The anticipated upcoming change in the Premier League’s financial model from the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) to a Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) system makes the nature of revenue, and specifically matchday revenue and commercial income like food and beverage (F&B), far more critical.
Here’s what I think is happening regarding Everton’s catering model, the new stadium, and the impact of the proposed new financial rules on Everton’s finances going forward:
The New Catering Model at Hill Dickinson Stadium
While the 2023-24 Annual Report and Accounts for Everton FC Co Ltd confirmed the outsourced model for the provision of food and beverage at Goodison Park, subsequent announcements reveal that the club is continuing with an outsourced partnership for the new Hill Dickinson Stadium, but with a drastically different focus on scale and technology.
Everton secured a long-term partnership with Aramark UK, naming them the Official Culinary Experience Partner of Hill Dickinson Stadium. This shows that the F&B operation is not being brought in-house, but will continue to be managed by Aramark.
The partnership’s goal is explicitly to deliver “world-class food, drink and experiences” and to revolutionise fan experience with a focus on speed of service and quality to maximize commercial revenue. I wonder how that’s going down at the HD?
The stadium boasts what they are calling “frictionless” operations to reduce queuing, including “Just Walk Out” technology (branded as ‘Through Pass’ at the stadium) and self-service beer systems (EBars). This investment in rapid service is a direct way to maximize sales volume and, consequently, revenue per match.
In addition, the agreement with Aramark covers non-matchday events (concerts, cultural events), turning the stadium into a year-round revenue generator for F&B.
Impact on the New Squad Cost Ratio (SCR)
The continued outsourced model, combined with the new financial rules, has a massive, two-fold impact on Everton’s future financial health:
1. The F&B Outsourcing and Wage-to-Turnover Ratio
Under the current PSR and the proposed Squad Cost Ratio (SCR), revenue is key. The traditional accounting method for an outsourced F&B model (like Everton’s) means that the Club only records the profit share or commission from the catering operation as revenue.
For example, if the catering operation makes £100M in sales but the club only receives a 15% commission, the club records £15M in revenue. Whereas, if the operation were in-house, the club would record the entire £100m in gross sales as revenue, but would also record all the staff and operating costs.
The new SCR approach limits spending (wages, transfers, agent fees) to 70% to 85% of revenue. By keeping F&B outsourced, Everton’s reported total revenue is lower, which theoretically reduces the total amount of how much they can spend on their squad.
While the outsourced model at Goodison Park was cited as inflating the old Wage-to-Turnover ratio, it could still be technically simpler under the new SCR model as it keeps all catering-related employee wages off the club’s books (they are Aramark’s staff wages). However, the major downside is that it restricts the club’s total available revenue, thereby reducing their potential SCR spending cap.
2. The New Stadium Revenue and the SCR Uplift
The true financial benefit comes from the massive increase in F&B and Hospitality volume generated by the new stadium itself.
The 2023-24 accounts noted that Everton’s matchday revenue was only £19.1M. With the new stadium’s increased capacity, premium offerings, and frictionless technology, the club expects a substantial increase in matchday revenue, which will feed directly into the top-line revenue for the SCR calculation.
The new stadium is viewed as a game changer for the club’s commercial revenue, which includes the F&B partnership, plus naming rights (Hill Dickinson Stadium), and other non-matchday income. This increase in commercial revenue will also directly raise the ceiling of the club’s SCR spending cap going forward.
In essence, the move to Hill Dickinson Stadium is designed to rapidly increase the denominator (Revenue) in the Squad Cost Ratio [= Squad Costs ÷ Revenue] calculation, giving the club significantly more financial headroom to spend on player wages and transfer amortisation without breaching the new limits.
So stay a while, eat, drink and be merry at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, safe in the knowledge that you will be playing your part in this important increased revenue stream that should translate to a stronger position for the club in future transfer negotiations and squad building recruitment!
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()
Posted
21/11/2025 at
19:10:54
There was a flurry of comments about the new stadium around the first couple of home matches, it would be nice to see a dedicated thread about impressions (good and bad) of the place from attendees now that they’ve been there a few times.
Posted
22/11/2025 at
07:31:16
MK, you say the Club only records the ‘profit share / commission’ as revenue. I would have thought we could be renting the spaces to Aramark AND take a 15% cut of profits thereby creating a fixed income as well as a variable one?
And is Aramark the whole content provider doing it all in-house? Or are they a management company that bids out the various spaces to different outlets to diversify the F&B offerings?
It will be intetesting to see if the accounts record the various matchday revenues as separate categories to evaluate revenue effectiveness.
Posted
22/11/2025 at
07:53:42
Describing SCR from Paul Kossoff’s thread about clubs voting not to sell assets to themselves.
So this would mean earnings from non- football related events, like concerts, rugby matches, conferences, weddings etc. will not count as revenue in the SCR calculation?
Posted
22/11/2025 at
21:23:18
A lot of cogent questions there… I’m not sure if the details of the Amarak arrangement have been made public but I doubt it.
The rhetoric quoted in the pieces referenced would suggest that Aramark have the whole operation… but I can see that could easily involve subbing individual parts to separate operators. I just don’t know.
I doubt that you’ll get much if any kind of breakdown in the Annual Accounts. This is what it looked like last season:
Other commercial activities — includes revenue received from hospitality, catering, events and all other revenue sources
They also said this, which I may have put up recently on a different thread… I think my mind is going!
The club’s total wage to turnover ratio has decreased from 92% in 2022-23 to 84% in 2023-24. The club remains focused on continuing to reduce the wage-to-turnover ratio, whilst also ensuring that the men’s senior first team squad remains as competitive as possible.
As in previous years, the ongoing outsourcing of the Club’s retail and catering operations, which reduces turnover (and costs) when comparing to other clubs who manage these functions in-house, also results in an artificially inflated wage-to-turnover ratio. The club’s total wage-to-turnover ratio would decrease accordingly from 89% in 2022-23 to 81% in 2023-24 if retail and catering operations were not outsourced.
–
Posted
23/11/2025 at
00:13:13
But there would still need to be figures available to ensure no double dipping.
Posted
23/11/2025 at
10:27:10
I did comment on another thread a few days ago saying that the revenue for food and drink must have gone through the roof since moving from Goodison Park to Hill Dickenson Stadium.
But as we have outsourced the food and drink, it means we will only get a small percentage of the profit from food and drink. As you point out, Michael, with the change from PSR to SCR, the money made from food and drink will play a much bigger part.
Seems when I get to the stadium 40 minutes before kick-off everybody seems to be eating or drinking and the same at half-time. I don’t know how long the outsourcing contract is but maybe the club might take it back in-house when it finishes if the profits are going to play a big part in SCR.
How to get rid of these ads and support TW
© ToffeeWeb
Source link
Add Comment