Football's rich clubs by Deloitte

Got €500m to spare? Here's how your team might look made up of the most expensive players from Europe's 13 richest clubs:

FORWARDS: Ronaldinho (Barcelona) Henry (Barcelona) Ronaldo (Man Utd) MIDFIELD: Kaka (Milan), Vieira (Inter), Juninho (Lyon), Gerrard (Liverpool) DEFENCE: Lahm (Bayern Munich), Terry (Chelsea), Cannavaro (Real Madrid) Alves (Seville) GOALKEEPER: Buffon (Juventus) SUBS: De Rossi (Roma), Owen (Newcastle)

The fascinating Football Money League, an annual report from Deloitte published since 2006, reveals that the two Spanish giants currently top the European league table for "turnover from day-to-day football operations". Real Madrid retained top spot at the end of the 2005/06 season and Barcelona was up from fourth to second place. Their respective earnings were €292m and €259m.

The largest UK clubs on this scale of success are Manchester Utd, fourth with earnings of €242m in 2005/06, and Chelsea (sixth, €221m). Italy has four clubs in the top 20 although the UK is dominant in this respect with nine of the top 20.

But a glance at the bottom of Deloitte's top 20 reveals the gulf between the elite and the rest: West Ham, in 19th position, only earned €87m in 2005/06 and its status in the English Premiership, let alone in the Deloitte Top 20, is severely threatened by relegation in 2006/07. (The Hammers last game of the season is away to Manchester United, the likely champions this year.....)

The new three-year television rights deals (for 2007-2011) will boost English Premiership incomes from broadcasting by no less than 70%. The TV rights account for at least a third of most big clubs' income, with other media-related incomes (sponsorship, merchandising, licensing) contributing another third or more. This means that 'matchday' income can account for as little as 25% of club revenues (eg Real Madrid) although a bigger stadium can restore the balance in favour of matchday revenues, the traditional sign of a club's financial strength.

For Manchester Utd, matchday still brings in over 40% of its revenues and its Quadrant expansion of the Old Trafford ground has taken ground capacity up to 76,000. Chelsea will struggle to compete, despite the generosity of its owner, Roman Abramovich, as long as its capacity remains at 42,000. Across London, Arsenal's revenues have soared during 2006/07 thanks to the club's move from Highbury (capacity, 38,500) to the new 60,000-seater Emirates stadium.

Having retained the old Highbury site to build over 700 houses and flats, Arsenal FC has moved into property development, an interesting move considering the number of property developers (or builders) that have occupied board positions in football over the years. It is also an interesting model for other clubs with prime inner-city stadiums to consider. In the lower leagues, the pressure to sell up and quit the inner city is growing all the time as urban property values rise.

Source Notes: Football Money League is free after registration at www.deloitte.co.uk. Deloitte also publishes the Annual Review of Football Finance.

London Olympics - £3.3bn and counting. . .

London's initial euphoria over winning the right to host the 2012 Olympics has, inevitably, been toned down a bit as the serious planning gets under way. The estimated final cost is already up from £2.4bn to £3.3bn (+37% in two years, with five years to go) and the gloomy statistics for the Millennium Dome (now The Dome) are still fresh in the memory.

It's a sobering thought that the Scottish Parliament building was originally, in 1999, going to cost less than £40m. Five years on, 'Holyrood' finally opened after £430m had been spent, so figuring on a final cost for the London Olympics of at least £10bn might be advisable.


While we're waiting for the final bill - much of which will be paid by sponsors - we can already look forward to London being taken over by the Games (including the Paralympics). Some of the venues and sports to take place across the London region will be:


Olympic Park - the Lea Valley complex will contain the main Olympic Stadium for athletics, plus centres for cycling, water sports, hockey and indoor competitions such as fencing, handball, basketball, BMX.


ExCel - the existing exhibition centre at Royal Victoria Dock will be adapted into various arenas for watching boxing, table tennis, martial arts and weightlifting.


Greenwich - home to The Dome, which will host basketball and gymnastics (also the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships). Near the Dome will be the temporary Greenwich Arena (badminton, rhythmic gymnastics). Equestrian and modern pentathlon will be held outdoors in Greenwich Park, close to the National Maritime Museum. Near Greenwich, the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, will have the shooting events.


Other London venues - if all goes according to plan, there will be: football at Wembley Stadium; cycling through Regent's Park and Hampstead Heath; tennis at Wimbledon; triathlon in Hyde Park; volleyball in Earls Court; archery at Lord's; and beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade.


Outside London, there will be boat sports to watch at Eton, Broxbourne and Portland Harbour, but the real regional spread will involve the stadiums hosting football matches in Glasgow (Hampden), Cardiff (Millennium Stadium), Manchester (Old Trafford), Newcastle (St James's Park) and Birmingham (Villa Park).
http://www.london2012.org/en

Research Tips (1): Published market research

The first thing to do in researching a leisure market is to find out if the work's already been done for you!

Published market research (MR) reports from UK companies like Key Note or Mintel will provide, at the bare minimum:

• Market sizes, growth trends, market segmentation

• Consumer statistics: penetration, profiles, attitudes (for original research)

• Supplier analysis: major companies, brands shares, distribution channels

• Strategic discussion and forecasts (including economic context)

Expect to pay at least £400 for a detailed report (eg Key Note's Betting & Gaming 2006 £420) although Snapdata has filled a gap with more basic reports, UK and international (eg Brazil Beer 2006, £150).

Any Web search for published MR will immediately highlight UK publishers. This isn't a "push" by the search engines, just a recognition of how highly developed MR publishing has been in the UK since the 1970s, particularly in a European context. Major publishers like Euromonitor and Datamonitor are leading international sources of business information.

All these well-established publishers pre-date the MR report portals like Marketresearch.com, where a Quick Search on the home page for "UK Beer" comes up with a dozen reports, mainly from the publishers mentioned above but also some drinks specialists (eg Canadean). Apart from the cost of these reports, the main problem is that you are lucky to find a report published within the last twelve months, so some updating (sales, mergers etc) is almost bound to be necessary.

Karen Blakeman's site (www.rba.co.uk/sources/mr.htm) is an excellent starting point for finding published reports.