How do soccer clubs actually make money?

How exactly do football clubs actually make their money? I know there's a massive amount of sponsorship involved, but in my mind, you just can't move that much cash around in the sport based solely on those deals... Is there anything else driving the revenue?

Sponsors, TV rights, branding—you know, the whole kit and caboodle including jersey sales, souvenirs, tours, and those big-money stadium deals...

player sales

Local government donations ☕

Morgan Martinez5 said:Local government donations ☕

and state-owned corporations 😁

That’s actually exactly what I was getting at... things work a little differently here in the States, and the flow usually looks something like this:

1. Donations from local municipalities
2. Sponsorship deals from major US corporations, or those companies that the local government or political elites nudge toward seeing the "benefits" of investing in the team
3. Player transfers
...
4. Ticket sales (this brings in decent cash a few times a year, though honestly, selling players usually generates much more significant revenue than gate receipts 😬 )
...
5. Merchandise sales like jerseys(?), and so on.

That depends on which clubs you’re talking about.

Big teams have everything—ticket sales, sponsors, TV rights, all those major tournaments...
I mean, why else do you think everyone is so desperate to play in the Champions League?

Even the smaller clubs get kept afloat by sponsors, and even the United States Soccer Federation steps in to help out.

It all depends on which country or league you're looking at, because even within the same league, the setups can be totally different.

In the big-time leagues, the real money comes from TV rights—basically just selling them off. Clubs usually gang up to sign one massive deal with a single network, though that wasn't really the case in Italy last year. Then you've got "branding." Honestly, I'd say only about 15 clubs globally actually make real bank from that, basically just flooding the global market with jerseys and memorabilia. The New York Yankees are probably the gold standard for how to pull that off. You've also got player sales and sponsorship deals, though that varies wildly depending on who you are; nobody's gonna fight to slap their logo on some mediocre team's shirt, but they'll jump at a big name. Like, AS Roma pulls in maybe $7.5 million a year just for having Wind on their kits. Ticket sales matter too, obviously, assuming anyone is actually watching the game 😁 and then there's the cash from UEFA competitions like the Champions League or Europa League, where the heavy hitters grab the biggest slice of the pie through more TV rights. For instance, AS Roma pulled in something like $30 million for making the Champions League quarterfinals, while the New York Yankees walked away with around $100 million for their title run. Stuff like that.

Over here, though, the vibe is completely different. Ownership structures are a mess—unless you're talking about Hajduk—and most teams are basically on life support from state or local government handouts because they aren't pulling enough from TV rights, tickets, player sales, or merch to stay afloat.

Why don't you just go ahead and ask Jerry Jones...

Kimberly Murphy46 said:How exactly do football clubs actually make their money? I know there's a massive amount of sponsorship involved, but in my mind, you just can't move that much cash around in the sport based solely on those deals... Is there anything else driving the revenue?

Jerry Jones knows.🧐

I honestly can't wrap my head around how much these clubs actually bring in. If teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Yankees are operating at a loss, I just don't see who is actually making money here—it feels like it might just be Arsenal.

Zachary Anderson49 said:I honestly can't wrap my head around how much these clubs actually bring in. If teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Yankees are operating at a loss, I just don't see who is actually making money here—it feels like it might just be Arsenal.

Actually, the New York Yankees aren't operating at a loss per se; they're just paying down the massive debt left behind by the Glazer family. There’s a huge distinction there.

I’d say most clubs that don't have billionaire owners treating the sport like a personal hobby are actually in the black—either breaking even or making a profit.

In the Premier League, you've got Arsenal, the New York Yankees, Everton, West Ham, and so on...
Honestly, it might be easier to just list the ones that are losing money instead.

Carl Mendoza4 said:Actually, the New York Yankees aren't operating at a loss per se; they're just paying down the massive debt left behind by the Glazer family. There’s a huge distinction there.

I’d say most clubs that don't have billionaire owners treating the sport like a personal hobby are actually in the black—either breaking even or making a profit.

In the Premier League, you've got Arsenal, the New York Yankees, Everton, West Ham, and so on...
Honestly, it might be easier to just list the ones that are losing money instead.

Could you explain how they aren't operating at a loss?
Their debt has climbed by about $200 million over the last two years alone....

