenue generated by 730+ top tier European clubs. In FY23, of the estimated €8.9bn total commercial revenue, almost 50% or €4.43bn was accumulated by these twenty clubs and so will be in FY24.
Speaking of the 20 highest revenue generating clubs, the aggregate commercial revenue for these clubs have been increasing and reaching new heights year-on-year. As per the data from Deloitte Football Money League reports, since the emergence from pandemic from the year 21/22, these 20 clubs have been recording a CAGR of 8%, reaching €4.87bn aggregate total. This is estimated to be in the range of 55%-60% of the total commercial revenue generated by the ‘big five’ league clubs combined (including other commercial as reported by Bundesliga and Ligue 1 clubs).
In the 23/24 list of highest revenue generating clubs as released by Deloitte Money League, the commercial revenue range starts from €43m recorded by Aston Villa to a whopping €482mn recorded by Real Madrid, almost 11X jump. Except 3 clubs, all other in the top 20 clubs posted commercial revenue in excess of €100m.
Premier League
Post pandemic, aggregate commercial revenue of Premier League clubs has grown by as much as 24% in 23/24 over 21/22 reaching over £2bn in value. Of course, a big chunk of this is attributed to the ‘big six’ clubs of all the clubs put together who between them, cover 78% of the total 23/24 revenue of £2bn. They have grown faster than the league growth at the expense of the remaining clubs.
Going forward, we can expect a more aggressive approach towards establishing commercial partnerships with over 50% of the clubs in Premier League with American ownerships and a majority have PE connections.
The Future of Commercial Revenue
The term commercial incorporates a vast array of opportunities for the football clubs to explore and generate more revenue scopes. Clubs, especially the more localised clubs, to get out of the traditional sponsorship and licensing model and evaluate new methods. A few thought pointers could be:
- Segregate and utilise digital assets in their own way. A digital only content partnership for social media involving long-form videos for YouTube and short videos for TikTok / Instagram Reels and so on.
- A shared-revenue model can be explored. Not many brands have the capacity to sponsor a football club. Instead a shared-revenue model for some of the brands who are looking at a sales push through football clubs can be a win-win for all stakeholders
- Stadium naming rights is another example of underutilized asset. Amongst 730+ European top tier league clubs, there is a visible lack of efforts towards utilizing stadium naming rights as revenue source. Except for Bundesliga, where 78% of the clubs have stadium naming rights partner, the rest of the ‘big five’ leagues have about 22% – 30% of the clubs who have secured naming rights partnership.
In Conclusion
The power of commercial revenue can make a club stronger and help them increase their growth substantially. The need of the hour is to revisit existing strategies and plan, implement and review an objective led marketing plan to develop the club’s commercial aspect.
Smaller clubs will have to improvise and shake themselves to get out of their comfort zone and reach newer territories and turn themselves into a strong commercial property giving value to sponsor-partners.
