Real Madrid has overtaken Manchester City as the top generator of revenue among soccer clubs for ... [+]
Spanish soccer giant Real Madrid has sealed first place in Deloitte's annual Football Money League for 2024 as the leading club for revenue generation, overtaking rivals Manchester City. That is in addition to Forbes valuing the club as the most valuable soccer team in their Valuations List at $6.07 billion in figures published in May 2023.
The report gives Real Madrid a revenue for 2022/23 of €831.4 million ($905.3 million), which reflects a 16% increase on their revenue from 2021/22, enabling them to climb to top spot.
That came alongside a mildly successful campaign on the field, with four trophies in the Copa del Rey, the Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup. However, the side missed out on the two major titles available, the UEFA
Despite that, revenue has increased across the board, fueled by growth in several areas. The only area in which Real Madrid has not grown revenue is in broadcasting, where the decrease is worth €2 million ($2.2 million) to €306 million ($333.2 million).
In particular, there is a 26% increase in commercial revenue for Real Madrid to €403 million ($438.8 million). Only other European superpowers Barcelona and Bayern Munich have higher commercial revenues, with Bayern registering the highest at €419 million ($456.3 million).
Increasing matchday revenue
Another important factor has been the change in matchday revenue. Here, Real Madrid rank fifth with €122 million ($122 million), behind Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
The increase here of 39% compared to last season reflects the club's progress on works which are ongoing at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. The arena has opened to almost full capacity in 2023/24, opening up the lower sections of the south and west stands which were closed in 2022/23.
As such, Los Blancos will be expecting even higher matchday revenue based solely upon ticket sales, in addition to the growing revenue from fans. That will be an important benefit for the club, who are still yet to recover their matchday revenue from pre-pandemic times when revenue in 2018/19 was €145 million ($157.9million).
Third for women's team revenue
Of the top 20 ranking soccer clubs in Deloitte's analysis, Real Madrid comes in at third for total revenue generated by the women's team with €7.4 million ($8.1 million). The figure is an impressive one given that the club had no women's representation until the summer of 2020.
Leading the way are Real Madrid's eternal rivals, Barcelona, who lead Europe on and off the pitch with €13.4 million ($14.6 million) of income in 2022/23 alongside winning the Spanish Super Cup, Liga Iberdrola and the UEFA Champions League.
