🏟️ Your Teams' Stadium is Crucial

Rory McIlroy is my favourite athlete in the world.

I never thought it would be a golfer from Northern Ireland that would make me write that sentence but when I truly think about it, he alongside Lewis Hamilton are the names I choose.

What a rollercoaster yesterday was at Augusta.

Not only did he have many of us gripped to the television, he also picked up a $4.2m cheque for victory. That brings his earnings in 2025 already to a monstrous $13.1m.

Insane stuff from a brilliant golfer.

Today though, we explore why so many teams are spending BILLIONS on stadiums currently.

There are 20 teams in the Premier League. As of April 2025, eight of them are either building, renovating, or planning major improvements to their stadium.

That felt like a lot, so I looked into other sports.

In the NFL, Buffalo, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Carolina are all in the middle of stadium renovations. The LA Rams ($5.5bn) and the Las Vegas Raiders ($1.9bn) have recently finished theirs, both at enormous cost.

Why are so many teams spending billions on upgrading their stadium? And why are so many teams doing so now?

To understand this its best to start in London, because Tottenham Hotspur have built the best football stadium in the United Kingdom. They were so committed to it financially that they famously became the first club to not sign a single player in a summer transfer window in 2019.

The numbers however, speak for themselves…

• White Hart Lane capacity in 2015: 36,284

• Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Today: 62,850

As a result:

• Tottenham Matchday revenue in 2016: £52.7m

• Tottenham Matchday revenue in 2022: £135.1m

This is the exact same in Real Madrid. After just one season, the new Bernabéu has already shown incredible returns:

• Real Madrid Matchday revenue 2022: £122m

• Real Madrid Matchday revenue 2023: £248m

This increase is very important to these clubs because for the first time in a decade broadcast revenues are plateauing across Europe. This graph is fascinating, it shows the revenue from the previous and the current domestic broadcast deal in each of Europe’s Top 5 leagues:

As you can see, in almost every league the growth of the deals have slowed. In many cases it’s fallen in value from the previous deal. All of this money is distributed evenly across the teams in the league so if the amount is falling then clubs need to locate new avenues for revenue. This is especially important in an era of PSR or FFP accountancy rules.

Tottenham therefore, have done just that. Spurs play anywhere between 19 and 25 home games a season. The delta is dependent on how they perform during cup competitions.

In addition to the home games, they have an agreement with Haringey Council to host 30-non footballing events there every season. This means they will likely have more non-football events at the stadium than football matches in 2025. The stadium was built with this intention too. There is a go-kart track under the pitch. Beyoncé, 50 Cent, and Lady Gaga will perform concerts there this summer. They will host NFL matches, as well as rugby matches too.

To top it all off Connor Benn and Chris Eubank Junior will fight there next weekend.

This is why teams are spending lots to change their stadium. When all of these events are staged, Spurs will take a slice of the concession revenue. This is often significantly more than the money they take on a football night and often tops £1m.

They also own the area around the stadium where they are currently building a 30-story hotel. This will be complete before EURO2028 where Spurs will of course host several tournament matches.

You can now see why Spurs “Matchday” income has skyrocketed in recent seasons.

You can also now see why Jim Ratcliffe wants a piece of this action….

The difference with Sir Jim is that his grandiose plans aren’t just about matchday revenue. It’s part of a massive regeneration project to the city of Manchester.

United's matchday revenue was almost identical to Real Madrid’s in 2018:

• United: £144.3m

• Real: £144.8m

Now? Madrid are pulling in £248m. That’s what Ratcliffe wants to replicate. He also wants leverage, growth, and to outmaneuvre PSR rules.

The Glazers still own over half of the club. It’s rather insane that he’s doing this as a minority owner in the company… but that in itself shows how valuable this is as a project to him and his mission.

I will leave you this week with an ask of you. The message I get the most is “I love your platform how can I support you?”

One way you can do that this week is with a RT of the below tweet.

X is the next frontier for me to conquer so with your help, I can make inroads at the same pace I did with YouTube!

Thank you 🙏🏾