For Everton, recovering from the financial issues that have dogged them for the past year or so has meant reviewing where they could make improvements.
From the austere approach to summer recruitment that was seen ahead of the 2021/22 campaign to the moves made to cut their payroll obligations with the exits of major earners like James Rodriguez, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Cenk Tosun and Fabian Delph, Everton have been working towards getting themselves on a more sure footing at the same time as attempting to drive forward operations on the pitch.
Everton came a little too close for comfort to relegation last season, something that would have been severely damaging had the worst happened given the enormous gulf in the money that flows in the top tier of English football and in the Championship.
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The major boon of being part of the Premier League elite is the mammoth broadcasting rights that come attached with it, with every club in 2021/22 earning more than £100m from TV rights for the first time in Premier League history.
The domestic TV market, which is held in the UK by Sky, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video, delivered as much as £90m for Premier League teams last season, with the international market bringing £56.3m to winners Manchester City and £49.3m to the bottom side Norwich City.
For Everton, last season's on-pitch struggles negatively impacted their revenue generating ability when it comes to broadcast rights. Finishing 16th, Everton brought in £117.2m, a drop of £13m compared to the season before. The Toffees' £59.7m slice of the domestic TV rights was some £30.3m behind the Premier League champions Manchester City, while their international rights revenue trailed by £5.6m, according to figures presented by football finance expert Swiss Ramble.
Premier League broadcast money is carved up a number of ways. Every club receives an equal share of both the UK and overseas rights, which stood at £31.8m and £48.9m respectively last season. Commercial revenue of £6.8m each is also divided equally, but that is where the parity ends.
Merit payments are made for both the UK and overseas rights on a sliding scale depending on the final league position of each of the 20 clubs. In 2021/22, title winners Manchester City were able to claim £41.2m from their merit payment for finishing first, while Everton's 16th-placed finish saw them claim just 25 per cent of City's total from the UK and overseas payments, with the Blues getting £10.2m.
How many games teams feature in also plays an important role. Everton last season were featured fairly heavily in comparison to the teams that were around them in the league table. The Toffees appeared on live broadcasts 22 times, 10 times more than the bottom four of Southampton, Burnley, Watford and Norwich and six times more than the likes of Leicester City, who finished eighth. The appearances from Everton saw them claim £19.4m. Everton saw the second highest negative swing in broadcast income (£13m) in the Premier League, with only Leeds United's £17m worse.
Getting into the top 10 significantly raises the bar when it comes to merit payments, with Brighton & Hove Albion's ninth-placed finish last season seeing them claim £20.3m in merit payments. It highlights the need for improvements on the pitch to support improvements off it, with Frank Lampard's side looking to push on significantly this season from where they ended last.
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