Why Football Teams Simply Don’t Rely On Selling Tickets To Pay Their Bills In 2021
A few decades ago, the best way for football teams to make money was to simply perform well. That meant that they’d get more people buying tickets to watch the games at the stadium and earn a lot more money at the gate. They were also the days where footballers earned a very average salary and not the millions of pounds that the biggest stars earn every year. These days, football financing can be a lot more complicated than just selling tickets. They need to secure funding from every single avenue made available to them, whether it’s via sponsorship, advertising, or finding new ways of getting fans to give them more money. Here’s a look at some of the most lucrative funding methods that are just as important, if not more important, than the number of tickets they sell before every match.
Sports betting websites
One of the biggest differences between now and a few decades ago is the popularity of betting on a game. Just a few years ago, if you wanted to place a bet on a football match, you would have had to put the effort in to travel to a bookmakers, look up the latest odds and hand your money over the counter. These days you can get online football betting odds and place a bet online from your laptop or even your smartphone. As it’s much easier to place a bet, many more people are betting, which means these bookmakers are making a lot more money. Luckily, a lot of this money is then put back into the teams they’re taking bets on, whether through shirt sponsorship, advertisements, or even brand deals.
Online streaming subscriptions
No matter how big a fan you are of a football team, the reality is very few people are able to attend every single game. As there are 38 league games in the Premier League for each team every season, it’s often difficult to be able to find the time to travel to every game around your busy social life or simply afford to travel across the country. Of course, these 38 games don’t even include games in the FA Cup, League Cup, or even European competitions that are especially expensive and time-consuming to see. That’s why more and more teams are selling virtual passes to allow fans to stream live coverage of every game directly from their website. Even when fans can’t make a game, they can still support their team financially with a virtual ticket.
Cup runs
For some lower league sides, a cup run can have a huge effect on their finances. For example, if a non-league side manages to make it past the third round of the FA Cup, is drawn against a big team, and chosen for TV coverage, they could earn more from that one game than they would from a whole season. If they can win that game or even hold onto a draw to force a replay, that money could double.
