Real Madrid - A big club? (Warning: may contain dog pictures)

[red g]

Real Madrid’s income was $260million in 2002, the year before the club purchased Beckham for $41million from Manchester United. Three years later Real’s annual income reached $515million, nearly half of which came from marketing and merchandising. In winning the 2005 MLS Cup, the Galaxy became the first team in league history to turn a profit, albeit in the $500,000 range.

Another decent read.......

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/beckham-brings-marketing-power-to-us-soccer

[Guest]

I dont know why you're now bringing up the source of their money and the idea of them going public about their targets, it has very little to do with the fact that they're the biggest club in the world. It seems like you're now changing the tone of your argument towards this money thing and going public, away from your previous argument about them not being a big and great club.

I now have no idea what point you're actually making, whereas before i knew what you were saying, even though it wasnt really accurate.

But I have never said they were not a great club. I only said that they're aren't Spain's biggest club anymore, Barca is. Pretty obvious no? Barca had a clean sweep of trophies this year. Success is achieved on the field, not in respective bank accounts.

For me, I appreciate Barca's merits much more than that of Real. **** their galacticos, they're an 'assembled' team.

[Guest]

You have tied him into a knot. Let him be now.

I'm still waiting for your argument as to why they are 'Spain's biggest club'.

Enjoy your popcorns.

[Neil Young]

By turnover, support and success, Real Madrid is the biggest club in the world. Real Madrid is in Spain. Spain is in the world.

Therefore Real Madrid is the biggest club in Spain.

Q.E.D.

Really fredo, I'm all for moving on to the interesting issues so how about stopping this "big club" argument b*ll*cks and carry on talking about whether or not their ethics deserve respect or criticism. That seems far more interesting and useful since it's not just an argument about definitions.

[Tee]

By turnover, support and success, Real Madrid is the biggest club in the world. Real Madrid is in Spain. Spain is in the world.

Therefore Real Madrid is the biggest club in Spain.

Q.E.D.

Really fredo, I'm all for moving on to the interesting issues so how about stopping this "big club" argument b*ll*cks and carry on talking about whether or not their ethics deserve respect or criticism. That seems far more interesting and useful since it's not just an argument about definitions.

Now that is an area open to some discussion. I think that Real Madrid is more than just a football club now, it is a Spanish institution, The King's team.

On that basis alone there are numerous ways in which it is able to abuse its position and I believe it has done so many times and will continue to do so.

[Craig_H]

See this is the question I want answered - did it work last time or did it make them go hugely into debt and then get bailed out by the King/local government? I imagine they won't be selling their training ground for a hugely inflated price in the current economic climate.

Well it does generate huge funds, certainly but whether it 'works' or not is obviously dependent on how well you forecast and then execute the amount of revenue generation - against how much money you plan to spend off it.

[Craig_H]

But I have never said they were not a great club. I only said that they're aren't Spain's biggest club anymore, Barca is. Pretty obvious no? Barca had a clean sweep of trophies this year. Success is achieved on the field, not in respective bank accounts.

For me, I appreciate Barca's merits much more than that of Real. **** their galacticos, they're an 'assembled' team.

You actually did say that they werent a great club.

And they are the biggest club in Spain, without a doubt. Not the best club, but certainly the biggest - do you see Barca embarking on a £250m transfer spree this summer?

Footballing merits-wise, Barca are miles ahead currently, but Real are the biggest football club in the world.

And as i've now seen, red g's post has the numbers to back up what i was saying.

Real Madrid’s income was $260million in 2002, the year before the club purchased Beckham for $41million from Manchester United. Three years later Real’s annual income reached $515million, nearly half of which came from marketing and merchandising. In winning the 2005 MLS Cup, the Galaxy became the first team in league history to turn a profit, albeit in the $500,000 range.

Another decent read.......

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article...r-to-us-soccer

That's just one 'glamour' player, if they get Ronaldo to go with Kaka, the effect will be almost doubled.

[dww]

Here you go ..........


Real Madrid's revenue from club merchandise, such as shirts, jumped 67 per cent in Beckham's first season alone, and climbed another 6.5 per cent in the year to June. Overall commercial income, which includes money from deals with the likes of Siemens, Adidas and Pepsi, which have all grown in value with the "Beckham effect", now stands at around £80m a year. Real Madrid also earned £48m (26 per cent of turnover) from match-day income (primarily ticket sales), £44m (24 per cent) from television, and £16m (8 per cent) from promotional activities such as lucrative overseas tours and friendliness, which have also become better earners because of David Beckham. And whereas Real Madrid's annual wage bill (£98m) now equates to 52 per cent of turnover, and is falling towards an expected ratio of 47 per cent next year.
With the financial improvement, Real Madrid is now the richest club in the world, beating Manchester United who won the title 8th consecutive years.


