Why TV Rights Matter: A Response

I must say that I am not against the change, but rather think of myself as a realist in saying it will not change. While the other clubs are not as poorly managed, many are buried under such vast debt (considering their poor turnover) that the TV deal would just pay off the debt.

I know you guys posted an article on this before, and used the same guys as a source, but this picture from Monchismen is a good one:

You take the EPL deal exactly how it is, and you take away £50-100 million. That would mean no more Ronaldo for RM, and no more (insert world class player here) for Barca. It would mean similar deals for Valencia and Atletico, and the other clubs would stand to receive between £25-50 million more. That would benefit them hugely, and would get them new players, and pay bills etc, but would not allow them to compete with the ridiculous squads Barca and Real have.

I would argue that Valencia always have to sell their best players, as their £300+ million debt would still exist, and their current deal (£40 million) would not be improved by a large enough amount.

Also I confess that I know far less on this than you, but could Cazorla have moved for money? Presumably Malaga would pay more, and with the CL ambitions, it was too good to turn down.

And as for earning less than Ligue Un, that may appear bad, but France are more economically stable as a whole than spain, and that could explain it.

I would like a new deal, but I feel Real and Barca hold too much power for it to materialise. Of course that could change, but the threat of Barca and Real walking away to form a Super league is more worrying for Spain than if Sevilla lead a walk-out.

I feel you guys should stay friends with RM and FCB for now, and attempt to join any Super league that is created. That would have a larger TV deal, though threatening change now could alienate you guys from such a deal.

Hopefully I am wrong, but I will never be fully in favour of something that will affect my team, as you guys will understand.

they would get a smaller share, yes, but of an increased pie.
Oh, but they might have to work harder to finish in the top two. I get it.

couple of comments:

Cazorla: at least from everything said by everyone at the time, while Cazorla certainly benefited financially from the move, he did not request to move. The deal was done because Villarreal felt they had to sell a player for big money in order to be financially responsible.

Ligue Un: as I recall the real reason for the disparity is that the French league has two contracts with different TV companies, one covering a ‘match of the week’ sort of thing. But I am only half-remembering this, so perhaps someone can put me straight. I do recall they have no “free” TV match.

I would hope the superleague talk is only talk, but while Villarreal deserves a spot in such a league through their results it doesn’t fit with the team’s ethos. And we certainly could not compete with other teams in such a league on matchday revenues—we don’t have that large a catchment area and I can’t see us building a 60,000-seat El Madrigal to attract fans from elsewhere in Spain for a few games a year, even if we could afford it.

I’M SO ANGRY! (Just kidding dudes, GREAT work here, seriously).

If you’d like, Lucas wrote a little jaunt on the subject a couple days ago.

Great work, again, I’m a huge fan of your site :-)

Many of the arguments are close to those I wrote in my article about this

I support the claims, but only to an extent, if you are 100% behind it, why are you not boycotting Real? It appears as though you accept your teams part, though despite the talk, are not going to act on it. I know Barca are responsible too, but I will not say that this TV deal will sort it all.

Add on another £100 million to every other La Liga club, and they do not even get close to Barca and Real in terms of revenue. The £100 million would help, but ultimately, it needs to be invested properly, and track record IMO says it will not be by every club. Bilbao compete, and they compete with less money and the Basque restrictions. It is also about style of play.

While Barcelona beat Villarreal 5-0, that was not a “real” result. Last season it was close, and I thoroughly believe that this season’s result was a freak event, down to the poor gameplan. The league does not have as big a gulf as the 5-0 suggests.

I like La Liga, do not want it to go down the drain, but with all the will, and angry articles, in the world, Barca and Real will not budge as it suits them.

By all means, we can address this, but the point remains, an extra £100 million for each club will still not get them close. Barcelona’s success is built off an academy. That is supplemented by huge signings, made possible by TV revenue, but they pay themselves off with merchandise. At the end of the day you must accept this:

Real and Barca are to of the best squads in the world, and perhaps of all-time. They have two all-time great players in Messi and Ronaldo, and two of the best ever coaches in Guardiola and Mourinho.

That has more to do with it than £140 million TV contracts IMO.

so I don’t think it is about achieving parity with anyone. it is about sharing the revenue in such a way that responsibly managed clubs have an opportunity to succeed on and off the pitch.

