Marca: Real madrid's record single-season spending hits €707M, revenue projected at €1.405B

Real Madrid's payroll has risen to the highest level in European football history. The club, led by Florentino Pérez Rodríguez, has earmarked 707 million euros for the 2026-27 season to cover sports salaries and amortization of transfers, the highest figure in the club's history and close to the level once reached by Paris Saint-Germain.

No club has ever invested so much in its sports division, largely thanks to its revenue record also being set to break, expected to reach 1.405 billion euros. According to data analyzed by Intelligence 2P, the market strategy and intelligence department of 2Playbook, this is an unprecedented scale.

In terms of profitability, the club is committed to maintaining profitability, targeting 14.2 million euros, lower than the net profit of 26.3 million euros in the 2025-26 season. However, this target is set without further recourse to reserves; last season, the club canceled a provision of over 23 million euros previously set aside for a land dispute with the Madrid City Council regarding a plot in Las Tablas.

57% of Revenue

This 707 million euros in salaries and amortization of transfers accounts for 57% of revenue and 50% of total income, which is 10 to 20 percentage points below UEFA's allowed upper limit. Even after deducting the temporary impact from long-term VIP seat sales, this ratio will still be around 60%. This transfer window is also Real Madrid's second biggest spending window in recent years, with the team bringing in Yan Diomande, Cucurella, Dumfries, Carlos Espí, Bernardo Silva, and Konate.

The LaLiga club has just completed one of its largest spending summers recently and expects revenue to grow by 4.7% year-on-year to 1.2502 billion euros in the 2026-27 season. This figure is almost double the average of the five seasons before the pandemic. The reason is that management expects a double-digit increase in various revenues related to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, reaching 420.1 million euros. This includes membership and season ticket revenue, as well as individual ticket sales, museum, VIP areas, and revenue from events such as concerts and NFL games.

Friendlies and international matches will bring in 120.3 million euros in revenue in the 2026-27 season, a decrease of 21% due to FIFA's payments related to the Club World Cup. In contrast, television rights revenue will increase by 4% to 175.1 million euros, mainly benefiting from a new broadcasting cycle for the EuroLeague, which will more than double the basketball department's revenue from this source.

Marketing revenue will decrease by 1% to 534.6 million euros. However, the club states that if it were not for "non-recurring effects primarily from a contract renewal and the reversal of a risk provision," it would have grown by 19% year-on-year. In fact, management expects sponsorship contract revenue to increase by 22%, and store sales to be 15% higher than in the 2025-26 season.

In fact, the club has made a significant leap in the past year, especially with the renewal of its contract with Adidas until 2034 and with Emirates, who will continue as the main shirt sponsor until the 2030-31 season. In addition, the club has renewed with Mahou until 2033, added a partnership with Uber Eats until 2029, and introduced Iren, an Australian data center and cloud AI service provider.

Real Madrid's fifth largest source of income in the 2026-27 season will be player transfers, amounting to a club record 154.8 million euros. The club benefits greatly from its youth academy, as the bulk of this money comes from the departures of Pablo García, César Palacios, Nico Paz, Jacobo Ortega, and Víctor Muñoz. The challenge for next season is to continue this trend and keep the payroll within acceptable limits.

Of the projected 707.1 million euros payroll, approximately 40 million euros will be borne by the basketball department, whose sports investment has also reached a club high. The women's team will account for 8.5 million euros.

The club's increased investment in the first teams of various projects has not significantly increased net financial debt, as this indicator decreased by 3% year-on-year to 1.3674 billion euros. The majority comes from stadium renovation financing, totaling 1.347 billion euros; these long-term maturities roughly equate to half of the new stadium revenue.