Why European Football
Clubs Should Look to
Stadium Naming Rights
to Diversify Income
An Analysis of Potential Stadium Naming
Rights Valuations

European football clubs have the opportunity to add significant
revenue by agreeing stadium sponsorship deals
Success in football comes down to the strategy andtactics teams deploy on the pitch, and for some ofEurope’s greatest clubs, this success amplifies thevalue of their brands off the pitch, too.
Stadium naming rights are increasingly becoming acompelling asset, with the potential earned income fora top team being up to €30 million per season.

Kroll’s Valuations Advisory Services team has
analyzed the potential windfall that Europe’s
top-flight clubs could receive by securing a stadiumnaming rights agreement with a sponsor andranked the results in a provisional league table.

Top 10 European Football Clubs for Naming Rights Value Potential
Club

LeagueEstimated Stadium’s Naming Rights
Value (€m per season)

Real Madrid CF

La Liga

29.7

FC Barcelona

La Liga

20.0

Paris Saint-Germain F.C.

Ligue 1

19.4

Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Premier League

18.0

Manchester United F.C.

Premier League

15.3

Manchester City F.C.

Premier League

14.9

FC Bayern Munich

Bundesliga

12.8

Juventus F.C.

Serie A

12.4

Liverpool F.C.

Premier League

11.7

Borussia Dortmund

Bundesliga

11.6

Table includes top 10 estimated values for actual stadium naming rights based on actual deals and possible deal values for the teams included
in Kroll’s analysis.

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 within
the game by taking the top two spots, with leading
French club Paris Saint-Germain F.C. securing third.
Three of England’s Premiership teams—Tottenham
Hotspur F.C., Manchester United F.C. and Manchester
City F.C.—follow, with Liverpool F.C. taking ninth
place. Germany’s Bundesliga has two teams in the
top 10, namely FC Bayern Munich and Borussia
Dortmund, while Italian giant Juventus F.C.
also features.

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Our analysis includes estimated values for actual
stadium naming rights deals—with FC Barcelona€20 million-a-year agreement with music streaming
firm Spotify being the most significant—and possible
deal values, recognising that some clubs are extremely
unlikely to relinquish the traditional and historicname of their stadium to a corporate sponsor, such
as Real Madrid CF’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
and Manchester United F.C.’s Old Trafford, whileothers, such as Paris Saint-Germain F.C. use thecountry’s national stadium, making a naming rights
deal a slightly more involved process.

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

With player wages perpetually setting new highs,
clubs are under increasing pressure to maximize theincome they can earn from every possible avenue.
Kroll’s study reveals how much Europe’s biggest

clubs could earn from stadium naming rights at atime when football finances are getting morechallenging to manage.

Teams That Own a Stadium and Have a Sponsor
Team

LeagueStadium Sponsor

FC Barcelona

La Liga

Spotify

FC Bayern Munich

Bundesliga

Allianz

Juventus F.C.

Serie A

Allianz

Borussia Dortmund

Bundesliga

Signal Iduna

Atlético de Madrid

La LigaCívitas Grupo

Manchester City F.C.

Premier League

Etihad Airways

Arsenal F.C.

Premier League

Emirates

Eintracht Frankfurt

Bundesliga

Deutsche Bank

Olympique de MarseilleLigue 1

OrangeOlympique Lyonnais

Ligue 1

Groupama

PSV Eindhoven

Eredivisie

Philips

Real Sociedad

La Liga

Reale Seguros

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

3Key Findings
The global desire to watch football is clear from the 1.5 billion people estimated to have watched Argentina’s
dramatic penalty shootout win over France at the Qatar 2022 tournament and the five billion viewers expected totune in for this year’s UEFA Euro 2024 tournament. However, in spite of this fervor for football, just 12 of the top
36 teams from Europe’s most significant leagues have a stadium naming rights deal, with FC Barcelona’s €20m aseason sponsorship by Spotify by far the most lucrative.

Actual and Estimated Stadium
Naming Rights Value (part 1)

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Teams

LeagueEstimated Value(€m per season)

Real Madrid CF

La Liga

29.7

FC Barcelona

La Liga

20.0

Paris SaintGermain F.C.

Ligue 1

19.4

Tottenham
Hotspur F.C.

Premier League

18.0

Manchester
United F.C.

Premier League

15.3

Manchester City
F.C.

Premier League

14.9

FC Bayern Munich

Bundesliga

12.8

Juventus F.C.

Serie A

12.4

Liverpool F.C.

Premier League

11.7

Borussia
DortmundBundesliga

11.6

Arsenal F.C.

Premier League

10.5

AC MilanSerie A

10.2

Newcastle United
F.C.

Premier League

10.0

Inter Milan

Serie A

9.2

Atlético de Madrid

La Liga

8.9

Chelsea F.C.

Premier League

8.2

Galatasaray S.K.

