“We want a Athletic sustainable, that it has zero euros of loss, that it has balanced income and expenses, that it does not have any dependence on investment funds with leonine conditions or that it has to adopt measures such as selling our best players or putting strange names on the stadium ”. It is the cover letter of Jon Uriarte regarding the economic area. They seek to make Athletic a “winning team” and obtain benefits “to reinvest it in having the best professionals playing in San Mames”. Of course, “without indebtedness”, she clarified in a video distributed by the official channels of the candidacy.
The economic team Izán Athletic it’s made of Guillermo Ruiz, Adolfo Plaza, Xabi Álvarez, Roque Echaniz, Ana Díez, Laura Ruiz de Azua, Ainhoa Iza and Ibon Naberan. The main objective they seek is to “increase income from new businesses” that they will implement without winning the elections on the 24th. Athletic each year there is a difference of 20 million between expenses and income” and it is something they want to remedy.
“It is an unsustainable situation, we cannot allow the club to continue losing 15 million euros year after year,” he said. Square. The “only lever” to raise the part of income “is the commercial part” through businesses outside the traditional models. “Not be in Europe heavily penalizes income, we must establish a strong sports project that allows us to be in Europe on a recurring basis, which can greatly help us to be able to balance income and expenses”. Where is the club headed? The projection made from Izán Athletic It is not at all flattering: “If we continue with the current trend, those 100 million that are in the box will have disappeared. And the 160 million of the club’s assets will have gone to 75 ”.
Obtaining 20 million euros more per year for 26-27 through traditional businesses is the goal that is set “to be able to reinvest them in the sports area.” San Mames must generate more euros for the club box. Uriarte It is ambitious and one of the main challenges it sets is “to have more than 85% attendance” at the stadium within five years. It would mean between 3 and 5 million annually.
read also
Arechabaleta, Barkala and the possibility of getting into debt for the signings
“Athletic will have a great coach”
Increasing the membership base, transfer of the card giving more effective incentives in the fee, loyalty programs for attendance, setting popular prices for children or for people in disadvantaged situations… are some of the measures that will be carried out Izán Athletic if it is imposed at the polls. As a novelty, Uriarte also revealed the intention to “implement cancellation insurance” in the purchase of tickets in case the schedule set by the League makes it impossible for the fan to attend a certain match.
They consider it capital to position the brand Athletic at the top of Europe. “We have to set ourselves the goal of being the great winner of romantic football, crossing borders worldwide,” he assured. Ainhoa Iza at the same time that it affected the sponsors. They claim that there are less valued clubs in League “that have sponsorships above 30 and 40%” with respect to the Bilbao entity. “Our goal is to earn five million more in sponsorship issues.”
Izán Athletic has established four projects to generate income through new business. The University Athletic Cluba training center for professionals Lezama, the agreed clubs and external people. Then I’d be ‘Athletic Studios‘, a content generation and distribution team to globalize the club’s brand. Xabi Alvarez revealed that they plan to make “a series of documentaries for each season.” They want a “consistent, long-term strategy.” The remaining two projects would be Lezama Tech Labwith an open innovation structure, and a sports consultancy.
To put together this whole project, Uriarte has relied on Didac Lee. “A friend of mine of Taiwanese origin and fan of the Barcelonawho was the person who turned the club around and implemented the entire digital and new business strategy of the Barcelona. They managed to set up businesses worth more than 600 million euros”, explained the businessman. They would come with him Guillem Graell and Enric Llopartalso with experience in the Catalan club.
Endika River
