All fans like to think that the club is nothing without the fans. In reality, since the arrival of sky, gate receipts and merchandising are a relatively small part of total income. The SKY money and advertising are what matters now. Once the cost of policing the crowd, and paying for the infrastructure to accomodate crowds are taken away, i wonder how much profit the crowd actually make anyway? It might be more beneficial for some clubs to have much smaller grounds, and just fill it up with adverts for the TV>
The crowd are part of the spectacle that TV companies pay good money for...see how often they lovingly pan round the crowd. I'm also sure that match day income is quite substantial, though I have no idea how much it costs to maintain and run a stadium.
Doesnt food and drink make a lot of money, bit like cinemas. I only just learnt (maybe i am slow) that 95%, or something like that, of the money from cinema ticket sales goes to the film producers and that cinemas make all their cash from food and other services
actually, youre quite wrong. it is matchday sales in the club shop/programmes/food/drink that makes the club money. if the fans werent there, football would collapse.
You and OldDellboy are both probably right. I have no idea of Match day revenue, but I'd stab a guess at close to £1m per home game based on average ticket price of £25 x 30,000 and then each person going spending £5 (of course this could be way out, as some will spend £50 in the shop and eat and drink at the game and then some like me will normally only buy a program. This would give £900K, so let's call it £1m for good luck. Not sure what we get for Sky money, but is it £30m+ (call it £38m for ease) giving £2m each home game. All guesswork from me though withought looking at any accounts. This shows that both are needed. My match day revenue doesn't include boxes, extra sponsorship and advertising, so that number would grow.