Turkish Süper
Lig

7.4

Bayer Leverkusen

Bundesliga

6.5

Eintracht
Frankfurt

Bundesliga

6.5

Olympique
Lyonnais

Ligue 1

6.4

S.L. Benfica

Primeira Liga

6.2

1. FC Union Berlin

Bundesliga

6.2

AS Roma

Serie A

4.8

Atalanta BC

Serie A

4.6

Olympique deMarseille

Ligue 1

3.7

AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

3.6

S.S. Lazio

Serie A

3.5

Actual and Estimated Stadium
Naming Rights Value (part 2)
Teams

LeagueEstimated Value(€m per season)

Celtic F.C.

Scottish3.3

Premiership
RB Leipzig

Bundesliga

3.3

FC Porto

Primeira Liga

3.0

SSC Napoli

Serie A

2.7

PSV Eindhoven

Eredivisie

1.8

FC Sevilla

La Liga

1.7

Feyenoord

Eredivisie

1.6

Real Sociedad

La Liga

1.6

Racing Club deLigue 1

1.6

Lens
Table includes estimated values for actual stadium naming rights
deals and possible deal values included in Kroll’s analysis, whichlooked at 36 teams.

Our estimated total valuation for stadium namingrights 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 perseason. Looking at stadiums that have sponsors,
this group of 12 teams commands a combined €101
million, an average value per team of € 8.4million
per season.
Across the 36-team data set, the Premier League is by
far the most dominant. While it is tied, by estimatedvalue, for the highest number of teams, at seven,alongside Italy’s Serie A, the combined value perseason of the potential stadium sponsorship deals
for the UK teams is €88.50 million—well above the
Italian cohort’s €47.39 million.
Despite their size and potential value, Englandand Italy have the least actual take up of stadiumnaming rights agreements. This is largely because
many of their stadiums have decades-long legacies
in existing stadiums names which also serve as
tourist destinations.

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

Continuing the national league rankings, Spain’s
La Liga (five teams in our analysis) secured third
place with €61.89 million. Germany’s Bundesliga (sixteams) landed only narrowly outside the top three ofthe six leagues analyzed in our data, with a total of€46.85 million. However, the gap widens substantiallyafterward, with fifth-place Ligue 1 in France (fourteams) at €31 million and The Netherlands’ Eredivisie(three teams) at €6.95 million.
Real Madrid CF’s elevation above Spanish rival
Barcelona in our analysis is justified by the majorrenovation project at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
and the latest Champions League win, the 15th inits history, a record for this competition.
Clubs are increasingly looking for opportunities forcommercial exploitation outside of renaming orpurchasing various assets around the day-to-day
running of the club.
A club such as Paris Saint-Germain F.C., for example,
could be prevented from freely accessing namingrights sponsorship deals due to the fact that its
stadium doubles as the home for the national
French side and is owned by the Paris City Council.

Other Sponsorship Opportunity
While German team Eintracht Braunschweig is widely
credited with pioneering football shirt sponsorshipin 1955, the nation doesn’t lead here now.
The Premier League once again dominates, with its
seven biggest clubs taking in around €300 million
in shirt sponsorships per season, well ahead of
second-place La Liga, with a total of around €175
million a season.
The English league’s dominance comes in spiteof the very strict guidelines on shirt sponsorship
implemented by the Premier League, an approachthat differs widely from France’s Ligue 1, where thepercentage of a football kit that can be advertised
on is more relaxed. Furthermore, Manchester City
F.C. isn’t included in the Premier League figure
because of the fact that Etihad Airways has a
combined sponsorship deal.

France’s Ligue 1 secures €100 million a season,
while the Eredivisie teams in the Netherlands
generate around €20 million a season.

Kit Partners
Kitting out a professional football team is big business,
which is why a trio of major apparel firms dominate
the space.

The size of a club’s global appeal, its home fan base,and the number of internationally renowned stars in
its starting lineup are major factors behind a sports
apparel brand wanting to produce a team’s kit.
The production of kit is essentially a licensing
agreement for the right to produce and sellmerchandise. Consequently, Adidas, Nike andPuma are the most frequently sought-after
technical partners.
Joma has a presence in Spain and Italy, with
Villarreal FC and Atalanta BC, while Emporio
Armani styles the Napoli team. But one issue inparticular could be an impediment to theseemerging competitors gaining greater market
share: the high sums for kit deals with the world’s
largest clubs.
For instance, Manchester United recently saw
Adidas surpass the €1 billion mark for a 10-year
deal starting in 2025—up from €900 million at thestart of its previous decade-long deal in 2015.
Meanwhile, Adidas took on Newcastle United’s kit
this year in a €175 million, five-year agreement—
well above the €24 million Castore paid for its
three-year run.
Rival kit makers would likely need to target larger
numbers of smaller teams and hope to develop
relationships with some clubs that will secure highlevels of success on the pitch and promotions intohigher leagues over time. Bigger clubs inevitably
secure more funding through TV rights agreements
and have larger numbers of fans to buy replica kits,
which means they can charge a premium.

Germany’s Bundesliga teams are estimated to bringin around €125 million in kit sponsorship, while
Italy’s Serie A closely follows at around €115 million.

