MLS setting Holland's Eredivisie as the goal

Ajax Amsterdam

As you can see, Champions League added 30 million Euros to Ajaxs coffers. Without CL, their biggest club takes in roughly 60-70m Euros.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/financials/financials.asp?ticker=AJAX:NA

Revenues( EUR)​

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2008: 61.9​

2009: 67.2​

2010:69.1​

2011: 97.1​

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Net income (EUR):​

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2008: 7.8m​

2009: -3.4m​

2010: -22.8m​

2011: 5.5m​

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Twente expanded its stadium capacity last year to 30,000. Twente revenues last season were 45 million. Only about 2 million came from television revenues. Total tv revenues (domestic league) are just 35 million, even less than the Belgian league. That's mostly because the company who owns the television rights is in turn owned by the eredivisie clubs (and as such is not a commercial company).

Television revenues are distributed on the basis of annual, independent marketing research (by Sport+Markt). The best and most widely loved clubs get the most money.

By the way, the reason why Dutch football is consistently strong is because Dutch amateur football is that strong. The eredivisie reaps the benefits of amateur football, not vice versa.

 

Oh and also, speaking of salaries. The Dutch football association has a financial health category system: from Category 1 (in deep financial trouble, not allowed to spend any money, all expenses monitored by the Dutch FA) to Category 3 (financially healthy). If a club fails to climb out of Category 1 within a timespan of 3 years, they're kicked out of the league.

The vast majority of clubs are in Category 2 (financially OK but room for improvement). One of the Dutch FA's financial health rules is that a club is not allowed to spend more than 70% of revenues on salaries. A lot of category 2 clubs are in said category not because they're not profitable but because they spend too much on salaries.

Clubs desperately want to be in Category 3 because even in 2 they've got Dutch FA financial administrators breathing down their necks.

 

If this is the case, where do the revenues come from? They sell slightly more tickets on average, and the TV contracts are not that much more lucrative. Do they make most of it off player sales? Or do they have another major source of revenue.

 

This 2008 thread had the Eredivise budgets at that time:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/this-seasons-eredivisie-budgets-ajax-richest-club.725733/

Here they are again, in Euros:

1) Ajax: 65 miljoen
2) PSV: 63 miljoen
3) Feyenoord: 45,9 miljoen
4) FC Twente: 28 miljoen
4) Heerenveen: 28 miljoen
4) AZ: 28 miljoen
7) Groningen: 16,7 miljoen
8) FC Utrecht: 16,5 miljoen
9) Vitesse: 15,3 miljoen
10) NAC: 13,5 miljoen
11) NEC: 12,7 miljoen
12) Willem II: 12,5 miljoen
13) ADO: 12 miljoen
13) Roda JC: 12 miljoen
15) Sparta: 10,5 miljoen
16) De Graafschap: 9,8 miljoen
17) Heracles: 8,5 miljoen
18) Volendam: 5,1 miljoen

 

Twente is in a fairly unique position because the club owns its stadium - the vast majority of Dutch clubs by contrast rent theirs. The stadium is a big source of income to the club, the idea being to generate non-football related revenues/non-matchday revenues to minimise business risk. The stadium is home to various restaurants and meeting rooms, and rents out space to commercial companies who have their office there, and to the Johan Cruyff Academy (a secondary school for promising athletes). This also explains why a big part of the considerable profit Twente has made on transfers over the past five years has gone towards stadium expansion (rather than towards buying loads of expensive players). Simply because non-football related revenues provide a much more stable financial basis.

 

Of course it's realistic. I also think it's realistic for the MLS to take the eredivisie as an example. Never mind Ajax and PSV for a minute. The former takes an abnormal amount of revenues from sponsors, to Dutch standards, and the latter is saved time and again by sugardaddy Philips and other investors. Neither are representative of Dutch league clubs. Twente by contrast lives off the community. We have no big sponsors: our biggest sponsor is an association of local and regional small and medium-sized businesses. We also have no massive television revenues.

Twente is just an example. The idea of Dutch clubs in general is to form a very close bond with their local community, extending beyond football. Clubs typically work together with local businesses, schools, charity organisations and the local municipality, taking a very active part in local life. This creates a solid fanbase, and if you have a solid fanbase, as in people who do not just like the club for football reasons, the road to increasing revenues is wide open.

 

On this topic...in the attendance thread we were talking about the MLS median, and right now, MLS' median ranks either 5th or 6th in the world. (Sorry, I can't remember.) I brought up the question of the worst MLS attendance, and how that compares to other world leagues. MLS' worst average attendance at that moment was the Revs. There are only 2 leagues in the world where the worst average attendance is better than New England: Germany and England.

