2024-09-03 15:30:00
The words are strong and chosen. On several occasions, he speaks of a situation of ” crisis » and of « cataclysm “. He is Damien Comolli, president of “Téfécé” on the economic situation of French football since this summer. Without a broadcaster for French professional football and the period 2024-2029, the Professional Football League (LFP) found one urgently (DAZN) far from the billion euros hoped for per season by the body including international broadcasting rights. ” I believe in the DAZN product. We, the Ligue 1 clubs, have a meeting on September 11 with all their marketing directors “, says Olivier Sadran’s successor despite criticism of the subscription price.
The streaming platform specializing in sports and BeIN Sports (which has one match per week) will bring in a total of 500 million euros per season to French clubs. A sum from which a significant portion must be subtracted to remunerate the fund CVC Capital Partners, an investor who holds 13% of the capital of the commercial subsidiary holding the rights to Ligue 1.
“In Toulouse, our television rights went from 18 million euros to 8 million per season. We lost 25% of our commercial revenue in one summer, it’s far from neutral (…) For this season, we compensated for the drop in television rights with the sale of Christian Mawissa (to Monaco for 16 million euros, editor’s note), but we didn’t take over the club to trade on players. This crisis situation is pushing us to look for new sources of income,” confides Damien Comolli.
Despite this situation, the club’s president since 2020 wants to be reassuring and assures that Toulouse Football Club entered this period of economic turmoil with ” a very good financial situation » et « zero debt “. Since March, the club’s financial management had been working on a worst-case scenario with a sudden drop in television rights due to the LFP’s difficulties in finding a broadcaster. Damien Comolli had then set three instructions: do not touch the competitiveness of the professional group or its transfer budget, not to reduce the size of the training center, or even reduce investments in the women’s team. However, he was forced to put the construction of the future TFC performance center on hold in the face of the economic situation in the sector.
Take back control of the Stadium
Beyond an average occupancy rate of the Stadium on match days and a merchandising which is reborn with the new equipment supplier Nike (« +214% of jerseys sold ” according to Damien Comolli today compared to the same period a year ago), TFC is therefore looking towards the structure of its stadium to boost its finances.
“Using the stadium as we see fit to host other events 250 days a year – and not just 17 as is the case today – would change things. My desire is to take over the management of the Stadium,” says the president of the professional club which currently operates the Stadium through a DSP and therefore as a tenant.
As for the question of naming, which consists of selling the name of the stadium to a large group in exchange for remuneration, Damien Comolli admits to having had discussions in the past without making it a priority today.
“Naming is something we’ve been looking at since we arrived. It’s not what’s at the top of the pile today, but it was. We had some interesting discussions at one point but it didn’t materialize. Afterwards, yes it’s a solution that can bring additional revenue for the next seasons,” the manager does not deny.
Furthermore, Damien Comolli was critical of the sports infrastructure of a city like Toulouse. This city needs a stadium with at least 50,000 seats. We have a lack of facilities throughout the southwest of France. “, he said at a time when Toulouse Métropole is discussing a new stadium project with Stade Toulousain. As a reminder, the community has invested nearly 50 million euros in its stadium since 2015.
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