Why European Football Clubs Should Look to Stadium Naming Rights to Diversify Income

Kroll’s Stadium Naming Rights Study analyzes the top 36 teams in major European football leagues and provides valuation metrics based on publicly available information—such as shirt sponsor, technical partner values, social media followers, television rights, current naming values and team performance over the past and current seasons.

At a glance

• The majority of leading European football clubs are missing out on a significant source of revenue by not signing stadium sponsorships.
• Only a third (12 of 36) of the teams profiled in the study have a stadium naming rights sponsor at the time of writing, with Spotify’s €20m per-season sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona by far the most lucrative.
• Our estimated total valuation for stadium naming rights for these 36 leading teams (including teams with and without a stadium sponsor in place) is €303 million, with an average value of €8.4 million per season.
• La Liga leads the way in potential stadium naming rights valuations. Spain’s globally renowned Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona echo their history of dominance by securing the top two spots in stadium naming rights sponsorship.
• Despite their size and potential value, England and Italy have the least actual take up of stadium naming rights agreements. This is largely because many of their stadiums have decades-long legacies in existing stadiums names which also serve as tourist destination.

The table lists clubs’ stadiums and their sponsors with actual naming rights deals, as per Kroll’s analysis.