The European Championships, kicking off in Germany on Friday night, are set to give the economy a £2.75 billion boost with sales of “no” and “low” alcohol expected to hit a record for a major tournament.
Euro 2024 gets under way at 8pm as Scotland face Germany in Munich, with the Tartan Army looking to make it beyond the group stage for the first time, despite competition from Switzerland and Hungary. England, whose first game is against Serbia on Sunday at 8pm, will also have to play Denmark and Slovenia and are among the favourites to be crowned champions alongside the host nation and beaten World Cup finalists France.
Tesco said it expected to sell 33 million packs of beer and cider over the coming month but was also predicting it would shift a record 5.5 million bottles and cans of “no” and “low” alcohol options. Whatever happens on the pitch, pundits are predicting fans will splash the cash for the duration of the tournament, which ends on July 14.
The men’s Uefa Euro 2024 spending report predicts a UK audience of around 35.4 million, with almost half taking advantage of favourable kick-off times to watch from pubs, bars, restaurants and fan zones. That is in stark contrast to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar when just 6.7 million supporters watched from their local venues.
The report, commissioned by savings site VoucherCodes.co.uk, said it expects shoppers to spend about £2.1 billion, with most of the money going on food and drink while watching at home, though millions are also expected to be spent on cooking equipment, with BBQs and pizza ovens top of the list.
Almost £400 million is set to be spent on drinks with one brewery, Greene King, saying it expects to sell seven million pints in its pubs, restaurants and hotels during the tournament and 37,000 pints in the capital on Sunday night alone.
Asda said it expects to sell 14 million units of Budweiser over the tournament, enough to cover 3,000 kilometres, the distance from Leeds to Gelsenkirchen, where England play their first game (if the bottles and cans were laid end to end).
Tesco said sales figures showed beer tastes had changed considerably since the 2006 World Cup in Germany, when 80 per cent of all beer sold by the retail trade was lager.
Violetta Njunina, from research consultancy CGA, said the tournament would bring “great opportunities for pubs, bars and drinks suppliers” but warned that venues would have to find “right formula of value and atmosphere to tempt sports fans out of home”. About 300,000 England fans are expected to travel to Germany to support the team with a total of 2.7 million supporters of the 24 sides expected to go through the turnstiles across 10 stadiums, with around 12 million expected to flock to fan zones.
Some of those travelling fans will be partly responsible for the cash registers already ringing with sales of football shirts and team merchandise, which increased by 115 per cent last month compared with a usual May, according to research by Adobe Analytics.Anita Naik, from VoucherCodes.co.uk, said the spending figures proved “people are still willing to cheer on the team” despite the cost-of-living crisis.
Broadcasters will also be hoping for a successful tournament with the BBC coverage, led by Gary Lineker, including England’s first game.
ITV’s coverage, helmed by Laura Woods with pundits including former Match of the Day veteran Ian Wright, will carry the tournament’s curtain raiser. Almost 15 million people watched the 2022 World Cup final on the BBC, but a good run by the home nations would be expected to smash that.
The Euro 2020 final, played at Wembley, saw England lose to Italy on penalties and the audience across the BBC and ITV hit a peak of 30.95 million, making it the country’s highest TV audience since the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.
Meanwhile, sales data has revealed that Americans are buying more spare Euro 2024 tickets than any other nationality. Viagogo, the ticket exchange website, said fans from the United States, where football is surging in popularity, have bought more seats on its platform than even the hosts Germany.
