Tottenham think they have taken the lead… but the flag is up.
The visitors work the corner well and the ball is whipped into the back post for Cristian Romero to head home.
But the defender is miles offside, it’s not even close. He is in a different postcode.
In most respects, the ownership styles of Tottenham’s Daniel Levy and Chelsea’s Todd Boehly could not be more different, but they are closely aligned on one thing.
Levy is one of the most conservative and successful owners in Premier League history, relative to the amount that his ENIC group have invested at least.Boehly meanwhile, who became the public face of Chelsea following his takeover with Clearlake Capital two years ago, is anything but conservative.He has pumped billions into the club for new signings, most of whom have been demonstrably unsuccessful.In fact, according to a study from industry experts Sports Business Institute Barcelona, Chelsea earn 20 pence more per fan each match.
Spurs and Chelsea earn far more than any other Premier League side in this metric, squeezing £100.50 and £100.70 per fan on each matchday respectively.
Chelsea’s ultimate ambition is to either expand Stamford Bridge ore move to another site altogether in order to increase their overall matchday income total.
Analysis suggests that Chelsea‘s amortisation bill (how clubs account for transfers over a period of years) will hit £250m this season and remain that high for years to come.
That will shackle the club with big Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR, formerly FFP) issues – unless they can continue to pull rabbits out of the hat with loophole-busting workarounds.
It is more likely, however, that they will need to find some way to dramatically increase revenue to offset costs.
And matchday income is one way that both Chelsea and Spurs are targeting.The North London have the obvious edge over Chelsea in that they have a far bigger stadium.
Tottenham’s matchday income was £118m in 2022-23, the last financial year on record, while Chelsea’s was far behind at £76.5m.
However, in terms of the amount of cash they generated per fan, per matchday, there is almost parity between the two sides.
Chelsea’s spending may give the impression that they have endless cash to burn, but that may not be the case for long as PSR catches up with them.
With the Premier League expected to move to a new system that limits clubs to spending 85 per cent of revenue on wages, transfers and agents fees, Chelsea’s spending power will be anchored.Their revenue was £512m in 2022-23, compared to Spurs’ total of £550m.
That would give them respective PSR budgets of £435.2m and £467.5m respectively, and the net would be even tighter for Chelsea under UEFA’s 70 per cent limit.