Euro 2016 is about to be the most profitable ever.
According to FIFA, Euro 2016 Will Make More Money Than any other tournament ever before.
Every game in Euro 2016 is expected to draw more TV viewers than the American Super-Bowl!
UEFA expects about 43 percent revenue growth over 2012.
Euro 2016 begins today in France, and it will be the biggest in the tournament’s history, with more teams, more games and more host cities.
For UEFA, all that adds up to more money. The organization expects to make 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in revenue, up from the 1.4 billion euro it made four years ago when Poland and Ukraine were host to 16 teams.
The European Championship has long been second only to the World Cup in popularity and revenue. Now with teams from 24 countries participating, there are more tickets to sell, and television rights for the tournament fetched about 1.05 billion euros, a 25 percent increase over 2012.
Sponsorships are up 40 percent, to about 450 million euros, according to UEFA’s marketing director for the soccer body. Ticket sales make up the rest.
Behind the billion-euro broadcasting revenue is a TV audience of 130 million for the early games as the audience will grow to 300 million by the June 10 final at the Stade de France in Paris.
In contrast, Super Bowl 50 in February drew about 110 million viewers. “We will deliver 51 Super Bowls in the next month,” said Epstein, UEFA’s marketing director.
Sales of 2.5 million tickets, a million more than were available in 2012, will make up the rest of Euro 2016 income. Epstein said UEFA expects a sellout, though it has released to the public some of the tickets set aside for companies entertaining clients.
Bringing the tournament to one of Europe’s biggest economies for the first time since 1996 has bolstered sponsorships, up 40 percent since 2012. The roster includes usual soccer sponsors like Adidas AG, The Coca-Cola Co. and Carlsberg A/S. The Danish brewer in particular has made the Euro a centerpiece of its summer marketing, spending as much as 80 million euros on the tournament.
For France as a whole, the tournament is a drop in the bucket. Academics at the Centre for the Law and Economics of Sport in Limoges, France, estimate that it will generate an economic impact of 1.3 billion euros, mostly from fan spending. Another 1.7 billion euros has been spent on the stadiums being used for the event.
