PR Effect of 70 Billion Won? What Is the Public Value of Professional Football?

At a National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee hearing on July 30, when concerns were raised that civic and provincial football clubs rely heavily on taxpayers' money, Gangwon FC CEO Kim Byung-ji responded as follows:
 
Later, Kim wrote on his personal social media account that Gangwon FC alone generated 70 billion won worth of public relations value for the local government last year. However, he did not explain how the figure was calculated, and football fans reacted coldly.

SBS asked the Korea Professional Football League (K League) about the origin of the 70 billion won promotional effect. The league replied, "Every year, we commission an outside agency to analyze the sponsorship effect for each club and deliver it to the clubs at the end of the year." According to the explanation, club exposures across television, new media, and print media are converted into advertising costs, with weighted scores applied based on on-screen size, location, and exposure duration. Under this explanation, the 70 billion won figure ultimately stems from the league's calculations.

However, there is no way to examine the details behind that calculation. While the league explained what factors were considered, it did not disclose the weights assigned to each element or the advertising rates credited per unit of exposure time. This remains undisclosed even though outcomes can vary drastically depending on how weights are set. The league stated, "Club reports are for internal review by each club and cannot be shared externally," and Gangwon FC also withheld the material, saying, "We merely receive the data from the league."   SBS reported on October 17 that 14 municipal and provincial clubs, excluding newly founded teams, received 140.1 billion won in public subsidies last year, accounting for 64% of their total revenue. That translates to an average of around 10 billion won per club. The only clubs in relatively healthy fiscal standing, with self-generated revenues exceeding subsidies, were Gangwon, Incheon, and Daegu, while newer clubs showed higher levels of dependency.
Even so, the number of civic and provincial clubs continues to rise. From 11 clubs in 2021, the number reached 17 this year, accounting for more than half of the league, and total subsidies across the league jumped from 98.2 billion won in 2021 to surpass 140 billion won last year. For heads of local governments who serve as club owners, a team represents an attractive publicity tool to meet thousands of residents at stadium matches, while for football industry insiders, it provides stable jobs. These factors are cited as reasons why many people want to launch such clubs while no one steps in to dissuade them.
Of course, not all civic clubs are a "waste of tax money." Residents can watch professional matches nearby, and homegrown talents nurtured by local clubs, such as Gangwon youth product Yang Min-hyuk, even advance to prestigious overseas leagues. Gangwon FC, which earned 16.2 billion won on its own last year and reduced its subsidy dependency to 42.5%, can also be seen as an example showing that a club can simultaneously fulfill its role as a public good and maintain self-sustainability.

The league also emphasizes the "public good function" of civic clubs. It argues that they enhance city brand value, revitalize local economies, and offer leisure opportunities to citizens. Under a financial soundness system introduced three years ago, player payrolls are capped within 70% of revenue while operating deficits and capital impairment are monitored. The league also noted that it is reviewing the introduction of a salary cap to restrict total team payroll and a roster system to cap squad sizes. 
    However, claiming public value cannot justify leaving a system unchecked where tax money is poured in unconditionally. There must be concrete scrutiny over how much taxpayer money should be spent on that public value. Although some public value is measured, like the promotional effect cited by CEO Kim, there is no objective evaluation of what actual benefits are delivered to our society. Jeong Do-jin, a professor of business administration at Chung-Ang University, noted, "The scale and reliance are far too large to assess public value in merely abstract or sentimental terms," while pointing out that several tools, such as Social Return on Investment (SROI), already exist to measure social value.
Even if citizens wish to inspect the clubs' financial health themselves, they run into obstacles starting from the account books. In this reporting, verifying the size of subsidies was not a simple matter of opening a single ledger. It required sorting out step by step whether financial statements were filed with the Financial Supervisory Service or the National Tax Service, and under which accounting line items the subsidies were entered. Some clubs did not disclose their financial records at all, forcing the reporting team to fill in blanks with audit reports obtained through the office of People Power Party Representative Kim Seung-soo. While the league claims to receive income statements in a unified format, it does not disclose those either.

If the annual publicity effect of a professional football club truly amounts to 70 billion won, why are corporations unwilling to step forward to run them? Since the 2002 World Cup, Seoul E-Land FC is virtually the only corporate club to join the K League, and even its founding was 11 years ago. (*Daejeon Hana Citizen was refounded following an acquisition of a citizen club, and Chungbuk Cheongju FC operates as a consortium.) If, as Kim said, civic and provincial clubs are "public goods that exist for local residents," their financial books should also be laid open before those residents. Only when the 70 billion won figure appears not in social media posts, but in detailed records accessible to anyone, will the claim that "football clubs are public goods" truly gain credibility.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.