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Cristiano Ronaldo's Real Skirts Spain Slump With Ticket Sales to Americans
Real Madrid is getting around Spain’s sluggish economy by selling more tickets to watch Cristiano Ronaldo to foreign tourists.
The nine-time European champion got 27 million euros ($34.4 million) in ticket revenue, a 48 percent increase, for the year through June 30 as sales to visitors from the U.S. and U.K. climbed, according to its annual report. Season-ticket holders based in Spain handed back more than 100,000 match tickets for resale over the period, the report says.
Spain is emerging from its worst slump in 60 years with an unemployment rate of 20 percent. Seeking to ride out the recession, Real Madrid got bank loans of 151 million euros to sign former world players of the year Ronaldo and Kaka last year from Manchester United and AC Milan.
“Real Madrid has become a media spectacle” because of player signings, Jose Maria Gay, a Barcelona University professor who writes an annual review of Spanish soccer club finances, said by telephone. “It’s part of the tourist itinerary” in Spain, Gay added.
Real Madrid helped boost sales with its signings since hiring David Beckham, the world’s richest player, in 2003. While Ronaldo failed to lead the team to a trophy last season, sales for the year through June rose 8.6 percent to 442 million euros, according to the report. Pretax earnings rose 24 percent to 31 million euros.
The report is being sent to club members ahead of the club’s annual general meeting on Sept. 12.
Real Madrid sold 15,500 match tickets abroad last season, a 29 percent increase, the report says. Tickets for its next two games cost as much as 385 euros for a package that includes a meal at a club-owned restaurant.
Ticket Availability
“More tickets are available to foreigners because of the economic crisis,” Esteve Calzada, chief executive officer of Spanish marketing agency Prime Time Sports said by telephone.
Fans come from all over the world. In a March posting on the TripAdvisor.com travel website, one called Cendut said he made a 14-hour trip from Jakarta to watch it play Atletico Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
He said touring the 80,000-seat arena was more enjoyable than visiting Madrid’s Reina Sofia art gallery, which has paintings including Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” on display.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Duff in Madrid aduff4@bloomberg.net
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