As the wealth gap between the top clubs in soccer and the rest continues to widen, the majority of clubs have had to be creative in utilizing the extent of their resources to maximize their revenue. One of the biggest assets that most clubs can boast is their stadia: large, versatile, and valuable long-term assets that, when owned by the club itself and not leased from elsewhere, can provide ample opportunity to bring in paying fans.
In Italy, one of soccer’s strongest markets, this is easier said than done. Despite the top-flight Serie A’s positioning as one of the so-called “top-five leagues” of European soccer (and thus one of the strongest in the world), and the presence of many iconic sides, few teams own their home venues. This is due to a confluence of historic, political, and financial factors, and while this has protected the status of culturally significant venues like Milan’s San Siro, it has also seen many of the league’s venues fall into disrepair, limiting the fan experience and stunting commercial growth.
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In the current 2024-25 campaign, only four Serie A teams hold ownership over their own stadia, and among these, only one can boast as being Italy’s most sustainable soccer stadium – Udinese’s Stadio Friuli, now known as the Bluenergy Stadium.
Renewable energy business Bluenergy has long been a sponsor of Udinese, dating back to 2017, and in 2023 took over the naming rights for the club’s home venue, entrenching a partnership that has made the club one of Europe’s greenest, with the supply of CO2-free gas cutting down the arena’s environmental impact.
Udinese’s stated goal of the past five years has been to work towards being carbon emission-free, and, speaking to Sportcal (GlobalData Sport), Udinese chief executive Franco Collavino explained just how Bluenergy is facilitating this, saying: “[Bluenergy’s] provision of exclusively renewable energy has enabled us to reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 6,000 tons to date.
“A major advancement towards this [carbon-free] objective will be the imminent inauguration of our solar park, developed in collaboration with Bluenergy. This initiative, unique in Italy and rare in Europe, involves the installation of over 2,400 solar panels on the stadium roof, with an annual energy generation capacity exceeding 1.1 million kWh.”
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By GlobalDataFor reference, in the 2022 campaign, English Premier League sides used between 17,500 and 28,000 kWh per matchday on average across the likes of lighting, sound, broadcasting, food operations, and more.
Balancing commercial growth with sustainability
“The constant challenge we face is maintaining balance,” Collavino comments, referencing not a dichotomy between sustainability and revenue generation, but rather a balance between striving for ambitious future projects and maintaining the club’s current Serie A standing," Collavino says.
“The challenge is to continue along this path, striving for increasingly ambitious sporting and corporate goals, while preserving our relevance in a football world that is increasingly focused on big markets. However, we remain confident that the passion and strength of our ideas will keep us at this level.”
The main focus at the moment, sustainability, has not, he adds, impacted the club’s ability to generate sponsorship and commercial revenue, but rather “complemented” it.
“When we launched our green policy several years ago, it was built on the idea of involving all our partners in this journey. We encouraged them to take concrete action not only for environmental sustainability but also for social sustainability, and together we created tangible projects,” he adds.
An example of this is the club’s official kit partner Macron (which first partnered the club in 2018), which now manufactures the club’s kits using a fibre derived from recycled plastic bottles.
While this was an adaptation of an existing partnership, the club’s new sustainable focus has opened up new avenues, most notably with Italian vegan leather bag and travel accessory brand Miomojo, which Collavino cedes would likely not have been possible without the club’s sustainable focus.
This has now extended to how Udinese identifies new partnerships, Collavino says, explaining: “First and foremost, we look for alignment in values, particularly a shared commitment to sustainability across its environmental, social, and economic dimensions.”
He also identifies the Middle East as a potentially lucrative future market for the club’s international growth, especially given the region’s recent focus on enhancing its image through environmental sustainability initiatives.
