I read an interesting article on Bloomberg this morning that included a small piece on publicly listed football clubs and the transfer market (for those who don’t like/follow football, the UK transfer market is open for one month in January and mid-May to mid-August in the summer) and the effect this can have on their stock price.
Clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester United in the UK are listed (Man U listed in the US), as well as Ajax (Dutch), Borussia Dortmund (German), and Juventus (Italian) are examples of European listed clubs.
I have not done any proper research into this, but based off the article these transfers clearly do have an effect on their stock price. I would be interested in investing money into clubs such as Ajax and Dortmund because they have traditionally been feeder clubs (that is, they have very good academies and some big transfers/names have emerged from these clubs, and therefore the players are great assets and generate a large profit for the club - if you bring a player through your academy the cost is negligible, but they can be sold for millions).
Has anyone else looked into this or have an opinion on this?
A challenge in testing the hypothesis may be that defining the value of transactions is tough, as many deals are of unknown size and structure. I also imagine that the prices will be affected by a variety of other factors - sponsorship, gate receipts, etc.
I’ll need to have a look at the reports the PLC Clubs produce and see where their revenue really comes from, I totally agree that the majority will be from advertising and gates, but would be interesting to see the difference between say Manchester United and Ajax as they will have totally different balance sheets and commercial imprints.
The FT has some good coverage on this area. I liked the story explaining why Juve paid €100m for Ronaldo.
Generally, I’m of the opinion that football is enjoying a period of excess - transfer values, wage bills and broadcast rights are inflated. However, it’s difficult to judge whether it’s sustainable or not, and represents a niche/specialist alternative investment area.
This is very interesting to me. As an Arsenal fan I would love to hold a share in the company.
Although the share price is currently around 3k, with volume next to nothing. Definitely something that could be a good investment if you understand the insides of the industry and what affects the share price.
Arsenal are doing some really interesting stuff with their stadium and energy capture for game day, really focusing on profitability. Worth a dive into them!
Fellow Arsenal fan here! Unfortunately, sooner or later AFC shares should be delisted due to:
Commenting on the Offer, Mr E. Stanley Kroenke said:
“We at KSE are moving forward with this Offer leading to 100% ownership of the Club. We appreciate Mr Usmanov’s dedication to the Arsenal Football Club and the storied ethos and history the Club represents.”
That’s interesting to hear! I follow a number of different Arsenal accounts on Twitter, and there is someone (can’t remember his name) that is a shareholder, and always tweets when a share has been bought or sold.
Always found it interesting, especially as I support them, but never really looked into buying a share. Maybe one day in the future when I have larger funds!
I remember hearing about this, but never saw a statement. Thanks for this mate!
From a footballing perspective, its a real shame as Usmanov wanted to invest heavily in the club to increase our transfer budget.
From an investing perspective, I guess it will be hard to invest for as long as Kroenke is involved.
Yeah fair enough, low demand for most of what’s on there I suppose. Is it technically more difficult to interact with NEX, or is it simply demand driven at the moment?
I’m also very interested in investing in football clubs that are in the Premier League and relatively likely to stay there. Or even investing in the premier league it self if that became an option. My rational is that I believe the premier league will become a broadcaster in its own right and that will unlock enormous revenue potential as they could essentially move to a Netflix model, with lower subscriptions but vastly increased subscribers with lower churn. I’m pretty sure that’s they went for a new ceo from a broadcast background- though she has since turned it down. Anyway, that’s my thoughts. Up the Palace! Stephanie
I also really enjoy following The Swiss Ramble who has some very in-depth and interesting data and insights on football finance, worth a follow for sure.
Being Midlands based it’s interesting to see Fosun are thinking of an IPO for Wolverhampton FC.
Personally (as a Middlesbrough FC fan) I see it was a way to write off spending for FFP. But could be one to look out for if there’s any sports fans here.
Unfortunately, sooner or later AFC shares should be delisted due to:
