Story highlights
EPL retains shirt sponsorship revenue title
Reportedly made $370M in 2015-16 season
German Bundesliga closest rival with $188M
If boasting the biggest television deal in soccer history wasn’t enough, not to mention playing host to 17 of the globe’s 30 wealthiest clubs, the English Premier League can also lay claim to ruling the roost when it comes to shirt sponsorship.
According to Repucom’s European Football Jersey Report 2015-16, England’s top flight has – for the second year running – raked in more revenue generated by front-of-shirt sponsorship than any of the continent’s top six leagues.
The report, published Wednesday, takes into account football shirt sponsorship in the Premier League, German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, French Ligue 1, Italian Serie A and Dutch Eredivisie.
This season alone, the Premier League has generated a total of $370 million in shirt sponsorship revenues – almost double its nearest rival, the Bundesliga, on $188.3 million. La Liga follows in third with revenues of $117.7 million – down from last year’s total of $126.7 million.
“The Premier League is so far ahead of the other big leagues in Europe that they’re completely out of sight basically,” Sporting Intelligence editor Nick Harris told CNN.
“It’s the biggest, the most visible, the most watched, the most popular in the world – which it is in terms of TV deals and TV audiences. And obviously having that visibility and popularity will mean the biggest clubs in that league can attract the biggest shirt deals.”
After making $273.6 million from shirt sponsorship revenues last season, the Premier League’s 35% increase this year also represents the biggest surge across Europe.
That hike was in no small part down to Manchester United’s new kit deal with Adidas – worth a reported $117 million per year – while Chelsea’s new contract with Japanese tire manufacturer Yokohama is reported to be worth $62.5 million per year.
The United Arab Emirates is the leading foreign investor, spending $183 million in sponsorship across the six leagues, followed by Germany ($152 million) and the U.S. ($97.5 million).
La Liga has 87% of shirt revenue from overseas sponsorship, while the EPL has 82% and Ligue 1 is third with 60%.
The EPL’s front-of-shirt sponsorship revenues account for nearly 40% of the total $930.8 million generated by Europe’s top six leagues this season.
“Any metric you want to look at – income, social media followings, even shirt sponsorship revenues, all of which are related – it’s self-evident really, the Premier League is by far the most popular league in the world,” Harris said.
“And I don’t necessarily think the others can catch up. The gap is about to get even bigger this summer with the new TV deal.”
In the money
The Premier League’s new domestic TV deal, which kicks in next season for three years, will be worth $8 billion – representing a massive increase on the $4.59 billion paid for the equivalent set of rights from 2013-16.
Sharing more than $2.6 billion each season, all 20 EPL teams could feature in next season’s top-30 rich list.
In contrast, the Bundesliga’s current contract is worth $560.7 million a season.
“How can the other leagues close that gap? The fact is, as leagues, they can’t,” Harris said. “That’s the bottom line.
“As individual clubs, those big global brands like Bayern Munich and Barcelona, they can individually boost their income through more and more commercial deals. But in terms of the leagues as a whole, they just can’t. There’s no obvious way they can catch up.
“The Premier League has gone through a 20-plus-year cycle of positive growth. It became popular in the 1990s, more cosmopolitan – therefore it sold for more money at home and abroad, more foreign players came and it sold to more territories. It’s had a cycle of growth almost non-stop for 20 years.”
