Financially, there is no parity across the English football pyramid, to put it mildly.
This is hardly searing insight here. Since its inception, the Premier League has become a financial juggernaut, and if you’re not part of that elite club of 20 members each year then you aren’t able to get a share of that sweet moolah that is going around. It is a league that generates more than £12bn every three years from broadcast and commercial income.
The battle to be part of it has led to a domino effect in football, one where the need to be pursuing that success is neverending. Club owners have long plugged the gap, but clubs have had to grow their commercial revenue streams beyond just selling front-of-shirt sponsorship and hospitality tables on matchdays.
As a fan-owned club, commercial revenue takes on an even greater significance. The ability to generate more revenue commercially has a direct correlation with how much can be provided to the manager to be impactful on the pitch. For a club like Chester, the difference of a deal or two could be what impacts being able to sign a player who can get the club over the mountain top.
There are few who understand how Chester Football Club truly works, and the importance of each cog in the machine, than Albert Davies.
Having been a teenage volunteer sitting in the press box at the Deva, to becoming media officer in a full-time capacity, Davies has been Chester’s general manager since early 2024. His remit focuses on the day to day running of the football club as one of the full-time paid members of staff, while it also sees him head up the commercial activity at the club.
Commercial revenue at Chester has been on an upward trajectory. The Blues saw their commercial revenue for the financial year ending May 31, 2025, come in £23,000 above budget after a figure of £258,000 was achieved.
The club’s recent Boost the Budget campaign topped the £125,000 target, and while the continued willingness to support the club’s endeavours by fans has become vitally important to the Blues’ ability to compete, Davies knows that the club has to show up in a big way on their side.
“The fans do an incredible job every year through season tickets, new shirts, Boost the Budget hitting £125,000 again,” Davies told The Seal. “But the club has to do its bit too. We don’t want to keep going back to the same well. We want to be innovative, whether that’s through partnerships or making the most of our facilities. The more we can generate off the field, the more successful we’ll be on it.”
The summer has been a busy one for Davies and Chester commercially.
The search for a new title sponsor for the stadium reached its conclusion after three years, with a community-led initiative seeing it renamed the Deva Community Stadium, with a number of local ‘partners’ coming on board to bring about the desired financial outcome for the club.
All four stands have had sponsorship, there has been new partners such as PW Gates come on board as shorts sponsors, while TIC have become the club’s first training apparel sponsor. There is also the potential for commercial revenue to be earned in the future through the proposed development of a padel facility on the Deva car park.
The washing machines that fans see when driving into the stadium may look out of place, but for a club that doesn’t own its own ground every potential avenue has to be explored and revenue generation potential maximised. Innovation is key.
“To have all four stands sponsored, and soon to be in a position to launch a new stadium sponsorship scheme, those are big ticket items,” said Davies.
“They’re vital to how this football club runs.
“We’ve got continued commitments from Edwards Homes and MetLab, we’re in the middle of a three‑year deal with Hardtech for the main stand, and we’ve welcomed Layer 4 to the south stand for the next three seasons. Those long‑term agreements are hugely important, not just for this season but beyond.
“With the stadium sponsorship scheme, we’ve already got four partners signed up, which is fantastic. We’re three years out from having a naming‑rights partner, and while we’ve been close before, this scheme gives businesses and individuals a more affordable route into sponsorship.
“Thanks to one partner’s generous donation, we’re close to installing LED signage on the front of the building, which makes the sponsorship more appealing and helps us promote everything we’re doing. We’ll be announcing those partners soon, and we’re excited to bring more on board.”
For Chester, the need to keep pushing forward on the commercial front is relentless.
From a reputational standpoint, where once it was a challenge to get local businesses involved in the club due to the negative outside perception, certainly under the old co, the business community is seeing the rather unique benefits of partnering with a football club that is going against the grain a little.
But success certainly helps, too, and with the Blues having made a perfect start to life in the Phil Parkinson era, there will be hope that an additional knock-on effect of on-pitch triumph in the not too distant future can make the club even more compelling.
Have always thought the club missed a trick by not getting adverts/fixtures at the train station, bus station, Town hall etc and seeing if Stokers or Tesco would allow a fixtures board at the end of Bumpers Lane. The footfall/drive-bys at those locations must have some new fans and potential sponsors in them?
Top man Albert is. Works so hard for the club. Delighted the Deva Community Stadium split sponsorship did as well as it did.