I continue my summary of the Champions League R&R document by looking at the financial regulations, found in Sections 4 and 12.
- Basically, CONCACAF controls ALL revenue streams and intellectual property associated with the CCL (Sect. 4.14, 12.1). That includes, but is not limited to, advertising, sponsorship, merchandising and broadcast revenues.
- CONCACAF will control the ticket designs, the merchandising of products with the CCL logo, and the publishing of match programs (Sect. 12.5-12.8). Basically, they, and not the individual clubs, will control everything that is published, communicated, or displayed in any stadium where a CCL match is being played.
- There will be a 'Sponsor Logo Bar' - the collection of official sponsors for the Champions League -- and only those sponsors will be displayed in the advertising signage in the stadium and in the promotional materials associated with the match.
- The home team receives all of the gate receipts (minus CONCACAF's 5% cut) and is reimbursed for costs incurred by shuttling CONCACAF referees and officials around (Sect. 4.4, 4.9, 4.12).
- Teams have to submit for pre-approval pricing plans for CCL matches within 14 days of the match schedule being released (Sect. 4.10).
- No more free tickets to pack the stadium -- now home teams will have to get approved any plan to give away more than 1500 complimentary tickets (Sect. 4.11).
- Also, no promotional materials will be handed out to fans entering the stadium (Sect. 12.16), such as signs, shakers, or thundersticks. I especially liked the 'no-thundersticks' rule.
- The away team is partially reimbursed for travel (Sect. 4.4). This is a difference from the Champions' Cup, where the away team was wholly responsible for its travel expenses, making participation in the Cup very expensive for MLS and Caribbean clubs.
- There are no clauses on how the revenues generated by the CCL are distributed to the participating clubs and National/Regional Associations. For example, UEFA distributes 75% of the Champions League revenues to the clubs and national associations, and retains the rest. That issue of revenue distribution needs to be resolved quickly; if the only money that Champions League teams will receive are home gates plus some travel reimbursement, CONCACAF is wasting everyone's time.
The next part of this series will go into what CONCACAF gets for free from the clubs in this competition. And the answer is, "a lot".
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