Leicester City can bank £250m from an unprecedented Premier League title triumph
Leicester stand to benefit to the tune of a quarter of a billion pounds after clinching the most unlikely title triumph in Premier League history.
The Foxes, who started the season as 5,000/1 rank outsiders, can expect to bank almost £250m from prize money, a bumper new broadcast deal, Champions League qualification and rising brand value.
They will be due approximately £92m from the Premier League in prize money and television payments for finishing first. Yet next season they can expect that to rise to a minimum of £100m even if they suffer a collapse almost as unprecedented as their current campaign and finish bottom, while participation in next season’s Champions League should add another £30m to their coffers.
Furthermore, Leicester can cash in on their new status among the European elite by negotiating lucrative new sponsorship deals which could boost their commercial revenue by around £15m annually, according to industry experts.
In total, that could mean nearly £250m flooding into the Midlands club’s accounts by this time next year.
Leicester’s existing shirt and stadium sponsorships with King Power, the chain of duty-free stores belonging to the club’s Thai owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, is thought to earn them about £5m a year.
But now the Foxes could renegotiate deals worth up to £20m, according to sports business consultant Nigel Currie.
“The benchmark for top club shirt sponsorships is around £20m,” Currie told City A.M.
“I think Leicester could expect to get a new shirt sponsor for around £10m. They are likely to be able to command higher prices for sponsorship contracts on the fact they are now being seen and shown at 4pm on a Sunday rather than 3pm on a Saturday.
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“The big race between all the clubs at the moment is to attract the foreign markets. That’s where the real growth is, there’s only a limited amount of growth for Leicester City in the UK.
“From an awareness level of pretty low, they’ll be very high and provide [international] fans with a new option to support. Now is the moment to go to the market, and they will be.”
Last season’s champions Chelsea received £99m from the Premier League but Leicester are likely to receive around £7m less in TV fees with only 15 matches scheduled for live coverage compared to Chelsea’s 25 last year.
The Premier League’s imminent £8bn, three-year TV deal also guarantees Leicester at least £100m next season and up to £156m should they defend their title.
Leicester have also earned a spot in next season’s Champions League group stage, for which they will receive at least £9.4m in participation payments – £2.7m more than this year’s entrants.
Yet with further performance-related payments and TV money also to be dished out, Leicester can reasonably expect around £30m from the competition – the average amount taken home by last year’s Premier League representatives.
Although the club has opted to freeze season ticket prices for next season, the club can also anticipate a significant boost from hosting at least three extra games in the Champions League.