The formula may have disappeared from the Civil Code since 2014, it remains applicable to the Lay Youth of Bourg-en-Bresse (JLB): “Here, we have a management with a good father”, explains Fabrice Pacquelet, general manager of the basketball club founded in 1910. Each expense is weighed. A sure bet in the French championship, Bourg-en-Bresse assumes a stability that contrasts with the turmoil experienced by the National Basketball League (LNB) and certain clubs.
Sixth budget of Pro A (Betclic elite) with more than 6 million euros per year, the Bressan club has multiplied it by three in ten years. If it does not have the stature of a juggernaut like its neighbor from Lyon, ASVEL, the JLB has withstood the pandemic rather well and the end of the television rights paid to French basketball by the Altice group (10 million d ‘euros in total per season between 2015 and 2020).
“Our model was not based on TV rights, relates Julien Desbottes, the president of the club. We are not dependent on it. “ The television broadcast earned him “Around 100,000 euros per season”. Unlike others, the Ain club has not suffered too much from the black screen – at the national level – which was imposed until then by the absence of a broadcaster this year, but which will now cease with the ‘agreement announced on Friday, December 10, with the BeIN Sports television channel.
60% of revenue from sponsors
On the edge of the departmental road, an administrative building bearing the club logo adjoins the Ekinox, the setting inaugurated in early 2014 with a capacity of 3,500 spectators. Tailor-made for this town of 40,000 inhabitants. Returning to the first division in 2016, Bourg-en-Bresse traces its path in the elite, as evidenced by its last two years concluded in the 5e place, and a qualification for the European Cup during the 2020-2021 financial year, a first for past professional training in 1996.
This European course has, paradoxically, cost the club. In a messy schedule, if the Pro A was sometimes interrupted last season, the European Cups held firm. With the consequence for the participating clubs of not being able to fully benefit from the state aid put in place to prevent professional teams (all sports combined) from suffocating in the face of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The other teams were able to place their players on partial unemployment during periods of inactivity. We were Europeans therefore ineligible ”, regrets President Julien Desbottes.
In this context, the partners of the Bressan club, which represent nearly 60% of its revenue, held firm. The vast majority of the more than 350 sponsors have honored their contracts until the end of the 2020-2021 season, despite the cancellation of four home matches. Divided into three “economic lungs” – a business club, a circle reserved for main partners and traditional visibility through sponsorship – they provide the JLB with a solid foundation. “We are reducing dependence on sports results with economic development that is as independent as possible from this variable”, summarizes the Managing Director Fabrice Pacquelet.
You have 34.82% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
