The Absurdity of English Football

Premier League: 11 of 20 clubs could have made profits in 2016-17 without fans at games
By Andrew Aloia

BBC Sport


More than half of Premier League clubs could have played in empty stadiums and still made a pre-tax profit in the first season of the current broadcast deal, BBC research has found.

In 2016-17, during which clubs benefited from a record £8.3bn in global TV revenue, matchday income contributed less than 20p in every £1 earned by 18 top-flight outfits.

The number of clubs that would have recorded pre-tax profits even if matchday income was taken away rose from two in 2015-16 to 11 in 2016-17.

Dr Rob Wilson, a sport finance specialist at Sheffield Hallam University, said the previous £3.018bn broadcast deal struck in 2012 signalled a permanent change to top-flight football as a business in England.

"That is when the focus really went toward generating TV money rather than matchday ticket receipts," he told BBC Sport.

"The revenue structures of those clubs are fairly well there to stay now.

"When you get a £120m payout from the Premier League for kicking a ball around, you can play in an empty stadium if you need to.

"From a revenue generation perspective, clubs do not rely anymore on matchday ticket income.

Full article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44850888

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Obscene.

 

The English Premier League is a hollow, soulless experience. I now can't even bring myself to watch it when it's two of the big clubs playing each other. Yeah they have all the money in the world but the game down there has totally lost it's identity.

Not to mention the fact it is destroying Scottish Football year by year, something which makes me hate it even more.

 

Soon there will be clubs that allow you to buy a Virtual Season ticket. Watching the game from your “Camera Seat” position.

They deliver your pie and bovril to your house at half time via a drone.

No fans in the ground will soon equal “less overheads”.

Sky and BT rake in even more money by providing the Virtual Supporter experience straight to your living room.

Money truly will ruin the game. It’s already ruined the European Cup...

 

The silence at the stadiums in England is deafening, particularly Old Trafford, Anfield and the Emirates.

One thing that sums up the Premier League for me is when the players run to celebrate with the fans and 50% have their phone out videoing the players celebrate.

That and the fact they all have the same * songbook. They also back each other up like they are the one big corporation and not individual clubs competing against one another. Very bizarre.

 

Hate to see everyone on their phone as a player runs to the crowd. If that's a Celtic game you have people crowd-surfing and hugging the players.

Soulless, *, capitalist league.

 

Surely this could be made into a positive. If clubs could run on empty stadiums, there's potential justification for a league wide cap on the price of season tickets?

 

I bet Peter Lawwell’s mouth is watering at the thought of us being profitable with an empty stadium.
*!

 

Makes it even more ridiculous when you see that some clubs season tickets are close to £1000, they've squeezed the average supporter out of english football which is one of the reasons the atmospheres so * at the big clubs.