Full document if you can be arsed .......some student did a study on it

web.unbc.ca/~chenj/course/project/DavidBeckham.doc

Cheers - browsed that and basically it appears that Beckham worked but I see no evidence of other comparable footballers capable of the same level of visibility boost in Asia etc. or increase in marketing revenue. Maybe I'm wrong.

Also a bit of wiki-ing revels that the training ground was sold to pay off debts and fund the purchase of the galacticos.

Well it does generate huge funds, certainly but whether it 'works' or not is obviously dependent on how well you forecast and then execute the amount of revenue generation - against how much money you plan to spend off it.

And arguably whether you win ought with the team depending on the definition of 'works'. The last project generated huge funds largely as far as I can tell from Beckham - it's not at all clear to me that Ronaldo/Kaka et al. open up markets on the same scale.

[Craig_H]

I think you're right about the levels of insanity that Beckham brought, and the idea that it's hard to see that being equalled by another player, but if you ask yourself which players would be the most lucrative in this area, you'd have to point to the likes of Kaka, Ronaldo, Messi, Torres etc. Beckham's the extreme and it's hard for others to generate the same levels, but even if Kaka doesnt reach the same heights of revenue generation, he's still one of the best (if not the best) options out there in the here and now, in order to do what they're trying to do.

[red g]

Cheers - browsed that and basically it appears that Beckham worked but I see no evidence of other comparable footballers capable of the same level of visibility boost in Asia etc. or increase in marketing revenue. Maybe I'm wrong.

Also a bit of wiki-ing revels that the training ground was sold to pay off debts and fund the purchase of the galacticos.



And arguably whether you win ought with the team depending on the definition of 'works'. The last project generated huge funds largely as far as I can tell from Beckham - it's not at all clear to me that Ronaldo/Kaka et al. open up markets on the same scale.

although its clear to see Beckham was a phenom and certainly on his own in terms of marketability the money generated now i presume is higher to a few years ago when beckham was there?

Also I imagine Kaka and Ronaldo while not being as big globally certainly Kaka in the south american markets and Ronaldo is in latino/anything gay as ****

[Guest]

You actually did say that they werent a great club.

And they are the biggest club in Spain, without a doubt. Not the best club, but certainly the biggest - do you see Barca embarking on a £250m transfer spree this summer?

Footballing merits-wise, Barca are miles ahead currently, but Real are the biggest football club in the world.

And as i've now seen, red g's post has the numbers to back up what i was saying.





That's just one 'glamour' player, if they get Ronaldo to go with Kaka, the effect will be almost doubled.

So it's all about how we define 'big' then. I see it differently and never wanted to enter this kind of debate anyway; strange that people like to corner me where they want just to prove their point.

Going back to Madrid, read the latest offering from Perez, speaking about how he'd do 'everything' to get Ronaldo. FFS, that's disgusting! There's grounds to sue them at that rate.

[Craig_H]

Corner you? If you want to express some very odd views, be prepared to have people argue with them. I agree it's about how people define 'big' but when such a majority of people seem to be considering Madrid as the biggest club in the world, you might think to reconsider whether you might have the wrong end of the stick on this one.

As for the last point - sue them for what??

I'm starting to wonder if it's 1st April again.

[EwarWoo]

strange that people like to corner me where they want just to prove their point.

Isn't that what debating basically is? Focus the point on what you see as important and force the other to answer the point? You'll only feel cornered if you don't want to answer because you've realised your point is off mark.

As long as you're not introducing the infamous straw man it's perfectly valid

Just an opinion of course.

[red g]

apparently Kaka will generate 70million euros a year for real madrid in extra marketing apparently

[Guest]

Isn't that what debating basically is? Focus the point on what you see as important and force the other to answer the point? You'll only feel cornered if you don't want to answer because you've realised your point is off mark.

As long as you're not introducing the infamous straw man it's perfectly valid

Just an opinion of course.

Yeah but I was replying to Tee's assumption that Real Madrid are the biggest club in Spain right now, it's clear that they're not, but let's not go over the semantics of what being a 'big' club means again. Never wanted to do a meal over this anyway but it's turned out to be because some argumentative ****s wanted it this way.