Posted by Serie A Weekly/Frank Tigani
The Old Lady does not have much to sing and dance about these days. For the second season in a row the club has missed out on Champions League football after coming seventh, the same position the club finished in the season before last. In the Europa league last season, again the club fell short of expectation after failing to qualify for the knockout stages. As a result of their lack of progress the club relieved Luigi Del Neri of his position as head coach with Juve old boy Antonio Conte the latest to be given the responsibility of leading the club back to success.
Amidst all the gloom, however, Juventus have taken one important step forward that, in time, will surely help the club return to the top of the Italian game. Unlike any of her rivals, as of next season Juventus will start the campaign with her own brand new and ultra-modern stadium named the Juventus Arena.
AS Roma also have plans to build their own stadium thanks to the funds promised by new owner Thomas Di Benedetto. However, theirs will not be ready for next season thus Juventus, at least in one respect, are again leading the way on the peninsula.
The significance of Juventus having their own new stadium cannot be understated. In this year’s Money League Report by Deloitte, it again showed how heavily Italy’s top clubs have relied on revenue from the individual sale of broadcasting rights. In fact, revenue from broadcasting rights as a percentage of total revenue was highest with Italy’s top three clubs, Milan, Inter and Juventus compared to the rest of the clubs in the top twenty of the report.
However, this past season was the first time since the 1990’s that the sale of broadcasting rights in the Serie A was sold collectively and not individually. Basically, this means that the top clubs will earn less as the revenue from television rights are distributed more evenly across the division. Consequently, Italian clubs, in particular the top three that rely so heavily on this one source of income, will have to focus their efforts to increase revenue from other sources to offset the inevitable losses from the move from individual bargaining to collective.
Aside from commercial sales, match day revenue represents a potentially huge source of revenue. However, this has not been realised by Italian clubs in the past as they have not owned their own stadiums. Instead, they have rented them from local councils and this has greatly undermined the potential they could have earned.
But, next season all this will change for Juventus. The Old Lady, with her own new stadium, should see her match day revenue increase significantly. In addition, commercial sales are tipped to increase too as the stadium offers much in the way of entertainment and hospitality. Milan and Inter, meanwhile, will continue to play in the grand yet dilapidated San Siro which they continue to pay to use.
It is expected that both Milan and Inter, barring un-paralleled success on the field, will struggle to maintain their current positions in the Money League next year, seventh and ninth respectively. This is because of the change in how broadcasting rights are sold and because neither club earns much in the way in terms of match day revenue. In fact, in this regard both Milan clubs earn less than some clubs not even in the top twenty of the Money League.
In May this year Italy suffered a setback as it again failed to secure the hosting rights for the European Championships, this time for the 2016 edition. This followed the embarrassment of the country’s fail bid to host the Championships next year.
Yet, for Calcio these failures could prove to be a blessing in disguise. Many Italian clubs, Milan and Inter in particular, had been hoping that if the country could land hosting rights for a major tournament than their stadiums, without any effort of their own, would be redeveloped. But, the redevelopment and much needed modernisation of Italian stadia is not enough. Italian clubs, from a financial perspective, need to own their own stadiums if they are to stay amongst the top clubs in Europe.
In football, financial success is greatly linked to on field success. Of all the domestic league titles won in the ‘Big Five’ leagues of Europe, forty three out of a total of fifty in the last ten years have been won by clubs in the top twenty of the Money League. Also in the last ten years, only one club outside the top ten has claimed the Champions League – FC Porto in 2004. Therefore, it would not be enough for Italian stadia to merely be redeveloped. Italian clubs need to start investing in their own stadia and become the owners of them outright. Only this can greatly increase their match day revenue which should become a source of major attention now that broadcasting rights are collectively sold. This simply needs to be done for Italian clubs to maintain and improve their financial positions.
Juventus have already taken this step with the development of their own new stadium. Just like prior to Calciopoli when the Old Lady led the way on the field in the Serie A she is once again leading the way but this time in a different manner. However, the financial advantage that she stands to benefit from as of next season could see the Old Lady, before long, again lead the way on the field.
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World Football Daily
