Flamengo, the Brazilian club with the most fans, recorded higher revenue and earnings with fan-members and box office in 2021
A report from XP Investimentos and the consultancy Summoned released on June 14, showed the revenue growth of the clubs that compete in the A series of the Brazilian Championship in 2022. The study also presented the ranking of the biggest supporters of clubs in Brazil in a survey carried out in partnership with the Sport Track.
The survey interviewed 2,000 to 2,500 people digitally. Flamengo had the highest number of responses: 24% said they supported the club; 18% for Corinthians; 11.5% for São Paulo.
On social networks, Flamengo and Corinthians have more followers in total. The team from Rio adds 41.52 million and the team from São Paulo 27.13 million. In the sequence is also São Paulo with 17.36 million.
Regarding fundraising with fan-partner plans and box office in 2021, the XP Investimentos e Convocados report showed that Flamengo was the club with the highest revenue: R$ 70 million.
Internacional ranked 2nd with revenues of R$ 64 million. Grêmio and Atlético-MG raised R$ 56 million.
To Power 360the academic coordinator of the FGV/Fifa/Cies sports management improvement course, Pedro Trengrouse, explained that, in general, the most important factor for clubs is not the size of the fans, but their engagement.
“All the winning of a Brazilian club has as a challenge the engagement of its fans, regardless of their size. All of them are already big, monumental.”he said.
Trengrouse considered, however, that a club with a large crowd will have a greater base to work on engagement.
For the coordinator, through the direct engagement of fans, clubs have a way to change their current business plan in which the main revenue is the sale of broadcasting rights for games.
The expansion of its own media channels with the production and transmission of exclusive content is a complementary strategy. In addition to the adoption of cryptoassets (digital assets with electronic transactions) that can be used to finance one-off initiatives or for general funding.
“We have the opportunity to build interesting models. The club has its territory: the stadium and the headquarters. The people are the fans who speak the same language, identify with the same signs, sing the same songs. To be a nation, all you need is your own currency.”said.
In Trengrouse’s assessment, the change in the business model is close to being achieved. It will be a time when the “partner-supporter becomes partner-investor”.
According to Trengrouse, in the last 10 years there has been an increase in the participation of the fan-partner in the revenues of Brazilian football clubs. In some moments, it became the 2nd biggest source of the clubs.
According to the coordinator, Brazilian clubs had around 150,000 supporters in total in 2012. Currently, the number reaches 2 million.
After the approval of the SAFs (Sociedades Anônimas do Futebol) law in 2021, business investment began to represent a new gain that came in to boost the cash flow of some clubs. But for Trengrouse this cannot be considered a recurring income.
“If clubs decide to go public on the stock exchange as many clubs around the world have done, it is possible for fans to become partners and put money into it”said.
The XP Investimentos report with the consultancy Convocados showed that the biggest source of revenue for clubs is, in fact, the sale of broadcasting rights. It represents 53% of earnings. The negotiation of athletes (18%), advertising and marketing (16%) and collection with the box office and with the partner-fan plans (7%) make up the other entries in the cashier.
According to the coordinator, the engagement of the fans is the pillar of this revenue that he classifies as indirect. “Television buys the broadcasting rights because this content gives an audience and this content gives an audience because their fans follow their clubs”he said.
Similarly, remuneration through social networks is also based on audience. But based on fan engagement.
This report was produced by Journalism intern Júlia Mano under the supervision of editor Victor Labaki.
#fan #engagement #impacts #club #revenue