Pre-season football training camps no more?

As a football training matches promoter & organiser since 2013 I’ve seen the business evolving continuously, but it is now obvious it was always supposed to be an external interference to change it completely. 

Austria is the number one destination for summer pre-season for the biggest teams, where near the beautiful lakes and mountain tops the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid or PSG go to regularly. Nevertheless the markets in Poland, Netherlands or Spain attract a few teams. Training camps & matches organisation/promotion is now a worldwide business with teams from as far as China or USA come to Europe. And that all is possibly about to stop.

8 years ago when I entered the business it was already 20+ years old industry with the first professionally organised camps dated to the 90’s in Spain and Austria. Back when I started it definitely looked differently, for example:

• Very few Chinese teams travelling
• Middle Eastern teams had unlimited training camp funds
• Traditional countries, such as Austria, Netherlands, Spain or Turkey (mostly winter camps for the last two countries) were hosting majority of teams
• New markets, such as Poland or Slovenia were almost non existent
• Commercial tours (mostly to the U.S. or Eastern Asia) were only for the biggest brands

There is a bit of a niche or prestige in countries hosting training camps. How else would you be able to organise a match, such as ATV Irdning vs Everton (the result was incredible 0:22) or GAK Graz vs Aston Villa? Or Piast Gliwice vs Fulham FC? Only if these teams come to Austria, Poland or elsewhere. A lot of local clubs benefited from being able to play international teams “at home”, which then meant that fewer teams especially in Austria and Poland had to travel abroad for camps, they could stay locally, benefit the local economy and even save a little bit of money.

Although the current situation around Covid-19 is possibly not going to change too much for Austrian or Polish teams, who could still stay in their local training camps. But who are they going to play against if less attractive international teams arrive there?

Like with every sudden outside influence, there are going to be irreversible changes. So what are some of the new things it’s going to bring:

Exchanges between clubs

• To give an example of Legia Warsaw. Their new state-of-art facility can host a Spanish team of Levante in July, while Legia is going to go to Valencia in January. Costs are minimised, quality is not inferior to current camps’ structure of either of the teams. 
• The economic phenomenon of a shareable economy is going to enter the business. That would allow clubs to spend less on accommodation, trainings and travel and to forge new, possibly long-term partnerships.

Creating revenue streams from training camps.

• Not so long ago only the major international brands went for tours, expecting zero costs for themselves. This trend was already increasing before the pandemic, now it is expected to speed up.
• It won’t be uncommon to see even second or third division teams from the top leagues to get a zero-charge training camp and possibly even some Polish or other CEE major teams to expect the same.

What is going to disappear?

Multiple training camps in each break.

• There are clubs who prefer to spend majority of the pre-season abroad at two or even three different training camps, but for the sake of money saving and possibly even ongoing travel restrictions this might end.
• Saved funds are going to be used to develop the club's training facilities, possibly with an under soil heating system and accommodation. 

So where is the opportunity for agencies/organisers?

• Commercial camps. There will be more and more teams asking for discounted or completely free training camps putting enormous pressure on organisers to find revenue sources. 
• Women’s football. Still to a big extent this is an untapped territory. 
• Youth training camps for elite but also mid-level academies, where parents usually pay the costs.

In conclusion, like with many other parts of the football business, the golden age of training camps is most likely over. Several companies and possibly even hotels will disappear, but the hope is that a bit more transparency can enter the market, in which agencies not willing to cooperate or the ones pushing their product/service onto clients (contrary to tailoring the camp to client’s needs) are no longer going to be around.

Yours sincerely,

Jan Lokaj

Heart of Europe FC