Cacereño hit the jackpot: the financial benefits of meeting Real Madrid

It seems that Cacereño struck gold when they were drawn against Real Madrid in the Round of 32 of the Copa del Rey. It’s as though they won the Christmas lottery - that’s the point of view which you hear a lot lately in Cáceres, a medieval town 300 kilometres west of the capital where Cacereño are based. Last month’s Cup draw threw up another David versus Goliath contest, this time between 14-time European champions Real Madrid and the infinitely more modest Cacereño who are currently hovering just outside the playoff places in Group 5 of the Segunda Division - the fifth tier of Spanish league football.

Economically, the tie will have a huge impact on Cacereño , who greatest achievement in their 104-year history was spending one season in the silver division, in 1953/3 - as Sponsor4u CEO Cristóbal Quesada explained to AS: “During this game alone, we will generate the same revenue as we have forecast for the entire year”. Quesada set up Sponsor4u five years ago after detecting a niche in the market. His company provides advertising for clubs - among them, Linares and Cacereño, two of the great protagonists in this round of the Cup (Linares face Sevilla on Wednesday).

Full screen

“Agencies like ours didn’t exist previously. We work for objectives. Clubs do not have to pay us any initial fees. We are both encouraged to sell as much advertising as possible. We sign the contract, we carry out the sale of the advertising packages, the assembly of advertising, design of the signage... The clubs send us a single invoice, at the end of the year. A percentage of the profits is taken by the club and the other is kept by us ”, Quesada continued. For Cacereño and Sponsor4u tonight’s tie will be a profitable event - a whole year’s income in just one campaign.

LED screens with up to 50 advertisers

Since Quesada’s company took over handling the club’s publicity, everything has become more homogeneous, greener... Everything is unified. VIisaully, the fans who who cheer their team on week in week out will notice a big difference at the stadium on Tuesday night. The usual advertising hoardings which are displayed around the pitch perimeter on matchday will be replaced by giant LED screens that will illuminate the night sky in Cáceres. “The screens are set up exclusively for the game and are removed afterwards,” Quesada explained. The magnitude of this particular meeting with Real Madrid in terms of income needs to be compared to that which the club gained from the previous round when Cacereño also faced LaLiga opposition, eliminating Girona. “Not enough minutes were sold to make the investment profitable,” contextualizes Quesada. But against Ancelotti’s Madrid, there will be no such problem. “It will be full.” Both in terms of stadium capacity, which has doubled to almost 15,000 through additional stands and in terms of advertising.

Advertising of all kinds will be on display around the Príncipe Felipe stadium. The rate is 600 euros (plus VAT) per minute. As the duration increases, obviously, the investment increases: 2,850 euros for 5 minutes, 5,550 euros for 10 and 10,800 for 20. The most popular package is the economic option - this has caused the number of companies and organizations seeking advertising space to skyrocket . “There is a bit of everything. Normally, in other games, maybe 10 or 20 advertisers appear at most. In this match, people don’t buy more than one or two minutes of the match and we have between 40 and 50 different advertisers”. Businesses who will be promoting their products on Quesada’s LED screens during tonight’s game are so varied, they include local companies that deal in furniture, cured ham to town halls from other, nearby towns in search of a boost to the tourism sector... However, another significant aspect to bear in mind about the Cacereño-Real Madrid match is that it will be televised live, free-to-air by TVE, Spain’s national broadcaster. That has attracted brands including the mineral water company which sponsors Spain’s national team but on the whole, the majority of the firms who have bought advertising are regional.

Tickets sold out

Cacereño are due another windfall from turnstile receipts. Ticket prices for the Madrid game ranged from 50 to 100 euros and by 31 December, the match was had sold out. Since the draw the club has also gained another 600 season ticket holders, taking their dedicated fanbase to over 2,000 plus the extra exposure the club will be getting from drawing Real Madrid. So all in all, whatever the result later tonight, it’s win-win for Cacereño.