Stadium upgrades are key for top cubs

Premier League football clubs are targeting stadium upgrades to boost revenues as England’s top 20 teams aim to reap the benefits of rising ticket demand and reduce reliance on income from broadcasting and sponsorships. Clubs are investing to improve their stadiums and infrastructure in order to increase seating capacity and shore up match day revenues at a time of booming demand for the world’s richest football division.

 According to analysis by the Financial Times, clubs are looking to increase capacity by at least 115,000 seats across the Premier League, or 14 per cent, over the next decade. Stadiums are increasingly important assets because they give clubs more control over the revenue they generate, as the Premier League negotiates broadcast deals centrally and distributes the proceeds.

At the same time, new investors have injected fresh capital into clubs, giving new impetus to stadium investments. Some projects remain in the early stages and stadium development depends on complex negotiations with multiple authorities. However, further projects are likely to be announced as more clubs actively consider upgrades.

Tottenham Hotspur set the benchmark with an all-new £1bn stadium that opened in 2019, with rivals playing catch-up to renovate their home grounds or plan new constructions. Everton FC plans to relocate from Goodison Park, its home since 1892, to a stadium on Bramley-Moore Docks on the waterfront in time for next season, in another move that will boost match day income.

Christopher Lee, managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at architectural design firm Populous, which worked on Tottenham’s stadium among a series of projects for football clubs, said that bulging waiting lists for season tickets, high renewals and the arrival of sophisticated and deep-pocketed investors have helped to drive expansion plans. “Broadcast is centrally negotiated. Commercial deals are increasingly competitive. The big lever a club has to increase overall revenue is match day revenue,” he said.

Manchester United, whose Old Trafford home ground is the biggest in the league, is consulting on a new stadium project, and revealed this week that the majority of fans surveyed are in favour of a new-build rather than redevelopment. Discussions around a 100,000-capacity stadium have accelerated since the arrival of Monaco-based billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe as a minority shareholder.

Premier League champions Manchester City are in the process of adding thousands of seats to turn the Etihad into a 61,000-capacity arena. Liverpool completed an expansion project last summer that took Anfield’s capacity to above 61,000. Chelsea, which is owned by US investors Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly, is also assessing its next steps, as it looks for an upgrade on the 40,000-capacity Stamford Bridge.

Chris Heck, who runs business operations at Aston Villa, said that investing in the club’s stadium was vital as it competed for the top positions in the league table. “We will be adding capacity . . . to get as close to 50,000 as we can without creating havoc,” he told the Financial Times earlier this year, adding that the club’s owners had committed to investing in the stadium and its facilities.

The upgrades give clubs the opportunity to expand premium offerings such as VIP and hospitality. Some even may focus on those revenue streams rather than more affordably priced general admission. Kieran Maguire, football finance lecturer at the University of Liverpool, said increasing match day revenues was seen as “easy pickings” for clubs with fans all over the world at a time when domestic broadcast revenue growth has slowed down. However, he warned of the impact on local fans, especially if clubs moved to increase revenue through higher ticket prices. “The traditional season ticket holder has outlived their usefulness to some, though not all, clubs and are being eased out via a variety of means, of which pricing is one,” he said.

Stadium upgrades also allow the venues to host a variety of activities, including high-end music concerts and stadium tours for fans, opening up lucrative opportunities for clubs. Tottenham Hotspur has reaped the benefits since completing its new stadium. The north London team has hosted events ranging from Beyoncé concerts to NFL matches at the arena.

However, it was vital to preserve what is special about current stadiums when increasing capacity, Lee said. “As we’re looking at rebuilding and replacing infrastructure, it’s really important we — and the clubs we work for — don’t lose that authenticity of the football stadium,” the Populous MD added. “It’s really easy to tip over into some kind of ‘pleasure palace’ of bars and restaurants, but we need to resonate with fans and local communities and keep it authentic.”