The richest football game in the world

Read the headline above and you might think of the Super Bowl and its viewing audience of 170 million.

Or the World Cup Final, which is watched by an estimated 1.5 billion football fans.  

Both examples would be wrong.

The world’s richest game of football happened last Sunday, May 26 between Leeds United and Southampton at London’s famous Wembley Stadium.

After losing, Leeds United will return to the English Football League Championship for another season.  

Meanwhile, winners Southampton will be promoted into the world’s richest football competition, the Premier League.

For fans, it means giants like Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool will play at their team’s home stadium next season.

For players, it’s a chance to prove themselves in the world’s most watched football league.

For Southampton’s owners, the club’s valuation almost surely increased overnight.

Climbing the Ranks

In football, promotion is everything.

Take Ipswich Town, a club that’s just achieved the leap to the Premier League.  

Just two seasons ago, Ipswich Town was in League One, two levels below the top flight, with a valuation of just $20 million. After promotion to the Championship at the end of 2022/23, their value jumped to $64 million.

Now with Premier League status for next season, the latest investment in the club places the value at up to $325 million.

Wrexham AFC is another club experiencing rapid progress. Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney paid $3.3 million for the club in 2020 and immediately created the award-winning docuseries, Welcome to Wrexham. The show—and the team—became a global hit.

The club also gained promotion two consecutive times and will play next season in EFL League One. All of that momentum has resulted in an $11 million valuation—a great return on investment for the actors.

Staying at the Top

Within the English football pyramid, there’s promotion and there’s relegation with teams moving up and down between leagues each year. The challenge is remaining at the top.

Brighton has been a huge success story. The club was promoted to the Premier League for the first time in 2016. Last year, they posted the highest profit across all teams, bringing in $154 million. The club valuation is now $640 million. 

Other teams experience the swings of going up and falling back down.

Burnley’s value surged to $325 million being promoted to the Premier League for the 2023/24 season. With their recent relegation, however, the club’s value will certainly drop, likely by 50% or more.

Leeds also felt the pain of relegation. They would have been a $503 million club had they remained in the Premier League. After relegation, that valuation dropped to $214 million. With the loss  in Sunday’s match and failure to win promotion back to the Premier League, their value will stay closer to the lower figure.

No wonder it’s the richest game in the world.

Getting in on the action

Where does all this value come from?

Premier League teams receive at least $105 million apiece from broadcast rights. Then there’s “merit payments,” ranging from $2.1 million to $43.2 million, based on where they finish in the league. Factor in an increase in ticket sales, merchandise, and tourism dollars as fans travel to see their favorite team.

A lot of pressure. A lot of reward.

While this revenue comes from many sources, everything depends on the enthusiasm and dedication of fans. The feedback loop between club success and fan devotion reaches a fever pitch after promotion.

And, as we’ve recently written about, more fans are getting in on the action as owners. This coming Tuesday, June 4, we’ll be releasing our most prominent sports deal ever: an ambitious English club looking to make the leap to the Premier League. We’ll be doing it in a way that gives you real ownership with plans in place for future trading on an SEC registered secondary market.

Stay tuned for more details on how to be among the first to see this deal when it goes live.