If sports TV channels in the U.S. are reportedly in troubled waters, in Italy, football clubs are the ones drowning in the Red Sea. Financial losses are engulfing the Serie A, the major national football (soccer) league.
Aggregating the various 2022-23 income statements of the top division clubs, we can see that they generally closed in the red for 427 million euro (U.S.$463 million). And this took into account the 587 million euro in capital gains from the sale of players (which had almost returned to its maximum past levels).
Against three billion euro in revenues (net of capital gains), the 20 Serie A clubs recorded 3.85 billion euro in costs, of which 1.9 billion euro were for salaries and 800 million euro were for the amortization of the players’ trading.
In the 2022-2023 season, Serie A salaries were 130 million euro higher than 2018-19. As for revenues, growth was almost entirely the result of contingencies: In 2022-23, some 300 million euro more emerged than in 2018-19, but 200 million euro derived from greater revenues from European cups, including UEFA prizes and stadium ticket offices. In terms of revenues, the Italian tournament has grown the least over the last decade: 60 percent growth against the 130 percent of the English, the 100 percent of the Spanish, and the 80 percent of the Germans. Similarly, the Serie A TV rights have also shown stagnation.
Only two Serie A teams have no debts with banks, Fiorentina (owned by the American Rocco Commisso) and Monza (owned by the Berlusconi family), which are not supported financially by their respective owners. Among the large Serie A clubs, Napoli, Milan, and Atalanta (from the city of Bergamo) are the least indebted. They are the same ones that closed their last financial statements in profit (along with Lecce and Sassuolo). On the other hand, Juventus (Turin), Roma, and Inter (from Milan) have the highest losses: 312 million euro among the three.
Good summary, Dom. While living in Milano in the late ’90s I was involved with two colleagues [Andrea e Seba] in negotiating the first PPV season Rights with Serie A squadras for our T+/C+ platform. Represented first split of Rights away from the broadcasters which we did by negotiating with each primo squadra rather than with the liga. Resulted in overall raise of Rights fees for the liga so they were not too upset.
Fast forward to your summary and my dear friend, Rodolfo Hecht [a giant in sports rights in Italy] telling me back then and again in 2008 that the whole cross European leagues’ approach to Rights against salaries and ops costs was “unsustainable”. He knew then that at some point Platforms would reach their ceiling limit on licensing and leagues could not restrain themselves from competing for and over paying talent. Only to lose the battle now to the Saudi.
Do we see reconfiguration and consolidation on the near horizon? So far a total failure of UEFA and leagues mgt to read the tea leaves…. Italy, per usual, hopelessly lost without a rudder.