Como: Building a Football Club Into a Sports, Tourism, and Lifestyle Business ⚽🏞️

The Big Idea

Como’s leadership says the club cannot rely on football revenues alone. With a small local population, a modest stadium, and limited income in Serie B, the club chose to build a wider business around Lake Como, tourism, lifestyle, hospitality, and services for other clubs.

The ambition is to make Como a sports-tourism destination—while continuing to invest in an entertaining, competitive football team.

How Como Is Building the Business

• Promoting the destination: Rather than focusing only on players and match results, Como’s content highlights the city, its residents, fans, and local stories. The executive said annual tourism rose from 1.9 million visitors when he arrived to 5.6 million last year.
• Growing hospitality: The club has expanded matchday experiences by renting nearby villas and a boat for pre-match food and drinks. Hospitality capacity grew from roughly 100 people to around 1,000. Community tickets have remained around €20, while premium experiences cost much more.
• Expanding lifestyle merchandise: Como sells products inspired by hiking, sailing, running, and local life—not just football shirts. The executive said merchandise revenue reached roughly €13.7–14 million, with only about 38% from jerseys.
• Using high-end collaborations: A Como–Rhude shirt sold for €275, compared with a typical shirt price of about €95. Around 2,000 sold in one release; a later charity edition sold roughly 3,000, with its top-line revenue donated to a childhood leukemia foundation.
• Creating commercial partnerships: The club says its newer sponsorship model focuses on helping partners gain customers, not just selling logo placement. For example, an Uber partnership began with less than €1 million in cash but developed into a larger collaboration involving customer acquisition and planned local services such as boats and Maseratis.
• Building services for other clubs: Como wants to become a “multi-club servicing model,” not a multi-club owner. It is working with other teams on lifestyle merchandise, e-commerce, physical stores, and ticketing. Its ticketing platform is designed to combine tickets, merchandise, and food-and-beverage purchases, with a proposed 5% cashback feature.
• Using local retail relationships: The club supplies souvenirs to more than 900 local outlets on consignment, helping small businesses avoid inventory risk while building a network of commercial touchpoints.

Football Operations and Recruitment

Como treats football as both its core product and a major cost. The leadership says the team must be entertaining and competitive, but operate within a planned budget.

• The club developed a playing identity called “Lake Como DNA,” emphasizing attractive football, with Cesc Fàbregas playing a central role in shaping it.
• Recruitment is data-led but not data-only:
  1. Use data to screen players.
  2. Assess behaviour and psychological indicators.
  3. Review financial feasibility.
  4. Check fit with the team’s style and role requirements.
  5. Consult the coaching staff and make a final decision.
• The executive described data as a guide—roughly 60–70% of the process—with experienced coaches and other decision-makers providing judgment and context. Fàbregas can advocate for a player, particularly when the financial risk is manageable.
• Como also invests in player development and trading. The executive cited players whose value rose substantially after joining, including one signed for about €12 million who later attracted an offer of roughly €60 million.
• The club has expanded its academy and development structure. It says it went from no players in Italian youth national-team programmes to 11 Italian youth internationals within three years, alongside players representing other countries.
• Performance is assessed through agreed indicators—not only wins and losses. Coaches submit game plans before matches, while the data team makes independent predictions; post-match reports compare expectations with what happened on the pitch.

Preparing for European Competition

Qualifying for the Champions League creates a major opportunity to reach a global audience, but also brings operational challenges:

• More matches mean less time for training and recovery, requiring a deeper squad and smarter staff planning.
• European registration rules require Como to balance its squad differently; the executive said the club could register only 17 non-Italian players.
• The club hopes to use the exposure to grow its brand, sponsorships, merchandise, and other businesses—but says it will avoid overspending and does not assume its European place is permanent.

Stadium and Community Plans

• The existing stadium is old and has been upgraded in stages to meet Serie A and UEFA requirements.
• Como has filed plans for a new, boutique-style stadium, targeting construction from 2027. The proposed cost is around €64 million, with capacity of roughly 15,000.
• The concept prioritizes hospitality and the lakefront setting, including plans for six restaurants and a rooftop bar. The executive estimated that this commercial area alone could generate about €25 million annually.
• The club says the development should benefit residents too, with ideas including a community health centre and affordable space for local businesses.

Finances and Ambitions

• The executive contrasted roughly €5 million in Serie B television income with potentially €40–60 million in Serie A, depending on performance.
• Ticket revenue was described as growing from roughly €5–6 million to €14–15 million, alongside the hospitality expansion.
• Como aims for non-football revenue to exceed football revenue within about three years and expects to reach break-even without owner funding by the end of the following season.
• The executive acknowledged that the club has spent heavily and is still loss-making. He said Como has discussed its situation with UEFA and wants to be treated like any other club, accepting the possibility of fines if required.
• The family bought the club for about €850,000 plus €150,000 of debt, but has since invested a substantial amount. The executive said Como has rejected bids in the high hundreds of millions and estimated its value could be approaching €1 billion, based on its broader business—not merely its football team.

Key Takeaway

Como’s strategy is to use football as the centre of a much larger ecosystem: tourism, hospitality, fashion, media, technology, and services for other clubs. Its leaders believe those businesses can diversify income and ultimately fund a stronger, more sustainable football operation—without betting everything on on-pitch results.