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12 • Touchline • Issue 17
9,000 fans to its games at the 65,000-
seat Citrus Bowl. City and county officials
approved funding for an 18,000-seat,
$81-million stadium in downtown Orlando.
MLS commissioner Don Garber said he
expects Orlando City to pay the same $70
million franchise expansion fee that recent
previous MLS additions have paid.
Whilst Miami may have the backing
also of NBA basketball superstar LeBron
James who has reiterated his interest in
becoming involved in Beckham’s bid to
return an MLS team to Miami. James, a
10-time NBA All-Star, has a keen interest
in football and already holds a minority
stake in English Premier League club
Liverpool.
Other statistics recently released show
that English Premier League games last
season averaged a 95.3 per cent sell-
out rate, the highest of the professional
football leagues in Europe.
In a report published by the European
Professional Football Leagues (EPFL),
the EPL’s average attendance for the
2012/13 season was 35,903. The German
Bundesliga had a higher average
attendance figure, 41,914, although games
only sold at a capacity rate of 91.4 per
cent.
Netherlands’ Eredivisie premier football
league came third in the table with an
average stadium utilisation of 85.8 per
cent, ahead of the French Ligue 1 (70.7 per
cent), Spanish La Liga (64.1 per cent) and
Italian Serie A (58.7 per cent).
The Eredivisie had the lowest average
attendance of the top six European
leagues in the 2012/13 season with
19,631 fans per game, behind La Liga
(25,464), Serie A (23,603) and Ligue 1
(19,261).
Which just goes to show that the beautiful
game is also big business.
Real Madrid
€518.9m
Barcelona
€482.6m
Bayern Munich
€431.2m
Manchester United
€423.8m
Paris Saint-Germain
€398.8m
Manchester City
€316.2m
Chelsea
€303.4m
Arsenal
€284.3m
Juventus
€272.4m
AC Milan
€263.5m
Borussia Dortmund
€256.2m
Liverpool
€240.6m
Schalke
€198.2m
Tottenham
€172m
Inter Milan
€168.8m
Galatasaray
€157m
Hamburg
€135.4m
Fenerbahce
€126.4m
Roma
€124.4m
Atletico Madrid
€120m
DELOITTE RANKINGS
FOR 2012 - 2013
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5
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8
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10
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13
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