It is useless to go around it. In the next nine months, Serie A will play its own future and the possibility of remaining hooked to the locomotive of global football. The Italian clubs, after two decades of lack of business development (apart from rare exceptions) and a precarious financial balance, have been overwhelmed by the pandemic and have suffered more than others from the consequences of the health emergency. The 2021/22 season that debuts on Saturday at 6.30 pm with the Italian champions Inter who face Genoa at San Siro and with the match between Hellas Verona and Sassuolo at the Bentegodi is therefore decisive.
Lost revenues of 1.2 billion
So far Serie A, as the FIGC presidents Gabriele Gravina and Lega Serie A Paolo Dal Pino have remarked several times, has lost revenues of 1.2 billion, mainly due to the forced closure of the stadiums. Another season behind closed doors or with severe limitations would be unsustainable. Hence the close confrontation with the Government and the CTS to obtain the right to reopen in full. For now, the compromise is a maximum allowed capacity of 50 percent. The clubs hope that we can go up to 100 percent, always leveraging the green pass, already in September after the first break for the national teams. Everything will obviously depend on the completion of the vaccination plan and on the trend of the epidemiological curve.
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The damage of subscription campaigns
In any case, there has already been damage: uncertainty has made it impossible to launch annual subscription campaigns and therefore has stolen an important line of liquidity from clubs in very serious difficulties, as evidenced by a transfer market to say the least asphyxiating. The problem of the integral reopening arises above all for the big clubs that before the explosion of the Covid-19 infections could boast a high percentage of occupancy of the stands (in particular Juventus at the Allianz was well over 90%, with little less of 40 thousand spectators). Inter traveled with an average audience of over 60,000 and Milan over 50,000. For the rest, the average occupancy of the Serie A stands has been nailed to 50% for years, against the almost complete exploitation of the stands that is recorded in the Premier and Bundesliga.
What happens abroad
In any case, in England and France, where the game has already started again last week, there are no restrictions on entry into the arenas. Among the great European leagues only in Serie A and in the Bundesliga will there be limits to the capacity. In Germany, where the kick-off is set for August 27, the capacity will be 50% but up to a maximum of 25 thousand spectators (but in Bavaria it will drop to 20 thousand). The disparity of rules, however, risks creating economic and sporting distortions. Even in the perspective of Uefa matches. The contingent issue linked to capacity, however, should not overshadow the real problem of Italian stadiums, which is that of low profitability.
There is a profitability problem
On average, in fact, the whole Serie A collects from the “box office” (tickets, season tickets, hospitality) between 350 and 400 million per season. The big European clubs individually can count on revenues from these items of 80 million upwards. Without a quality stadium that can ensure extra services and higher remuneration than the current one, high-level competition for Italian clubs is becoming more and more prohibitive. Serie A, with stadiums over 60 years old, leaves at least 200 million in potential proceeds on the road every year. Moreover, if in Rome after seven years the process has been canceled and if in Milan two years after the presentation of the project there is no progress, it is evident that there is an insurmountable “political” obstacle to the construction of new structures.