Mes que un club? Stoke City’s impact goes way beyond the field of play.

What is the point of Stoke City?

I suspect like many of my fellow Stoke City supporters, I still have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming and that Stoke City FC really is competing in the Premier League for the tenth consecutive season. When we think about the challenges the club faced after relegation from the top division of English football in 1984 and the difficulties the City of Stoke-on-Trent has encountered in adjusting to a post-industrial UK economy, the true scale of the club’s achievement becomes clear.

Against this backdrop, it does seems strange that concerns over the club’s moves in the early stages of the recent transfer window, most notably the sale of Marko Arnautovic to West Ham United, promoted certain football analysts to question Stoke City’s plans with one going so far as to pose the question “What is the point of Stoke City?”. This reflected concerns amongst observers about the club’s willingness to invest a sufficient level of resources in players in pursuit of future success on the field.

A partial analysis of one transfer window is clearly not the right way to judge any club and Stoke City ultimately had a very active transfer window. However, in my opinion success on the field over a long period of time fails to capture the true purpose and full scale of the impact of Stoke City Football Club. As a new report by EY clearly demonstrates, Stoke City has been able to achieve success on the field while at the same time, making a major and growing contribution to local economic and social development.

A source of local economic activity…

During the 2015/16 season, when the club finished 9th in the Premier League table, the club and the tourism it generates directly contributed a total of ￡108 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the region. When we take into account the additional economic activity generated through the Club’s supply chains and induced spending of people employed directly by the club and by its suppliers, the total GVA impact of Stoke City FC was ￡132 million during the 2015/16 season.

This level of economic output means that around 2,200 jobs were supported by the club, its suppliers and organisations benefiting from the induced spend in the local economy. This level of activity also created potential tax payments of ￡67 million which will flow to the Exchequer.

The Club’s success since their promotion to the Premier League in 2008/09 has raised awareness of the club outside of the region and stimulated a significant amount of tourism. During the 2015/16 season 2,400 international visitors and 119,600 day trippers were attracted to the city by football. This offers the prospect of more investors considering the region as a base.

…and community support...

The economic contribution of the Club was also boosted by its investment in the local community through their charitable foundation; the Stoke City Community Trust (SCCT). In 2015/16 ￡1.3 million was spent on the co-ordination of local community programmes and support of charitable entities. The Trust engaged 10,900 participants in community and charitable programmes alongside over 10,000 hours of volunteering.

The programmes offered by SCCT are designed to generate local benefits with a focus on building a sense of community, improving health and well-being and seeking to enhance education and employment outcomes. This scheme includes sessions which look to improve health and well-being, such as cooking or physical fitness, enhancing community cohesion via facilitating collaborative activities, or can be as simple as helping participants to access better facilities and educational resources.

As a supporter this was the side of the club I knew least about and is the one I am most impressed with. It is reasonably easy to understand the Premier League and its clubs have an economic impact but the less heralded community work is remarkable. There is a real value to this activity - EY estimates that the value of the social impact, using accepted social impact measures is ￡14.4million, with ￡11.6 million of this resulting from the physical and mental health benefits associated with increased physical activity.

…creating a wide ranging impact.

While I may be biased, there is sufficient objective analysis to show that Stoke City are a perfect illustration of the potential positive impact that the Premier League can have off the field.

The club has used its success over the last decade to generate substantial economic and social benefits for the local community, adding ￡132 million to the local economy, supporting over 2,000 jobs and generating social value of ￡15 million in 2015/16.

The club’s role in raising the profile and esteem of the City of Stoke-on-Trent and its surrounding region should not be underestimated. This is important both in raising awareness amongst businesses outside of the region and in creating positive examples for young people locally.

The club is aware of the importance of its role in the community and works very hard to maximise its impact. Success on the field clearly matters and is important in ensuring the flow of funds to support the club’s activities locally, but winning football matches is only one part of the Stoke City story.

@MarkGregoryEY

EY’s Economic Advisory practice provides objective, strategic and robust economic advice to inform private and public sector decision making.

We have a specialist team of sports economists working for clubs, administrators and tournament organisers globally.