A respectable club making more money selling beer in the stadium than selling players

Since professional football started in the Netherlands (1956), only six clubs outside the big three (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord) have won the title of national champion. The last among them was Twente in 2010.

Twente belongs to the ranks of medium and stable Dutch clubs, which usually ended the season in the upper part of the table. Only once in the last 30 years has it been relegated from the league, in the 2017/18 season. It was a consequence of very bad business and financial situation in the club in those years. They replaced those responsible for bad finances and managed to quickly make their way into the elite ranks of Dutch football. Since then, they have been progressing step by step. They finished in fifth place last season, and are currently in fourth place. The club has recovered in every sense...

One of the reasons for the financial revival of Twente is the sale of beer in the stands. The club published the financial report for the last season and surprised the football world with the information that it earned more from catering at the stadium in one year than from the sale of players!

Twente's financial books say that food and drink sales during last season generated revenues of €10,500,000. That's the income - now, after expenses and taxes are deducted, the net profit from catering is around 6,000,000 euros! And to make sure there is no confusion, a huge part of that catering is only for the sale of beer, while a small part is made up of the sale of food and other drinks. How much beer is drunk at the Twente stadium, perhaps best evidenced by this photo from 2017 from the match against William II.

From the sale of players in the previous fiscal year, Twente earned 6,500,000 euros, but when the costs of commissions during transfers are subtracted, the club received only 3,700,000 euros. Almost double what fans spend on food and drink.