The reporter reported coldly Recently, Deloitte & Touche Tohmatsu announced the 2023/24 Deloitte Football Wealth List, making Real Madrid the first football club in the world to exceed €1 billion in revenue per season. This is a milestone number for the world football industry. Real Madrid's season revenue (1.045 billion) is more than 200 million euros ahead of second-placed Manchester City (838 million), which is the biggest gap between the football club's season revenue champion and runner-up.

Looking at all the professional sports clubs in the world, Real Madrid's revenue last season was only less than that of the Dallas Cowboys of North American Football League (1.12 billion euros), and in the near future, there is speculation that Real Madrid will surpass the Dallas Cowboys and become the "richest" sports club in the world - the root of which is optimistic about the money-making power of the modernized Bernabeu Stadium.

The modernization and commercialisation of the Bernabeu Stadium is the main driving force behind Real Madrid's first appearance as a "billion club" in world football. Real Madrid, who won the La Liga and Champions League double last season, earned 248 million euros per matchday at the Bernabeu Stadium, double the 2022/23 season, an increase of 103%. Matchday revenue was the largest growth in the 2023/24 season among Real Madrid's three revenue segments (TV fees, commercial revenue, matchday revenue), directly contributing €126 million in incremental revenue, more than half of the total increase (214 million).

In the 2011/12 season, Real Madrid became the first football club to exceed 500 million euros in revenue in a season, and in the 2018/19 season, Barcelona became the first football club to exceed 800 million euros in revenue in a season, surpassing Real Madrid and becoming the "richest man" in the world. If it weren't for the impact of the epidemic in the following season, Barcelona was expected to become the first "1 billion" club in football.

Unlike Barcelona, which is mired in debt, Real Madrid has been focusing on the renovation of the Bernabeu Stadium since 2019. In the 2023/24 season, the first season of the renovated Bernabeu Stadium set a record for club match day revenue in a single season in world football, not only surpassing the previous record of 170 million euros in Paris for the same season (170 million), but also making Real Madrid the first football club to exceed 200 million euros in single-season match day revenue.

Real Madrid invested 800 million euros to make the Bernabeu Stadium a real cornucopia, paying the price of four seasons of monetary austerity. Real Madrid signed a commercial marketing contract with the American financial company "Sixth Street" to use 30% of the Bernabéu Stadium's next 30% matchday revenue in exchange for 316 million euros in cash to cover the imminent financial shortfall.

With the full range of "Sixth Street" capital, the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is becoming a money-making machine that generates huge revenues every day. In May last year, during the two-day Taylor Swift concert, the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium scored at least 13 million euros, and Real Madrid received 9.1 million euros. This season, Real Madrid expects total revenue to exceed 1.1 billion euros, with the largest increase still coming from the Bernabeu Stadium, where commercial activity continues. Real Madrid believes that the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium can bring in 400 million euros per season, and the revenue capacity is far from the upper limit.

According to the Deloitte Football Fortune List, the top 20 football clubs in the 2023/24 season generated €11.2 billion in total revenue, with record revenues across matchday, commercial and broadcasting, but the highest increase was in matchday revenue (11%). For the first time, the matchday revenues of the top 20 clubs exceeded €2 billion, accounting for 18% of total revenue, the highest percentage since 2014/15 (19%). Last season, many clubs benefited from hosting major tournaments such as the 2023 Rugby World Cup and Euro 2024. Of course, there are many more big commercial events such as concerts.

As a result of the cornucopia effect of the Santiago Bernabeu, half of the top 20 clubs in Deloitte's football wealth list are expanding their home stadiums, while Arsenal, Tottenham, Atletico Madrid, West Ham, Marseille and Lyon are already enjoying the dividends of the expansion, just like Real Madrid.

Barcelona hope that the refurbishment of the Camp Nou, which will be completed next year, will allow matchday revenues to catch up with Real Madrid. After all, the Camp Nou has a capacity of 13,000 more than the Bernabeu (98,000), Manchester United is almost certain to build a new stadium with a capacity of 100,000, and the Parc des Princes, home of Paris, has a capacity of only 48,000, but last season generated 170 million euros in matchday revenue, more than Old Trafford (152 million) with a capacity of 76,000. After a failed attempt to acquire the Parc des Princes, Grand Paris has turned to a new stadium with a capacity of at least 60,000 people.

In the future, it is only a matter of time before the football club's season revenue exceeds the €2 billion mark. At a time when broadcast revenue and commercial revenue have reached the upper limit of the upper limit, relying on home capacity, ticket price increases and matchday revenue to host more commercial events, the big five European leagues will comprehensively surpass the four major professional leagues in North America and become the core growth segment of the most profitable sports clubs. For European football giants, the bigger the pitch, the more profitable the club is.