In all likelihood England will fail to bring football home at Euro 2016, but the sport’s capacity to deliver homes – driven by stadium redevelopment – should not be underestimated.
As ever, it’s about money and land. And football’s ability to generate cash is simply eye-watering. TV rights for Euro 2016 have raised €1bn (£780m); sponsorship a further €400m; tickets and hospitality another €500m. The 2.5m fans expected to attend matches will spend €1bn during the tournament.
And then consider this: Deloitte expects the European football market to exceed €25bn in 2016/17 – more than the GDP of Cyprus.
To prepare for the tournament new stadiums have been built in Lille, Nice, Bordeaux and Lyon. Stadiums in Marseille, Paris, Saint-Etienne, Lens and Toulouse have undergone major renovation. Even the flagship Stade de France has seen minor changes. Some €1.6bn has been spent on the upgrades.
But this is not about preparing for a once-in-a-generation, tournament-hosting opportunity; still more is being spent year-round. More than half of Europe’s top 20 clubs are either actively considering or undergoing stadium redevelopment or relocation, or have recently completed a stadium upgrade, according to Deloitte’s annual review of football finance.
In England, that capital expenditure reached record levels last season, with spending by Premier League and Football League clubs exceeding £300m in a single season for the first time.
Manchester City may not have won the Premier League, but they were the largest capital spenders for a third successive season, increasing capacity by 8,000 seats to 55,000 at a cost of £62m. Tottenham Hotspur – third in the league on points, but second on spend (£43m) – are progressing with a new 61,000-capacity stadium project, while West Ham will move to the 60,000-seat Olympic Stadium next season.
At the same time, Liverpool’s redeveloped main stand (£36m) is due to open, bringing total capacity to 54,000. Chelsea have submitted planning for a redeveloped 60,000-capacity stadium, which will cost £500m by some estimates.
Investment is not the preserve of the footballing elite either. In the Championship capital expenditure increased by 8% in 2014/15 to £53m. In League 1 spending was £21m and in League 2 £3m.
The residential development this investment in stadiums is fuelling should not be overlooked. The biggest investors outside the top flight were Bristol City and Brentford, which spent £16m on its proposed Brentford Community Stadium. The 20,000-seat stadium on a new site near Kew Bridge would be cross-funded by 1,000 homes, with a third allocated for private rental. The club’s existing Griffin Park stadium site would also be redeveloped, offering 75 family houses for private sale and, of course, a memorial garden to celebrate the history of the football ground.
Manchester City’s Middle Eastern backers, through their Abu Dhabi United Group vehicle, are delivering a £1bn, 6,000-home project in the Eastlands area around the Etihad Stadium. Chelsea’s proposed Stamford Bridge redevelopment will include luxury flats. Developers this week were invited to bid to build 1,400 new homes around Tottenham’s redeveloped stadium. West Ham’s vacated Upton Park is being turned into a village of more than 800 homes. The latest phase of Quintain’s development around Wembley Stadium will see almost 5,000 homes added – a scale that has attracted criticism from football purists. Meanwhile, newly promoted AFC Wimbledon’s application for a 20,000-seat stadium – with 600 homes – should sit near the top of London mayor Sadiq Khan’s intray.
Deloitte expects more clubs to invest in stadiums in the years ahead, fuelled by record profits in the Premier League and high utilisation of existing facilities (96% in 2015/16). That creates opportunities for further partnerships to deliver housing and infrastructure.
There is perhaps nothing else that has the capacity to generate money and attention like football. It’s another, less emotional reason to hope for home nations’ success in France: it might even be a game changer for residential delivery in the seasons ahead.
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