The Territorial Power Index (TPI), a proprietary index developed by the RBS Research Center, measures for the first time in a comparative way the territorial power of 12 Italian clubs across three dimensions: infrastructural, reputational, and territorial activation.
Atalanta records 3.8 stadium entries per resident, the highest in Serie A; Fiorentina presents one of the highest Infrastructure Investment Ratios in Europe compared to its own economic size.
Football in Italy is worth €11.3 billion in GDP, 125,000 employees, and €3.8 billion in tax revenues, but less than 10% of clubs own their own stadium.
Global sports tourism will grow to $1.3 trillion by 2032 (+16% annually), with football as the driver of experiential tourism.
Over 5 million spectators in stadiums; the FIFA World Cup 2026 will generate a potential economic impact in host cities exceeding 11 billion.
Italy has great untapped potential: stadium revenues between 10-12%, compared to 20–25% in major European leagues, due to structures that are often dated, lack multifunctionality, and are weakly integrated into urban tourism circuits.
The report identifies four priority guidelines for the Italian system: modernization of facilities, regulatory simplification, public-private partnerships, and integration between football and tourism.
While global sports tourism approaches $1.3 trillion by 2032 and MLS clubs are worth on average three times more than ten years ago, in Italy over 60% of Serie A stadiums are more than 40 years old and matchday revenues stop at 10-12% of turnover, less than half compared to the Premier League and Bundesliga. A systemic paradox that Italy can no longer afford to ignore.
These are some of the analyses at the center of the Rome Business School report “The business of football: between city branding and urban development” by Riccardo Nasuti and Valerio Mancini. To support the analysis, the report introduces a proprietary index, the Territorial Power Index (TPI), built on: the Infrastructure Investment Ratio, measuring the club’s ability to transform economic capital into permanent territorial assets; the Matchday Incidence, measuring the economic weight of the stadium in the business model; and the Stadium Density Ratio, relating attendance with the city’s resident population.
Applied to twelve Italian clubs, the TPI identifies radically different models of relationship between club and city and demonstrates that territorial power is not built by winning, but by investing.
The most instructive case is Fiorentina. Viola Park, with an investment of approximately €110 million, is a campus integrated with the community. With annual revenues of approximately €130 million, Fiorentina presents one of the highest Infrastructure Investment Ratios in Europe. It is the “city-campus” model: the club as a central node of a territorial system.
Regarding Atalanta, the Gewiss Stadium recorded 3.8 entries for every resident, the highest in Serie A. The Bergamo model demonstrates that territorial power can be performance-led, provided success is accompanied by investments that make it lasting.
Juventus remains the most mature case. The Allianz Stadium records €57 million in matchday revenues, 14.5% of total turnover, already above the Italian average. The Juventus Museum is the only sports museum in the top 50 most visited museums in Italy, proving that football heritage competes in the traditional museum market, similar to Real Madrid’s Tour Bernabéu.
International perception influences 23% to 37% of tourism and investment flows. The 2023 Scudetto generated an estimated impact of over €320 million for the city. The Maradona mural attracts up to 6 million visitors per year, with a growth of +144% in catering and +110% in accommodation in the surrounding area.
Yet, the Infrastructure Investment Ratio of SSC Napoli stands at around 0.15, among the lowest. It is the hybrid model par excellence: very high symbolic capital, almost absent physical investment. “Naples demonstrates how the football brand can activate territorial value extraordinarily quickly,” underlines Nasuti. “The challenge is to transform this symbolic capital into sustainable infrastructure.”
Football contributes €11.3 billion to the national GDP and sustains over 125,000 jobs. Yet, Serie A generates €2.9 billion in revenues against €6.5 billion for the Premier League. In Italy, it takes an average of 7-10 years to build a new stadium, compared to 2-4 years in major European contexts.
“Club museums, stadium tours, and immersive experiences transform the facility into a year-round destination, contributing to the deseasonalization of tourist flows,” underlines Nasuti. Stadium modernization is a catalyst for urban regeneration and digital infrastructure.
The FIFA World Cup 2026 will generate up to $40.9 billion in global GDP and 824,000 jobs. Italy, absent for the third consecutive time, observes from the outside. “The 2026 World Cup is a global laboratory of urban development. It confirms football as a strategic tool of soft power,” states Mancini. “For Italy, watching from the outside should be a stimulus, not a condemnation.”
The global market for sports streaming rights has exceeded $12 billion per year. The convergence between football and the digital industry is redesigning both revenue models and fan geography. Furthermore, the dimension of football soft power is measurable: about 47% of the global population declares active interest in sport. The impact of players like Kvaratskhelia has activated new transnational tourist flows toward Naples.
In this scenario, the territorial power of clubs will not be determined by the standings, but by the ability to build ecosystems where infrastructure, urban identity, and innovation converge.
The authors identify five priority guidelines:
Modernization of facilities: oriented toward multifunctional models.
Regulatory simplification: accelerated procedures to reduce authorization times.
Development of public-private partnerships: currently limited in the Italian sector.
Structural integration between football, tourism and city branding.
Strategic planning connecting sports infrastructure with urban mobility.
The Italian case highlights a paradox: despite having some of the strongest symbolic capital in the world, the system struggles to translate that potential into concrete and lasting value.