Masterplan for City to swell coffers

STADIUM GROWTH AND WORLD CLASS ug PLAYERS WILL HELP TO GAIN MORE SUCCESS

- SIMON BAJKOWSKI

MANCHESTER City enjoyed an amazing 2023 but were recently knocked off the top of the Deloitte Money League by Real Madrid.

Despite being knocked out of the Champions League by Pep Guardiola's Treble winners, the Spanish giants used increased sponsorship deals, strong retail performances and sellout crowds at the revamped Bernabeu to increase their revenues by £119m.

City achieved a record year on the pitch, although the main thing holding them back from bigger growth is their matchday revenue.

"City's matchday revenue is €83m [£71m]," said Tim Bridge, lead partner in Deloitte's Sports Business Group.

"But the question is how they can kick over the €100m revenue marker, which is the threshold of clubs with innovative new stadiums.

"Real Madrid and Barcelona will be way over that figure in the future, and Tottenham are significantly over it now." City have already confirmed plans to expand their stadium, but in the meantime there are also areas in which they will target (and already have been targeting) to increase their revenue in addition to chasing the continuation of their on-field success.

Capitalise on the spotlight City's success on the pitch last season brought them an incredible amount of interest around the world.

The club enjoyed their best year ever for TV viewing figures and were the most watched team in Europe as well as being part of five of the six most viewed Premier League games in the past four seasons and seeing significant growth through their own media and social media channels.

There was also an 88 per cent growth in Cityzens membership and they now have over 350 official supporters' clubs in 76 countries, which is a starting point for how City turn the eyeballs on them into revenue but only that.