The turnover of European football is growing, but Italy remains at a standstill because of the stadiums. This is what emerges from the latest Deloitte study according to which the most followed sport in the world is worth 24,6 billion in the old continent in the 2015-2016 season, with an increase of 13% compared to the previous season calculating revenue from media rights, ticketing, sponsorships and commercial revenues.
Driving the growth are all the major leagues (England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France), which have all improved. Including the Italian Serie A, which however has seen the gap with the Spanish Premier League, Bundesliga and Liga increase: in fact, our major league has grown in revenues by only 7%, reaching almost 2 billion euros. The British tournament did better, remaining largely the leader with 4,8 billion in turnover (of which 2,6 from TV rights and 831 million from the stadium), but also the German Bundesliga (+13% to 2,7 billion) and the Spanish Liga (+18% to 2,4 billion). The latter is destined, according to the study, in the projections to further increase the pace of development in the coming years thanks to the new formula for the sale of broadcasting rights which will soon make it the second tournament in terms of turnover.
The Italian Serie A had an increase reaching a total of 1,917 billion euros: if the TV takings are in line with those of Germany and France, penalizing the Italian championship is the strong difference in stadium receipts (200 million against 500 in the other two tournaments) and the lower impact of sponsorships and commercial revenues (523 million against 700 in La Liga and 1,2 billion in the Bundesliga).
But the even less exciting news is that in perspective the gap with the three main championships is destined to increase: according to the Deloitte analysis, in the two-year period 2016-18 the turnover will increase overall by just 3% despite being able to count on the Juventus effect in the Champions League (the black and whites reached the final this year). To accelerate development, according to the study, the determining factors will be to increase commercial revenues and stadium takings: the stadium utilization rate is the worst among the big five (52%) with an attendance of spectators per game of 21.600 people against 42 in Germany, 36 in England and 27 in Spain.
