AFTER the fairytale and fantasy comes the filthy lucre.
Leicester City are expected to make somewhere in the region of £250 million by this time next year following their English Premiership title win, which is not a bad return for their historic season.
The figures involved are mind-boggling. This may well be a one-off in terms of Leicester being crowned champions of England but such are the fortunes available in English football that the club now have the financial muscle to compete with all but the richest of their competitors who, it has to be noted, could not keep up with the Claudio Ranieri’s team this season.
It has been estimated that when the new television contract, sponsorship deals, Champions League payments and the growing global value of the Leicester City brand, they will play Celtic this simmer in the prestigious International Champions cup, are taken into account the owners will rake in £250m in 2016/17.
First place this season earns Leicester £93m. That figure will rocket when the new £8 billion, three-year contract kicks in for the whole league in a few months.
It is estimated that each club earned approximately £54m in TV money under the old deal, a figure will go up considerably next season, and given how many times BT and Sky have shown their games live over the past nine months, you can add one a few pounds. Every club gets £880,000 for taking part in a live match and they will have had 19 live games by the time this campaign is over.
Season ticket prices will go up along with the other many revenue streams. This should be life-changing for a football club that was once described by it’s own fanzine as; “Too good for the second division but not quite good enough for the first.”
To put all that in context, the team which finishes bottom at the end of next season will earn £100 million, while the champions pick up £156 million.
And then there is Europe. Leicester will go straight into the group stage of the Champions League. That guarantees three sold-out homes games which will make them at least £30million.
"The big thing now, starting from today, is making sure they keep hold of the players,” said former Sunderland and England player Kevin Phillips. "There’s obviously JamieVardy, Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a cheeky bid for Wes Morgan and players like that.
“The biggest thing is keeping hold of those players. But, why would you want to leave the Premier League champions?
And why would they leave when Leicester, who had the Premier League's third smallest wage bill two seasons ago, can easily afford to keep this squad together.
They may well not be the flash in the pan so many from within the club would want you to believe.
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