More than 64,500 spectators for a Europa League match, in the middle of the week and at an unusual time, 6:45 p.m. This is the feat that Olympique de Marseille will achieve for the reception of AEK Athens this Thursday, enough to establish a new attendance record at the Vélodrome stadium for a European Cup match. It follows the one against Brighton, three weeks ago with its 63,465 supporters, and is part of the incredible series of 26 consecutive sold-out matches, for the reception of Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday (8:45 p.m.).
If the “context” of the match, “in the middle of school holidays” and “in a pivotal sporting period with the reception of Lyon after the defeat of Nice”, is one of the explanations for this record for sports economist Lionel Maltese , the historic number of consecutive sold-out matches is primarily the result of a low pricing policy in comparison to other Ligue 1 clubs, or in Europe. With certain Ligue 1 matches for 20 euros.
Pricing policy and awareness among supporters
“It is a desire of the president, and of all those who have succeeded one another, to allow all supporters, whoever they are and from all walks of life, to attend the match,” recalls the club. The “commercial strategy of Olympique de Marseille, dictated by the LFP with the marketing of packs of several matches”, like that of AEK with that of OL, or the next one with Ajax Amsterdam and Clermont, “ is very clever, very interesting since it creates rarity,” also recalls Lionel Maltese.
From a sporting point of view, the overhaul of the team brought about by Pablo Longoria in recent years with the arrival of players like Alexis Sanchez last season, also attracts people. But “the awareness of the new generation of supporters that the level of their team is more around the Europa League than the Champions League, with fewer and fewer supporters who have experienced titles”, does not is also not foreign according to the economist.
An argument to attract players
As a result, OM peaked this season in 6th place in terms of average attendance with 63,608 spectators per match, ahead of clubs like AS Roma, Tottenham and Atlético Madrid. Which translates into sporting results by third place in the home standings in Ligue 1, with three wins and one draw. “Playing at the Vélodrome is huge,” confided Ismaïla Sarr at a press conference before this match against AEK. Seeing the supporters come to all the home matches, the stadium always full, it makes me want to run everywhere, I never feel tired when they push us. It makes the whole team happy. »
Gennaro Gattuso, who nevertheless experienced the warm European atmosphere of San Siro, has continued to be ecstatic about that of the Vélodrome since his arrival. And this popular support weighs when it comes to recruiting a new player, who will always prefer to play in front of 65,000 spectators than in a half-filled stadium.
OM tackles “no show”
To continue to fill its stadium, Olympique de Marseille has been tackling “no show” since this season, with the creation of a resale platform. “We have a lot of requests, many matches are sold out. So if people cannot attend the meeting, we offer the possibility to others to fill the stadium,” says the club.
But for Lionel Maltese, the issue is also economic. “A person who is not seated in the stadium has a diminished value in terms of economics, even if they bought the ticket. This impacts revenue from catering and snacking, but it also impacts sponsorship revenue. Sponsors want quantity, but also quality.”
Get to know your fans better
And if OM, “which has always been a club that succeeds in generating volume” according to Lionel Maltese, with a good progression “from an average of 50,000 at the inauguration of the new Vélodrome stadium to an average of more than 63,000 today”, as the club points out, there remains one axis of development: that of “quality”, explains the economist.
“Olympique de Marseille still has difficulty knowing its fan base,” he said. I bought two tickets for AEK for myself and a friend who comes from Paris who is a former Marseille player, and OM has a lot of trouble knowing that. However, this is what the partners want. For Parions Sports, the more adults there are, the better, for Uber Eats which is looking to recruit delivery people, the more people there are looking for jobs or students, the better. »
An area of development which would make it possible to further increase ticketing-related revenues, the share of which in OM’s revenues has been increasing since Covid. Which offers the club more latitude to recruit. A virtuous circle made possible thanks to this popular support, which must also be underlined when we know the sometimes tumultuous relations between the supporters and the club.