The Pyramid Is in the EFL

The Pyramid has agreed a two-year partnership with Peterborough United, taking our pitchside advertising into the EFL for the first time.

Our boards went live at the Weston Homes Stadium last weekend. It means The Pyramid now advertises at three different levels of English football — tiers three, five and nine.

That feels like a good reason for a special edition.

A two-year partnership with Peterborough United

The Pyramid is now a commercial partner of Peterborough United.

The agreement includes a static pitchside board behind the goal at the Weston Homes Stadium and LED perimeter advertising carrying The Pyramid masthead and the line:

FOOTBALL FINANCE ALL THE WAY DOWN.

The boards went live on Saturday 19 September for Peterborough's League One fixture against Doncaster Rovers and appeared again three days later for the EFL Trophy tie against Colchester United.

Peterborough are in their fifth consecutive season in League One. They averaged 8,125 for home league matches last season and drew 10,848 for the visit of Sheffield Wednesday earlier this month.

For The Pyramid, it is our first advertising partnership with an EFL club and the largest venue in which we have bought inventory so far.

A commercial relationship does not change how we cover Peterborough. The club has no say over what we publish, and whenever we write about Peterborough United, we will disclose that The Pyramid is a commercial partner.

Tier 3. Tier 5. Tier 9.

We started buying pitchside advertising in August.

First came Boreham Wood, in the National League at tier five.

Then Corinthian-Casuals, at tier nine.

Now Peterborough United, in League One at tier three.

The spread is deliberate.

The Pyramid's editorial coverage runs from the Championship to tier ten. The people interested in the finances of that system are not concentrated in one division: they are supporters, owners, directors, investors and people working inside clubs throughout it.

So rather than concentrating our own spending at one end of football, we are testing different parts of the pyramid.

The audiences are different. The grounds are different. The inventory is different.

We now have three real-world reference points for what football advertising buys at three very different levels of the game.

Football finance all the way down is beginning to become fairly literal.

Is Football Sponsorship Actually Worth It?

Earlier this season, we asked two clubs in the same division for the price of the same thing: front-of-shirt sponsorship.

One quoted £50,000.

The other quoted £15,000.

That £35,000 gap, inside a single division, was a useful illustration of something we have increasingly found while covering football finance below the Premier League. There is no simple price list for the commercial value of a football club.

Division matters. Attendance matters. Television exposure matters. Social reach matters. Geography matters. The inventory itself matters.

But ultimately an asset is worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it.

We explored that market in Is Football Sponsorship Actually Worth It?, after buying our first advertising at Boreham Wood and Corinthian-Casuals.

Peterborough gives us something different: our first EFL comparison.

Over the next two years, we will be able to see what those three investments actually produce — traffic, newsletter subscriptions, recognition and reach — rather than simply assuming that the biggest audience provides the best return.

And when we have enough data, we'll publish what we learn.

Because if we're going to analyse how football clubs sell themselves, there is some value in occasionally sitting on the other side of the table.

Football finance all the way down.

Championship to tier ten. Ownership, accounts, investment, regulation and the economics behind English football.