Just an interesting factoid.

 

I loved this factoid. It was a fun one.

Although most it can likely be explained by the yo yo clubs with small stadiums never staying in the top division long enough to expand.

 

I agree with JN about the amateur section being the birth ground of our soccer success. It is also recognized by foreign watchers who from time to time come over to look how things are done here. A scottish news paper reporter who a few years ago travelled with one of the professional Scots clubs during the pre season preperation in the Netherlands was amazed about the quality of the facilities even in little villages of a few thousand inhabitants. He wrote that looking at these amateur clubs you stop wondering how the Dutch are such a force on the soccer stage.

 

I'll admidt I have a soft spot for the Eredivisie, and the improvement of clubs outside the historical "big three" is impressive -- Twente, Heerenveen, AZ, Groningen, Utrecht and even Vitesse. They don't get as much attention here, but they boast new and expanded stadiums and have come along way (although Vitesse has had some tough times).

Having said all that, I'm not sure it's the best model for MLS to emulate.

The Swiss Rambler piece on Ajax, noted above, makes for fascinating -- and troubling -- reading.

http://swissramble.blogspot.com/search/label/Ajax

Despite having the 13th highest crowds in all of Europe in 2010, Michel Platini famously remarked the previous year, "“I don’t think Ajax will ever win the Champions League in the future.” The limited size of the domestic TV market puts a very hard glass ceiling on the Dutch clubs.

http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/michel-platini-ajax-will-never-win-the-cl-anymore.html

MLS has a huge, if untapped, advantage over European Leagues in smaller countries -- it has huge markets to develop. It's one thing to have to win hearts and minds, it's another problem all together when there aren't enough hearts and minds to be won.

 

It's not just the quality of the pitches. The facilities of amateur clubs are heavily subsidised by local government in this country because football is seen as an important community builder. The football club is often at the core of social life in a village or neighbourhood. Facilities at my local amateur club are used and partly operated by a local institute for the mentally handicapped, for example.

The key to success to Dutch amateur football is not just the quality of the facilities but also the density of football clubs (you're never more than a couple of kilometres away from a football club even in the countryside) and the quality of the coaching. Even very young kids at totally obscure football clubs have licensed coaches. The density of football clubs is important because a talent just does not go by unnoticed. If you're a talented kid, you'll get spotted by your amateur club, and all amateur clubs work closely together with the scouts of their local/regional professional club.

 

Well yes the eredivisie will have a difficult time finacially. But the point I'm making is that the quality of a football nation doesn't depend on the state of its professional league. The more money goes round in the premiership, the worse the English national team has got, for example.

As a percentage of population size, only the Germans have more football association members than the Dutch in Europe. Thats people who play football actively, in an organised league, benefitting from good facilities and coaching. The bottom line is you need the kids to join an amateur club, and you need that amateur club to be quality. That's much more important than the quality of your professional league. And I do realise that this is a bit of a chicken and the egg thing...

 

England's performances have been found to be fairly consistent for a long time now for a country of their population and wealth. Yes, their youth systems could improve, but it has very little to do with the state of the Premier League.

The quality of a football nations absolutely depends on the state of its professional league - at least those that are big enough to have major leagues. If you aren't big enough - like the Netherlands - then you export your talent to the biggest leagues. Netherlands is successful because its youth development, coaching and facilities are excellent as you point out, but also because its players are littered across the best teams in Europe.

Wealth has a strong link to performance as well - which is where things like youth structures, coaching and facilitation come into play. Netherlands are the wealthiest country per capita in Europe with a population of over 10m, which partly explains why they've "overperformed" for a country of their size.

 

This article in Dutch has an analysis of the financial situation. Donot know what google translate will do with it http://www.catenaccio.nl/2012/financien/traditionele-topdrie-kruipt-uit-financieel-drijfzand/
Lack the time to translate it.

 

Sorry, it really does not. Talent doesn't appear out of nowhere on the doorstep of a premiership club. Every single talent starts at an amateur side, they don't magically turn up on the doorstep of a professional club.

 

Well it looks like Fox is getting the Dutch TV.

 

Which is a terrible thing in my view.

 

I have nothing new to add, I just wanted to say that I also think "Eredivisie level" should be the short/medium term goal for MLS.

 

Just out of curiosity, what are the top six leagues? England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France..... ? Number six isn't already Holland? Russia?

 

UEFA coefficients Top 10 for 2007-2008 through 2011-2012:

1. England
2. Spain
3. Germany
4. Italy
5. Portugal
6. France
7. Russia
8. Netherlands
9. Ukraine
10. Greece