Investing in the Business of Sports

Together with its popularity, come the profits for football teams. Yes, it is true. Football teams are generally businesses and investment in themselves. They are owned not just by one person, but a group of individuals that share in the revenues of the team. If you are a football player, you can consider yourself as a company asset from whom the company earns money.

For example, the Forbes reported in 2007 that professional football has realized millions of revenues in the United States. According to Forbes, pro football came up with revenues of US$204 million or 143 million pounds according to current conversion rates. Most of these revenues came from pay-per-view income, as people would want to watch football matches on TV especially if they live far from the venue of the game. Each team also operates from a home stadium. These stadiums also partly earn the teams money from the revenues generated from ticket sales, and from revenues derived by the stadium from confectioneries who sell food and beverages in the venue.

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Of course, football also enjoys great popularity worldwide. Europe, for one, provides more than enough revenues for the teams to be able to take care of their expenses like player salaries, training fees, etc. According to Forbes, Arsenal alone was able to make $155 million or roughly 109 million pounds on one game along for the 2006-2007 season in the Emirates Stadium. This is more than enough for the investment placed on the stadium, which cost a total of $860 million or 605 million pounds.

Emirates is not the only source of revenue for Arsenal: it also has a sponsorship deal with the airliner Emirates – from whom the stadium is named – that is worth $160 million or 112 million pounds. The team also relies on revenues realized by 724 luxury apartments that have been opened this year at the site of their old stadium. Forbes estimated in 2008 that Arsenal must have a worth of $1.2 billion or 845 million pounds.

Arsenal is also placed by Forbes as the fourth most profitable team in the planet for 2008, next to other famous teams such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United.