The Pro League has broadcasting deals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, the Balkans, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkiye, across South America and the Carribean, across the ‘Arab World’, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei and others.
Al-Ittihad regularly pulls in upwards of 40,000 fans to games. That’s a clearly heavily supported football club, showing appetite for football in Saudi Arabia.
The other clubs seem to average between 5k and 18k, clearly far less popular than Al-Ittihad but as the noise around the Pro League continues you would expect that to rise somewhat, and again, it’s still currently Luton Town figures.
Saudi clubs regularly go far in the continental competitions, they were already regionally strong before state ‘encouragement’.
Most top-division clubs these days globally don’t make the majority of their income from ticketing. That is only a small part of the pie. It’s far more lucrative the marketing and product sales side, as well as advertising. Saudi, viewed as an institution, are great at marketing and advertising. They are and will shine on that front, no matter what direction the project goes.
I don’t believe that income is an immediate priority for this project, it’s about power, prestige, and status, something Saudi are more than willing to pay for in the medium-to-long term, however, if you consider that income is a priority, they do have the means to generate it through marketing, advertising, and media, and that is the game they’ve been in for a considerable time.
You will see a lot more merchandise for Pro League clubs in Saudi, than necessarily ticketed fans in stadiums. Football shirts, tee-shirts, backpacks, sunglasses, water bottles. Saudi is a typical Arabian market where this stuff just does very well.
There has always been Saudi interest in the EPL and the European game. Saudi has a football culture already. That doesn’t need building. It’s more a case of converting the chunk of football interest in Saudi that is focused abroad, into Pro League interest.
