This article was inspired by this comment by @ablaze (typo corrected 😏) to my Moneybags Mourinho article.
It's absolutely staggering the pay offs these guys get, largely funded by the extortionate prices we the fans pay for match tickets, jerseys and merchandise.
All references for the information gathered in writing this article should be included throughout, let me know if you believe I've missed out any.
Twenty's Plenty
I recall reading some time ago that TV revenues had reached such a ridiculous figure, that the contribution of ticket revenue on a match day accounts for a very small percentage of overall revenue. At the time, Bournemouth (with its small stadium) was the most significant with something like 5% of their revenue coming from tickets (my memory's not the best so this might get corrected later in this article!) Which begged the question, why are matchday tickets so expensive? "Twenty's plenty".
Using data from NimbleFins for the 2018/2019 season, I was able to reverse engineer each club's total revenue based upon the percentage of ticket revenue lost.
As NimbleFins noted, the London clubs have been most affected - in my opinion, this is because it's London and as anybody who's visited, or even lived in London knows, you get charged double for everything. Because you're in London.
Taking Arsenal as the exanple, football.london has this to say about their ticket prices
For members match tickets can cost anywhere in between £95.50 and £21.50 for a full paying adult depending on the category of the game and where in the stadium you sit. For a non-member the top price rises to £97 for a category A game although the cheapest price is £18.50 for a lower category match.
When I visited the Emirates back in 2013, I remember my tickets cost about £50 - we'd have been the lowest category ticket price, with the North London Derby costing double that. So my crude maths says that if ticket prices were capped at £20, Arsenal (one of the worst clubs affected by having no fans) would "lose" roughly £30m - 7% of total revenues.
The "Big 6"
By using the prize money for the 2019/2020 season (I'm aware it's the season after), we can start to see why "the big 6" is unlikely to change.
"The rest" will include all merchandising and probably of greatest significance, Champions League / Europa League prize money.
Look at that gap to Everton - Over £120m.
If anybody's unsure what the motivation behind creating a "European Super Greed" is, then here's your answer. For these greedy fuckers, they want more.
Looking at these numbers, I fear that the gap is already too great. Florentino Perez has stated that plans for a European Super League are "on standby" and with this being their 2nd attempt at such a proposal, you know they're coming back. It somehow feels inevitable and if the figures above tell you anything, English football is already beyond repair.
Like so many things, corrupted and ruined by money.
Goodbye League and FA Cups
Lost in the news last week was the announcement that the Champions League would increase in size (UEFA pressured into the decision by the same greedy individuals mentioned above), increasing the number of matches from 125 to 225. I've suggested before that this would be the death of the League Cup, I've not doubt it also signals the death of all domestic cups.
My Feelings
Over my relatively short lifetime, my feeling of loss regarding what English Football has become increases with each season. As a teenager, I'd see Reading players sat drinking in the pubs in town. Following our promotion to the Premier League in 2006, I drank with Irish internationals Shane Long and Kevin Doyle (who bought me a pint). During this same time frame, we've gone from being able to get into the ground for free at half time, to membership schemes costing "true fans" hundreds of pounds.
Over the years, I've become increasingly disillusioned with football and its direction of travel. I dread the pointlessness of Reading playing Premier League football (if that happens again). English football may well have become the Global League - but the fans, people like me, were abandoned long ago. the-toddler-gorilla and the-baby-gorilla will never know football in the way that I have and it wouldn't surprise me if they have no interest in the sport whatsoever.
Gary Neville explained it superbly on a show I watched last night - the video can be viewed here:
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/29326/12284888/gary-neville-six-breakaway-premier-league-clubs-attempted-to-kill-english-football-forever
I started this article wondering about ticket prices. I've ended it by reminding myself of the phrase "Football without fans is nothing", perhaps a better phrase would be:
"Football Without Money is Everything"