How Premier League clubs look to U.S. to raise transfers funds

Does your Premier League club need outside financial help? The chances are, they’re already getting it, and you didn’t even know.

From next season, the league will switch from Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) to Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) regulations, marking the latest shift in English soccer’s financial landscape. Driving off-field revenue to help impact on-field performance has therefore never been more important.

While PSR focused on a team’s profit or loss on all revenue over a rolling three-year period, with a maximum £105 million loss allowed, SCR demands that teams restrict their spending on squad costs — chiefly, transfer fees and wages — to 85% of their revenue. This is the same model that UEFA’s Financial Fair Play employs, although it caps spending for teams in European competitions like the Champions League at 70%.

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SCR is one part of a perfect storm.

From next season, the Premier League will ban front-of-shirt advertising from betting companies. That means 11 of the 20 clubs must find new leading sponsors for 2026-27 when the ban comes into effect. West Ham United vice chairman Karren Brady claimed in a House of Lords debate in November 2024 that the decision to ban front-of-shirt gambling advertising “will mean a reduction of around 20% of their total commercial revenues.”

So where can clubs turn? One answer is found in the use of external agencies to find fresh commercial growth opportunities. It is a commonplace practice in U.S. sports, but it’s been rare in England until recently.

‘The first question is where do I fill that gap in revenue?’

Exactly half of England’s top 44 clubs — the Premier League and the second-tier Championship — are majority owned by American investors. And that proliferation of U.S. ownership has led to teams looking Stateside for fresh ideas in finding creative sponsorship deals.

The U.S. market is still relatively untapped in terms of commercial growth for the Premier League. Industry data estimates that American brands now account for 61% of global sponsorship spend in sports, yet only one in six European soccer sponsorships involve U.S. brands.

Playfly Sports sits at the vanguard of this change. The sports marketing, media and tech company markets itself as the “leading revenue maximizer of the sports industry.” The Premier League itself has now engaged Playfly to grow and monetize its following in the U.S. Industry sources have told ESPN that around half the clubs in England’s top flight now work with retained commercial agencies in some capacity. In 2023, that number was around 10%.

Dan Lipman, Playfly’s co-managing director, Europe, told ESPN: “American owners involved in the Premier League are also owners of other clubs in other sports. Playfly works across every team in the NBA, MLB, NHL, and those American owners have seen the sophistication with which we have approached those commercial revenues: the approach to date, the abundance of brands and connectivity we provide.

“It is not an unrelated trend that as these owners invest in European football, they are turning to agencies. Many American sports executives come over to a U.K. sports game and comment on how few brands there are advertised and how limited the activation is. In the U.S., it is totally different. With SCR coming in and betting come off the shirts, the first question for people is where do I fill that gap in revenue?”

Until recently, commercial deals at most Premier League clubs were driven by personal relationships, like chief commercial officers using their network of contacts to deliver sponsorship agreements. Comparable to the modernization of player recruitment, which has shifted away from old-school scouting to the use of analytics, data can now play a key role in commercial strategy, and clubs are increasingly willing to turn to outside help with this work.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told ESPN: “Some Premier League clubs with large budgets have got into the habit of using external agencies to effectively outsource their desire to diversify income streams.

“For example, Tottenham Hotspur have more non-football events with a full capacity stadium than football events, so how can they tailor these to revenue maximization? Advice on pricing, catering and merchandise sold by third parties — the club wouldn’t necessarily have the experience there because it is still a relatively new addition to their arsenal of tools to maximize revenue.”

‘The biggest brand checks are going to come from the U.S.’

Last August, Crystal Palace announced SunExpress as an official airline partner, the club’s first since 1991. The deal was secured by Playfly, replicating a strategy used in the U.S. of bringing airline brands to professional and college teams. In college football, Southwest Airlines provides extra flights for game days as part of its partnership with the SEC, while Alaska Airlines is the official airline of the Big Ten‘s four West Coast teams.

The U.S. model is appealing because, simply, the numbers keep going up. Last October, the NFL reported a revenue increase of 14% for the last fiscal year. MLB revenues hit a record $12.1 billion in 2024, while NBA sponsorship was up 8% according to data firm SponsorUnited.

“A U.S. owner comes in, they hire a U.S. chief commercial officer who has done it for them in the U.S., who hires a U.S. agency to help them see up media sponsorship, TV-facing signage, and there’s trust,” Lipman said. “That’s how it is evolving.”

Tottenham became the latest club to fit this trend when they appointed Alex Scotcher — previously at U.S.-based sports agency firm Elevate — as their new commercial director last month. Chelsea‘s president of commercial, Todd Kline, was briefly in a similar role at Spurs, having also worked for the Miami Dolphins; Liverpool‘s Kate Theobald was previously employed by the New York Yankees.

The new SCR rules are a major issue. Maguire said: “The rule change means clubs are allowed to spend 85% of revenues on player costs, and so they are under extra pressure to generate that extra revenue because 85% can go on player costs.”

Lipman said: “The commercial revenue for the Big Six clubs is bigger than their broadcast revenue. It is about 40-60% of their total revenue.

“There isn’t a team that isn’t looking at outside sponsorship support because this is the biggest influence they can have. The biggest brand checks are going to come from the U.S., and ultimately that is a relationship-based thing.

“SCR is certainly more linked to commercial revenue because it prioritizes recurring income; PSR is about individual years’ profit and loss. When you look at the revenues, what’s repeatable and predictable? That’s commercial revenue — multiyear and long-term partnership deals.

“When we’re working on a project with a team that could drive them tens of millions of gross top-line revenue annually, that is a significant impact on their budget for player wages, and it will ultimately impact their ability to recruit.”

‘More ads in more places’

The Premier League’s greater profile and global exposure puts its clubs ahead of rival European leagues in accessing the U.S. market. Within England itself, a commercial arms race is developing.

Arsenal are pursuing their own path, currently in the third year of what they describe as a new commercial strategy which includes an attempt to double revenue from second-tier sponsors. Last year’s financial results highlighted the renewal and extension of their Emirates partnership and also the renaming of their training base as the Sobha Realty Training Centre, but their American ownership under billionaire Stan Kroenke will no doubt consider further Stateside options as they arise.

Industry experts expect those U.S. and agency-leaning commercial appointments at Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool will put those clubs on alert in that space.

So how might fans see this manifest in the future? Playfly Sports executive chairman Mike Schreiber told ESPN: “More places for advertising — availability of inventory, whether it is within the broadcast or inside the stadiums. More ads in more places. That’s something that exists in the U.S. and is changing here. And premium experiences for fans.

“This has proliferated through the U.S. and starting to pick up in the U.K. You can reduce the number of seats in the stadium and make more money. It sounds counterintuitive but creating bigger and better seats, food directly to your seat, or a hospitality area, all those elements are areas of change where commercial agencies can proliferate.”

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