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Gap between the Big Six and the rest is growing

There is much talk about the so-called 'Big Six' pulling away from the rest of the Premier League financially, but is this actually true asks the authoritative Swiss Ramble? Note that in this analysis the seventh placed club as measured by revenue and wages is not always the same from one season to another.

The gap between the club with the 6th highest revenue (Tottenham Hostpur £379m) and 7th highest (Everton £189m) shot up to £190m in 2018, compared to £73m in 2017 (though this would have been higher without Leicester City's £70m Champions League money). Back in 2010 the gap was only £29m.

One reason for the growing gap between sixth and seventh highest revenue clubs is investment in new stadia, which has increased match day revenue at Spurs from £37m to £76m, while this has actually fallen at the 7th placed club from £24m to £16m.

The equitable Premier League TV deal means there has been relatively little change in the gap between sixth and seventh highest revenue clubs in terms of broadcasting income, though even here this has grown by £17m since 2010. From 2019/20 the new distribution model for overseas deals will further increase the gap. In contrast, the gap between sixth and seventh highest revenue clubs for European TV money (Champions League and Europa League) has risen by £42m since 2010. In particular, Tottenham Hotspur's European revenue rose from £5m to £54m in last 3 years. New UEFA deals are likely to accelerate this trend.

The good news for the seventh placed club is that commercial income has doubled from £14m to £30m since 2010, but the bad news is that this revenue stream has more than tripled at the sixth placed club from £32m to £103m, which means the gap has widened from £17m to £73m in this period.

In summary, the 2018 gap between the sixth and seventh highest revenue clubs in the Premier League of £190m comes from all revenue streams, led by commercial £73m and match day £59m. The £58m difference in broadcasting is dominated by European competitions £42m with only £17m domestic.

However, in contrast to revenue, the gap between the sixth and seventh highest wages clubs in the Premier League has actually fallen in the last 4 years to just £2m (Spurs £148m vs. Everton £145m), partly due to Short Term Cost Controls (financial fair play), which restricted wages growth. The relative parsimony of Tottenham Hotspur is also a factor and the gap between the fifth and seventh placed clubs has grown, although it has narrowed in the last two years.

The Swiss Ramble concludes, 'To sum up, the revenue gap between the Big Six and the rest of the league continues to grow apace. While the story appear to be not quite so clear-cut in wages and transfer spend, it is much the same if we exclude low spending Tottenham Hotspur from the comparison.'

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