Total Value: The current fair-market value of a Premier League franchise, based on a team-specific multiple of three-year average revenue. The value factors in team-related businesses and real estate holdings, like Manchester United's eight owned properties, highlighted by its home stadium, Old Trafford, and Aon Training Complex. City Football Group has an extensive startup portfolio and owns 11 clubs around the globe (NYC FC is excluded from Man City's valuation—see our Methodology for more details)

Revenue: Cumulative revenues are displayed for the 2019-20 season and as a three-year average, excluding transfer fees and Value Added Taxes. Revenue consists of three main buckets: broadcast, commercial and match day. All figures are displayed in U.S. dollars using the average exchange over the last 12 months of £1 = $1.33.

(i.) Broadcast is largely comprised of media deals in the U.K. and internationally; it is the largest revenue component for all Premier League teams outside the Big Six. National media rights are held by Sky Sports, BT and Amazon, and there are more than two dozen broadcast partners outside the U.K. Prize money from competitions are also typically included in this area.

The Premier League distributes its broadcast revenue based on a formula, wherein each team received an equal share of nearly $110 million last season, and then a further tiered payment based on the number of broadcast appearances in the U.K. and abroad. Clubs also earned a tiered payment based on their finish in the Premier League standings.

The Premier League suspended play for three months in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It resumed June 17 and concluded July 26. Teams' fiscal years typically end in May or June, but some teams, like Burnley, extended their fiscal year to July to capture the full Premier League broadcast payment. Other teams pushed those revenues to the 2020-21 fiscal year.

(ii.) Commercial revenue is derived from sponsorships, advertising, corporate hospitality, catering and non-match day events. A team's jersey sponsor and kit deal generate massive sums for the top club. Emirates pays Arsenal roughly $55 million a year to display its name on its home and away jerseys, while Manchester United's Adidas pact is worth at least $100 million a year for the rights to sell merchandise globally and stamp the three stripes logo in the corner of its shirts.

(iii.) Match day revenue from ticket sales, membership income, cup competitions and preseason tickets is generally the smallest revenue component for teams. Matches resumed in June without fans in attendance, costing teams gate revenue for between four and six homes games.

Full Transparency

Sportico is committed to transparency, including provision of detailed methodology. For any additional questions, please contact sports valuations reporter Kurt Badenhausen at kbadenhausen@sportico.com, who led in the composition of this report.


Fair Market Franchise Valuations

To derive the fair-market value of the 20 Premier League franchises, Sportico calculated each team's revenue, relying on publicly available information and financial records. Revenue totals were subject to a team-specific multiplier, which remains the only reliable manner by which transactions occur, due to dramatic fluctuations of earnings before interest, taxes and amortization (EBITA), year-over-year, based on player spending and special expenses.

We conducted interviews with those knowledgeable of team finances, including seven sports bankers and attorneys who actively work on soccer transactions. We traded candor for anonymity. This information was vetted by multiple teams, industry experts and investors.

The team-specific multipliers were based on multiple factors, including: historical sales, market (size, saturation and interest by prospective owners), strength of brand, on-field performance (historical and recent), terms of facility lease, debt burden and additional obligations, as well as expected future team and league economics.

The threat of relegation results in a dramatically larger spread in revenue multiples than in U.S. sports leagues. Multiples ranged from 0.75 times revenue for Sheffield United, which will receive parachute payments while in the Championship, to just over six for Manchester United and Liverpool.

Given the business disruption posted by the coronavirus pandemic during the 2019-20 season, we examined revenue for the last three seasons and applied the multiples to that average as a baseline


Team Review

Premier League clubs all file their financial statements with Companies House, the U.K.'s registrar of companies. The only team that had not filed its results for the 2019-20 season at the time of Sportico's soccer valuations publication was Newcastle United. An estimated revenue for Newcastle's 2019-20 season is displayed and was used in the value calculation.

Among the 20 Premier League franchises, multiple teams or their parent companies participated with Sportico by providing or validating information, while others did not comment or respond.

We excluded Major League Soccer franchises that are majority-owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (Colorado Rapids) and City Football Group (NYC FC) from the valuations of Arsenal and Manchester City under the premise that they likely would be sold independent of the Premier League clubs.