Tell me, how are teams like Zaragoza and Levante supposed to do anything OTHER than go into bankruptcy, relegation, or both? They have small matchday takings, they have small commercial takings, they get virtually nothing from TV rights. What is the incentive for them to manage their affairs reasonably, especially knowing the bankruptcy law will protect them in the end?

I stress that I do not want to bury the other 18 clubs in La Liga. But someone has to defend the “Big Two” and I must ask. What exactly do you propose? I’m not saying draft up a huge document, but what sort of figures are we looking at per team, and what figures would RM and Barca get?

Perhaps this will enable me to change my mind, as at the moment, I am thinking that this new TV deal will wipe £100 million from both RM and Barca, and that would be catastrophic for them.

assuming €900m Euros in the pot, which seems to be the amount they think the TV contract can bring:

360m gets divided equally (18 mil per club);
of the remaining 540m,
180m divided according to team’s performance (final standing)
180m divided according to attendance
180m divided according to “popularity of the club” (I assume this would be marketing sales and the like)

no detail on this, but my guess would be it would affect Barca (for instance) something like this:

Barca: 18m fixed,
            league winner (say 15% of 180), 27m
            attendance (20%?) 36m
            popularity (25%?) 45m
total of 124m. Not so bad compared to now. And that’s probably selling them short on popularity and attendance moneys.

Villarreal: 18m fixed, 4th in league (say 8%), 14m, attendance (5%?) 9m, popularity (5%?), 9m, total 50m compared to 30m now.

team at the bottom: guaranteed 18m flat, plus guaranteed 1 to 2% of the others, so probably gets around 22-25m in total. Far better than now.

Obviously if the contract doesn’t bring in 900m, the numbers look worse for everyone, but in theory the big 2 could lose very little while the “middle class” gains a valuable amount to help them survive

the mediapro guys are attacking Del Nido/Roig (Del Nido especially)

here and for the comments as well. Where’s Jiwonsi when we need him?

Barcelona had 2.75 times the average attendance in La Liga, so they would get 2.75*(5%)=13.76% of the attendance pool, some 11m lower than I said earlier.
  (A team with the average attendance would get 1/20th, or 5% of the pool, so comparing a team’s attendance per game to the league average is an easy way to avoid having to add all those attendances)

On the Sevilla site there was some slanging at Llorente, justified in some degree since Valencia signed up to forever be enshrined in 3rd position in the TV money, but not justified in other ways. I think what a lot of fans outside Spain are missing is that several events have occurred which pretty much put things at a possible “tipping point”.
  There is of course the dominance of the big two, but even more than that the realization that the continual clasicós are doing more harm to Spanish football in many ways than good. But perhaps most of all, the economic disaster which shows no sign of being solved soon.

   I can totally understand Llorente not wanting to give up €48m given Valencia’s financial situation. I can also understand his frustration, since the club has sold Villa, Silva, and Mata, and yet are still in the same position they were before—-in other words, they HAVE to finish in the top four. A year without CL money would be a disaster. It must feel like you’re running in place and not getting anywhere, especially since the property market is so bad it will be impossible to resolve the stadium issue anytime soon.
 
   Using the Del Nido formula and assuming the pie of €900m (which to my mind may be the biggest question of all), Valencia would get €18m flat; let’s say they came in 3rd again and picked up 10% of that pot, so €18m; €12.85m from the pot divided according to attendance. That’s €49m, and add to that the popularity bit (I have no idea what that would be, but probably €12-18m) and it looks like Valencia would do much better with this formula than €48m.
  However, it’s not guaranteed. A bad couple of seasons in the league table and attendance decline could make a difference. Anyway, I’m pleased that Valencia and Atleti are at least attending as observers.

Marca is covering it (sort of, making snide comments on the side): Sr. Roig arrived with Sr. Llorente of Valencia. Everyone who had indicated they would attend is there. Mallorca, Levante, Sporting, Getafe and Sociedad not.

or so says Rubén Uría in this excellent piece

reported by our friends at Managing Madrid and here is some English translation of Sr. Roig’s comments as well as Sr. Del Nido’s press conference

I missed this yesterday great piece and great debate. I hope today is the beginning of something very important.
I never that US Immigration would come in way of my football team in distant Vila-real. Cant wait for saturday.