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For years, the revenues of the largest soccer teams in Europe have been growing exponentially due to ever increasing television revenue.  Since not all European leagues distribute television money equally, or even negotiate league wide television deals, the disparity between clubs in the same league can vary even more widely than it does in Major League Baseball.  The two teams sitting atop the Football Money League, compiled annually by Deloitte demonstrate just how much the powerful club at the top of perch make in comparison to the rest of the league.  Real Madrid, the richest, highest grossing professional sports club in the world, generated 438 million euros (roughly $603 million at today's exchange rates) in 2009/10 about 40 million Euros more than second place FC Barcelona and a staggering 100 million Euros more than third place Manchester United.

Real Madrid had a relatively even split in revenue sourcing among the three main drivers: broadcast, commercial (sponsorship and merchandise) and gameday.  For a sense of scope, Real Madrid received 158.7 million Euros in broadcast revenue pursuant to a contract it holds individually since La Liga allows its clubs to negotiate individually rather than through a centralized league contract as in the English Premier League, or all major North American leagues.  That contract gives Los Blancos more broadcast revenue than half of the Money League clubs combined.  Real Madrid receives over 150 million euros in commercial revenue, one of only two Money League clubs to do so.  It has a 20 million euro contract with Bwin for jersey sponsorship that runs through 2012/13.  However, that contract has recently been challenged in court as being contrary to Spanish competition laws.

In contrast, the highest grossing MLB club, the New York Yankees, made $441 million in revenue last year, $319 million of which came from gate receipts (gameday in paragraph above). That is less than Manchester United, the third place club on the Money League list.

The value of broadcasting contracts is significantly higher in the NFL than in MLB. In fact, the total value of the NFL's various broadcast contracts was in excess of $3.4 billion in 2009, and it grows annually, assuming no lockout this year.  The Dallas Cowboys, the NFL's most valuable franchise grossed $420 million in 2009, of which only $112 million came from gate receipts. Could explain the recent interest of NFL owners in purchasing European soccer clubs.

Tied with the Doritos ad was an Anheuser-Busch commercial for Bud Light featuring a dog sitter who puts the dogs to work at his party.  

For a  contrarian view to that of the "people meter", check out this column from Ad Age, which gave the Doritos ad only two stars (out of four) and the Bud Light ad one and half.  Be sure to check the comments; they're very entertaining.

AEG's proposed stadium is estimated to cost $1 billion dollars and while its site may be preferred by city leaders, whether the city is willing to issue $350 million in bonds as AEG has requested is yet to be seen. In addition, AEG has to convince an existing NFL franchise to move to LA, while also convincing the owner to sell the team.  There are certainly a couple of franchises that have enough stadium issues to be in play, San Diego and Minnesota, chief among them, but there is as yet no deal.  Still, this deal substantially increases the likelihood that a team that comes to LA will be owned by AEG and will play in a downtown Farmers Insurance Stadium.   

The Super Bowl stock market predictor has had uncanny accuracy over the years, hitting at a rate of 79.5% since the Super Bowl began.  What is the predictor?  If a team that is an original NFL team, dating from before the merger with the AFL wins the Super Bowl, the market goes up for the year.  As the Jets are the only AFL team left in the playoffs, investors should be rooting for the Steelers tomorrow to ensure an all NFL Super Bowl.  As a little bonus incentive to root for the Steelers, in the nine years that two original NFL teams made it to the Super Bowl, the S&P 500 was up 17.71% compared to only 10.43% in the other 21 years in which only one original NFL team made it and won. So, everyone should get out their yellow towels and prepare to root for Big Ben tomorrow so we can continue to see our portfolios recover from the Great Recession.