Report: Bayern Munich are losing millions in ad value due to departing stars

Per a report by Abendzeitung, Bayern Munich have lost a total of 8.1 million euros in advertising value. This figure comes from an evaluation by marketing agency “web-netz”, who took a look at the effect of multiple star players leaving the club over a short period of time.

Since winning the treble last August, multiple high-profile players have left Bayern for one reason or another. Some were due to expiring loan deals, like Philippe Coutinho or Ivan Perisic. Meanwhile others left the club of their own accord, or due to expiring contracts — Thiago Alcantara, David Alaba, and Jerome Boateng come to mind. While Bayern have acquired Leroy Sane and Dayot Upamecano to offset the impact of these losses, they don’t quite match their predecessors when it comes to sheer star-power.

How did they figure this out? Well, according to something called “added media value”. What’s that? I’ll let the article speak for itself:

In addition to the sporting value, the players also represent an advertising value for a club - and that is what the stars take with them when they leave. How high this is can be calculated with the help of the so-called “added media value”.

This is calculated from the reach of the players in the social networks and the price that football clubs would have to pay for advertising in conventional media in order to reach the same number of people. The more followers a player has on Facebook, Instagram & Co. as a brand ambassador, the more valuable they are for the club.

So there you have it. That’s how Bayern have lost advertising value. 8.1m euros isn’t a figure that will kill the club, but it does show that the current team has a little less “star power” than previous years, even if it remains competitive on the pitch.

The rest of the article isn’t that interesting, except for the ranking of Bayern’s top 3 most valuable players in terms of reach. In number 1 spot you have Robert Lewandowski, followed by Thomas Muller and then Leroy Sane. Surprised? I doubt it.