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Andy Cahill's avatar

Politics aside, this World Cup is a tipping point - can product quality and value be retained when volume increases? Premium hospitality revenue can’t be sustained in future if the show is poor. Also, I’m confused by your numbers, going from 1.8bn marketing rights revenue to a projection of 13bn seems a little odd - figures I’ve seen put Qatar at 7.5bn. Not to be pedantic as it’s another enjoyable read.

Carla Bilche's avatar

Spot on! The executives running FIFA must take this into account: the core quality of the product has to be maintained. You can't rely purely on premium hospitality if the actual show is poor, especially when the sport's core, everyday audience is so massive and diverse.

Thank you for the note on the numbers, too! I focused strictly on marketing rights revenue for the scope of this piece, but I agree that overall revenue is driving the wider conversation. I appreciate the feedback and will make sure to lay out both sets of figures in future posts for better context!

Nigel Appleton's avatar

It will be interesting to see if this growth in monetisation is sustainable through the 2030 event, as Spain, Portugal and Morocco (not forgetting Uruguay too) are no where near similar in capitalist commercialisation terms as, in particular, the US is.

Carla Bilche's avatar

Spot on! Spain and Portugal can probably capture the European market, but I'm not sure we'll see the same thing in Africa or South America. Brazil is the strongest market for monetization in South America, but between the language barrier and a few other factors, they operate in their own market. The rest of the region is highly fragmented in that regard.

Adanna Adindu Isabella Victor's avatar

I wonder what Trump will do if a “certain country” reaches the finals.

Carla Bilche's avatar

That would be curious and highly noteworthy at the same time!

Adanna Adindu Isabella Victor's avatar

We’ll just have to watch and see

Andrey Dino's avatar

Your FIFA revenue figures are incorrect.

Here’s a breakdown of the official figures:

●2003-06: $2.634 billion

●2007-10: $4.189 billion

●2011-14: $5.718 billion

●2015-18: $6.421 billion

●2019-22: $7.568 billion

Carla Bilche's avatar

Could you share your source please? That would be great for readers to understand too.

Please remember that in each bulletpoint I mentioned marketing rights:

"$1.4bn in marketing rights".

Thanks!

Carla Bilche's avatar

It's interesting, because the 2014 report you shared actually says: "The second-biggest source of income was the sale of marketing rights worth USD 1,629 million, of which USD 1,580 million was generated by the FIFA World Cup™." Based on that, my figures are much closer to yours.

I see you often point out mistakes to fellow writers across the platform. While I appreciate you bringing these sources to the table, they contradict your initial comment and don't quite apply to the context of my piece.

I wish you great success in all your endeavors!

Srinivas Iyer's avatar

This was such a great read!

Carla Bilche's avatar

Many thanks for the kind words and for reading!

Fox in the Box FC's avatar

This was an awesome break down! Great series! This whole "revenuemaxxing" is in full effect. There is no hiding this, they are letting it be known this is what the goal is instead of spreading the game. That is secondary now.

Carla Bilche's avatar

Thanks for reading! Absolutely true, the revenuemaxxing curve is just taking off! They are definitely getting more blatant about it, which makes me wonder what to expect next after the World Cup.