Premier League clubs

This improvement is largely attributable to record matchday revenue as fans returned to stadia without restriction for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, and commercial revenue also reached an all-time high. Looking ahead, the 2022/23 season is expected be another record year with revenue expected to reach just shy of £5.8 billion as the league’s new and lucrative international broadcasting rights deals commence.

In the 2021/22 season matchday revenue increased to £763m, an increase of £732m on the 2020/21 season which was played behind closed doors. This surpasses pre-pandemic levels of £684m in the 2018/19 season, with average league attendance at an all-time high (39,950) and average stadium utilisation of 98%.

This increase was largely driven by strong average attendances at those clubs which participated in the 2021/22 season but not the 2018/19 season. With fans back supporting their clubs on matchdays and the COVID-19 pandemic hopefully behind us, matchday revenues are expected to stabilise moving forward with projected revenues largely driven by changes in club mix, and therefore changes in stadium capacities and attendances.

Commercial revenue also benefitted from fans’ heightened appetite for the game after enforced time away, increasing by £245m (16%) to reach a new high of £1.7 billion.
Broadcast revenue reduced by 12% (£391m) to £3 billion in 2021/22. This was expected due to the postponement of matches related to the 2019/20 season into the 2020/21 financial year, which resulted in a deferral of associated broadcast revenues.