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“The opportunity for sponsors to capture value in the stadiumnaming rights market in Europe, and for clubs to expand theirrevenues, should not be underestimated. Clubs want to diversify
their income streams to remain competitive and investors arelooking for a stake in one of the world’s most popular andprofitable sports. As this year’s Stadium Naming Rights Studyshows, stadium sponsorship continues to be an opportunity forboth clubs and investors, but only with careful and accurate
strategies for investment.

”— Mike Weaver, Managing Director and Financial Advisory
Services Leader for EMEA, Latin America and APAC

Vital Negotiations
Securing longer sponsorship deals can be helpful in
keeping a sponsor’s outgoings steady through theduration of the agreement.
Allianz has proved the benefits of long deals, withits 20-year agreement with FC Bayern Munichprotecting it from any naming rights inflation. Its
agreement with Juventus F.C. in 2017 also proved
prescient, given that Cristiano Ronaldo joined theteam the year after, leading to far greater exposurefor the Allianz brand without it having to pay moremoney. The insurance giant renewed the Juventus
F.C. deal in 2020, extending it to 2030, andlengthened its FC Bayern Munich deal last year
to 2033.
Spotify’s eight-year deal with FC Barcelona should
benefit the company as the agreement will be fixed
when the club’s stadium expansion—adding nearly
6,000 seats to bring capacity to 105,000—iscompleted at the end of 2025. The entry of themusic streaming service into football sponsorshipmarks a further shift in the types of brands
considering sports-related deals.
Travel brands have more recently risen up theranks too, with the likes of Trivago now sponsoring
Chelsea F.C. and Expedia sponsoring Liverpool F.C.,
broadening the sector’s presence in the Premier
League alongside Middle East airlines. This shows

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a broadening of brand presence in football, with themore traditional sponsors—energy, finance andautomotive—ceding share to retail, consumer andtechnology names.
Those latter sectors are likely to be more tuned into the potential for sales gleaned via social media
and the influencer economy. If a sponsor can get
someone like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé orMarcus Rashford to wear or use their products,
those players’ millions of Instagram followers could
turn into potential customers.
There is arguably an opportunity here where stadiumnaming rights are concerned: the majority of top
European teams are not maximizing the potential
income a stadium sponsor could bring, meaning
brands have the opportunity to be the first throughthe door and create a long-lasting relationship witha major club.

Conclusion
The monetisation of stadium naming rights is agood investment opportunity that allows footballclubs to access additional sources of funding.
In addition, renovated or newly built stadiums are
better positioned to take advantage of a namingright sponsor and can assist with other commercial
activities to further develop real estate activity
close to the stadiums.

Limitations of the Study
The analysis and estimates presented in thisstudy are based on extensive research on publicly
available secondary sources of information. We
have not undertaken any independent verificationor carried out any due diligence on the data usedor considered, nor have we verified its factual
accuracy in the current context.
The conclusions provided in this study shall not be
construed as marketing advice and the valuations
provided in the study shall not be used for any
purpose other than general research and media
consumption. Kroll and its affiliates expressly
disclaim all liability for any loss or damage ofwhatever kind that may arise from any person
acting on any information and opinions or analyses
relating to the valuations contained in this study.
The valuation of intangible assets is not a precise
science and the conclusions arrived at in manycases will of necessity be subjective and dependent
on the exercise of individual judgment. There is
therefore no indisputable single value, and wenormally express our opinion on the value as fallingwithin a likely range. Others may place a different
value on the various rights.

1

All trademarks, trade names, or logos referenced
herein are the property of the respective companies
and owners.

Methodology
Kroll’s Valuation Advisory Services team conducted
this research in Q1 2024. The valuation metrics
include publicly available information on shirt sponsor
and technical partner values, social media
followers, television rights and current naming values
in addition to team performance over the past andcurrent seasons to calculate major European league
naming rights valuations.
Kroll evaluated the teams playing in the major
European leagues, focusing on the top 36 teams
with top performance in recent seasons or clubs
with an important European history.
An important factor for our valuation was the useof the total value of the sponsorship contract foreach club that owns the stadium and has the namingright and value of contract that is publicly available1:

Atalanta is one of the clubs that has the naming right contract but whose value is not publicly available.

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Contacts
Michael Weaver
Managing Director and Financial
Advisory Services Leader for
EMEA, Latin America and APAC
michael.weaver@kroll.com

Enrico Rovere
Managing Director and Headof Business and Intangible Asset
Valuation in Italy
enrico.rovere@kroll.com

Marc Broekema
Managing Director and Co-Headof the Netherlands Valuation
Advisory Services Practicemarc.broekema@kroll.com

Alexander BregonjeManaging Director and Co-Headof the Netherlands Valuation
Advisory Services Practicealexander.bregonje@kroll.com

Javier Zoido
Managing Director and Headof the Valuation Advisory
Services Practice in Iberia
and Latin America
javier.zoido@kroll.com

Ingo Schneemann
Managing Director of theValuation Advisory Services
Practice in Germany
ingo.schneemann@kroll.com

Niall Cribben
Managing Director and Head of
the Valuation Advisory Services
Practice in Irelandniall.cribben@kroll.com

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