“These combined factors have helped to make Udinese a globally recognized name, and this has directly contributed to the strengthening of our brand. As a result, anyone who partners with us understands they are engaging with a highly credible organization, one from which they can also benefit. “
Leveraging the stadium
It is not just towards the club’s sustainability goals that the Bluenergy Stadium has been contributing to as of late, but its wider revenue generation. Indeed, Udinese turned over positive EBITDA of €50 million ($56.8 million) in the 2023-24 financial year. When discussing the 2023-24 results in November 2024, the club identified its “diversified revenue streams,” with a particular emphasis on the Bluenergy Stadium, as the key driver behind the club’s economic stability.
“I believe the key differentiator lies in the investment made in our stadium,” he says, continuing: “The Bluenergy Stadium, which cost around €50 million [to renovate], has become an invaluable asset, enabling us to generate additional revenue streams beyond soccer.
“Owning our own stadium has allowed us to adopt a 360-degree approach, extending beyond the traditional focus on sports results. This strategy has enhanced our brand and led to the creation of the 'Bluenergy Stadium' as a unique asset, much like the model seen in the United States, where stadiums themselves become revenue-generating hubs for the club.”
This hosting strategy is already showing signs of bearing fruit. In the 2023-24 season, Udinese generated around €6 million in ticketing revenue from home games at the venue, close to double the €3.4 million the club made in ticketing in the 2012-13 campaign, and on a continued upward trajectory.
Collavino continues: “The stadium investment aimed to create a valuable corporate asset, generating and enhancing revenue streams beyond matchday activities. Ticketing revenues nearly doubled from €3.4 million in 2012/13 to €6 million in the most recent season, with an upward trend continuing.
“Significant investments in internationally recognized hospitality offerings now generate over €2 million annually. Commercially, the stadium secured a five-year naming rights deal with Bluenergy, creating a new revenue stream and strengthening our position in this sector within Italy.”
In 2025, the venue will host its biggest soccer event yet, the UEFA Super Cup, a major spectacle which Collavino envisions as only the starting point of the stadium’s journey.
“This achievement aligns with our long-standing international vision, reinforcing our position at the highest European levels in terms of stadium excellence and event organization. We view this as a starting point, paving the way for hosting future high-profile events consistently.”
As a prelude to this, in 2024, the club agreed a three-year partnership with the Italian Rugby Union to stage rugby tests at the venue, which began with Italy’s Autumn Nations match against Argentina in November 2024, a game which drew over 20,000 spectators.
Though sporting event hosting is a keystone of the club’s future corporate strategy, its foundation is the many other smaller-scale hosting commitments that the revamped venue can now stage. Over 150 corporate and commercial events are hosted at the stadium each year, with the site also hosting office space, conference facilities, and a museum. All of this is facilitated, Collavino says, by the stadium’s “versatile” design that presents it with a comparative advantage.
This will only expand in the future, and after seven years of what Collavino calls “bureaucratic delays” (a common factor of stadium development in Italy), Udinese also recently secured planning permission to engage in another development project centered around the Bluenergy Stadium, with the construction of medical centers, swimming pools, gyms, restaurants, and a nursery within the arena all planned.
“This will transform the stadium into a truly multifunctional and environmentally sustainable hub, benefiting the entire community and positioning it as a key reference point for the city, the region, and beyond," he explains.
“Moreover, this development will further enhance the club's revenue streams, enabling us to implement a range of new commercial strategies we are already exploring, all of which we are confident will strengthen our brand.”
Udinese is renowned in the European soccer landscape for its shrewd player-trading model that has seen it bank considerable profits on well-scouted players that often go on to find considerable success in the continent’s top competitions.
While the transfer market has burgeoned with activity in recent years, the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the ever-changing fortunes of soccer as a whole (Udinese has fought relegation numerous times in recent seasons) has exemplified the need for diversified revenue streams that extend beyond broadcast rights, player trading, and league performance endowments.
Collavino surmises: “[Udinese’s] success is built on three key pillars: the stadium, scouting, and sustainability.
“These elements not only ensure our consistency at the top but also allow us to maintain a modern, ever-expanding business model that extends beyond football, with the stadium as a fundamental asset."