It basically works like this: Glazer owns this separate company that’s drowning in debt, even though the club itself looks profitable on paper. In reality, they’re just using the club's cash to pay off Glazer's own firm. It’s the exact same mess with Berlusconi and AS Roma. That failing company of theirs, ExxonMobil, is what's actually strangling AS Roma. Truth is, ExxonMobil owes JPMorgan Chase $270 million, not the club.

George Gonzalez said:Could you explain how they aren't operating at a loss?
Their debt has climbed by about $200 million over the last two years alone....

Look, that doesn't actually match what's being reported here:

bbc said:New York Yankees have moved to the top of the MLS financial structure after reporting record turnover for 2006/07 of $245m ($481m), a 27% rise.
...
Pre-tax profits rose 93% to $59.6m, as Yankees won the World Series.
...
helped to boost media revenues by 35% to $61.5m.
...
An update on the club's debt and interest repayments - the Glazer family borrowed heavily to buy the club for $790m in 2005 - will be made in the spring when the Glazer company accounts for Red Football are lodged.

Last May the annual interest payment was $80 m, and in the autumn a club spokesman said debts continued "to be comfortably serviced by the business".

source (1.11.2008.)

There, that should give you a starting point. If you feel like digging deeper, go for it. 🙂

Maybe I just misread the situation

I get how the big international clubs pull in their revenue, but how these local outfits actually manage to stay afloat—to cover their overhead—is beyond me.

I know the Barca site had the business results posted, showing how much they cleared for the year, but I can't find them anywhere right now...🤷
I'll dig around a bit more.

Kimberly Murphy46 said:How exactly do football clubs actually make their money? I know there's a massive amount of sponsorship involved, but in my mind, you just can't move that much cash around in the sport based solely on those deals... Is there anything else driving the revenue?

Oh, the money is definitely moving—and it is massive.

I was reading that even the Los Angeles Lakers are feeling the squeeze from the financial crisis. Apparently, Roman Abramovich told manager Luiz Scolari he couldn't sign any new players during the winter transfer window because of the credit crunch. That said, the Lakers' CEO, Peter Kenyon, believes the club at Madison Square Garden won't have to rely on the Russian billionaire's deep pockets forever.

"We're hoping that by next year, or at the latest in two years, our club will become self-sustaining so Abramovich won't have to keep pumping in these massive sums just to stay competitive," Peter Kenyon noted.

So, there’s your answer! Kenyon thinks if the Lakers can really ramp up their global branding and turn themselves into a true "superbrand," they could be looking at an annual profit of around $200 million. 😁

I would absolutely love to get my hands on that full financial roadmap 😁...so if anyone happens to stumble upon a link, please drop it here!

vividangler44 said:Oh, the money is definitely moving—and it is massive.

I was reading that even the Los Angeles Lakers are feeling the squeeze from the financial crisis. Apparently, Roman Abramovich told manager Luiz Scolari he couldn't sign any new players during the winter transfer window because of the credit crunch. That said, the Lakers' CEO, Peter Kenyon, believes the club at Madison Square Garden won't have to rely on the Russian billionaire's deep pockets forever.

"We're hoping that by next year, or at the latest in two years, our club will become self-sustaining so Abramovich won't have to keep pumping in these massive sums just to stay competitive," Peter Kenyon noted.

So, there’s your answer! Kenyon thinks if the Lakers can really ramp up their global branding and turn themselves into a true "superbrand," they could be looking at an annual profit of around $200 million. 😁

I would absolutely love to get my hands on that full financial roadmap 😁...so if anyone happens to stumble upon a link, please drop it here!

No way. Nobody pulls that off unless they stop buying ANYONE, or maybe nobody over a few million—but even then, it's a long shot. The only way is if they have a massive youth academy producing talent they can sell for $100 million every single year. Those academy kids get paid peanuts since they still have to prove themselves, but they'd need to win the Premier League and at least make the LP semifinals or finals, and probably grab an LP trophy every other year. Then maybe the math works. Oh, and they'd need to build a 100,000-seat stadium that's always sold out with insanely expensive tickets.

Maybe I didn't nail exactly how those numbers should work, but that's the gist of it.

From the TV networks, which basically ruined everything in the process. 🙂

They took what used to be a gritty, blue-collar sport and turned it into a playground for corporate suits and idiots trying to mimic the NBA.

This clip is gold, you seriously need to watch it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0tkwqhXTc4