The Money Game: DFB-Pokal Earnings

By: Jan | December 3rd, 2009

   

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They say the DFB-Pokal is the shortest route to Europe. But it’s not just short, it’s actually more lucrative than Europe itself – as in the Europa League. I stumbled upon the official figures released by the DFB for the 2009/2010 season, and with the transfer window set to open again, you might want to get your calculators out and add up the extra funds your club has earned so far.

The DFB-Pokal is marketed centrally from start to finish. So the following numbers represent pretty much all the money there is in the competition – plus a bit of uncertainty over match revenues (ticket prices, attendance).

DFB-Pokal Bonuses
1st Round: €100.000
2nd Round: €237.500
Round of 16: €493.500
Quarterfinal: €1.037.500
Semifinal: €1.750.000
Final / Runner-up: €2.000.000
Final / Winner: €2.500.000

Perimeter Advertising
1st Round: €13.000 (home team) and €9.000 (away team)
2nd Round: €32.000 (home team) and €22.000 (away team)
Round of 16: €76.000 (home team) and €51.000 (away team)
Quarterfinal: €90.000 (home team) and €60.000 (away team)

Perimeter Advertising (Live Broadcast*)
1st Round: €270.000 (home team) and €180.000 (away team)
2nd Round: €324.000 (home team) and €216.000 (away team)
Round of 16: €356.000 (home team) and €238.000 (away team)
Quarterfinal: €450.000 (home team) and €300.000 (away team)
Semifinal: €567.000 (home team) and €378.000 (away team)

* This refers to games picked up by the German public broadcasters. All other games are only available via pay-TV.

The “live broadcasts” for this season: Fortuna Düsseldorf vs Hamburg (1st Round), Cologne vs Wolfsburg (2nd Round), Frankfurt vs Bayern (Round of 16), Quarterfinal TBA, both Semifinals are always live broadcasts.

Match Revenue
- 10% for the German FA.
- 15% for the home team to cover running costs.
- Used to cover costs for the referees and travel expenses of the visiting team.
- Remaining income shared equally between home and away team.

The final is handled separately – no numbers are available here.

Some Related Bundesliga Posts:

Category: DFB-Pokal, Data

   

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Comments  

• Luke |  December 3rd, 2009 at 11:10 am

  
  
  

  Amazing how influential that decision over which match to broadcast in the first round can be if you’re a small club, but I guess you’re out of luck if you’re outside NRW. I’m assuming the production crews work out of Cologne, so it’s no mistake the first two matches covered were in Dusseldorf and Cologne respectively. But, imagine the possible benefit of a televised match to a club like Germania Windeck, who played their opening match in Cologne against Schalke. Which brings me to another question–I wonder how much the “village” clubs have to fork over the city clubs when they occupy their stadia for a night against a big opponent?

  

• Jan |  December 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 am

  
  
  

  The two public broadcasters are ARD and ZDF. ZDF operates from Mainz while ARD is a collective of regional broadcasters with headquarters in Munich. The matches picked this season are actually the exception and not the rule. The rule over the past seasons has been 90% Bayern which has massively upset the fans of the other teams – but since Bayern have the most fans they guarantee the highest ratings. It remains to be seen whether ARD and ZDF have really chosen to make more balanced DFB Pokal broadcasts or whether they’ll pick Bayern wherever they can in the future again.

  It’s been quite common in the past that small teams move to bigger grounds nearby to milk as much money from their draw. Wuppertal moved to the Veltins Arena for a sell-out against Bayern recently. In those cases it certainly pays off for all involved clubs. But I don’t know any numbers.

  “15% for the home team to cover running costs.” – this would go to the Bundesliga club offering the stadium and maybe they make a deal to get a share from the ticket revenues of the lower division team. I think in Schalke’s case, Schalke made a deal where they got all the catering revenue but Wuppertal could keep their income from ticketing…

  

• Luke |  December 3rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm

  
  
  

  I don’t know why I’m so interested in the minutiae of this, but I am The way I was looking at it, I didn’t think the public broadcasters had their own production crews for matches. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I was supposing that they were farming out the production to Sportcast, which comes out of Cologne. I think that Sportcast handles at least the transmission end of things for Sky’s Pokal coverage. Maybe it really *is* as simple as some middle manager saying “hmm, let’s do Hamburg this year”. But with that kind of coin involved, it makes me suspicious. Still, they did pick a good match to show, and I still got to watch Bayern’s 1st rounder from the states.

  True that adopting a much larger temporary home stadium for a Pokal match must benefit all involved, but if you’re a village team and you draw Bayern or Hamburg in the first round, you’re almost at the mercy of your nearest big stadium owner aren’t you? But, as this is Germany we’re talking about, the federation probably has some regulations regarding this.

  

• Jan |  December 3rd, 2009 at 1:30 pm

  
  
  

  “I don’t know why I’m so interested in the minutiae of this, but I am The way I was looking at it, I didn’t think the public broadcasters had their own production crews for matches. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I was supposing that they were farming out the production to Sportcast, which comes out of Cologne. I think that Sportcast handles at least the transmission end of things for Sky’s Pokal coverage. Maybe it really *is* as simple as some middle manager saying “hmm, let’s do Hamburg this year”.”

  Sportcast do the production for every single DFB-Pokal match, so for them it doesn’t matter whether a match is nearby or not. I presume the public broadcasters may want to bring some additional cams to matches – i.e. ZDF also have their own camera crews at Bundesliga matches.

  Anyway, the geographical location of any of the players involved is completely irrelevant. The biz is about ratings and nothing else.

  “True that adopting a much larger temporary home stadium for a Pokal match must benefit all involved, but if you’re a village team and you draw Bayern or Hamburg in the first round, you’re almost at the mercy of your nearest big stadium owner aren’t you? But, as this is Germany we’re talking about, the federation probably has some regulations regarding this.”

  It’s not like every village team does this. Only when the opportunity is there. 90% of the early round games are played at the picturesque rusty little home grounds of the teams. I do remember that sometimes the lower league teams want to give up their automatic home advantage, but the FA has never allowed that so far I think.