How Como Is Using Football to Sell a Lake, a Lifestyle and a Brand

From Bankruptcies to Serie A Ambitions

Como has a long football history, but it has also had a rough recent run. The club went bankrupt three times in the last couple of decades, and in 2019 it was playing in Serie D, the fourth tier of Italian football.

Indonesian billionaires bought the club first as a content project. The plan was a reality show following Indonesian players in the lower leagues. The team's rapid rise to Serie B changed the plan. The owners decided to invest seriously and aim for Serie A and European competition.

The spending has been visible in the transfer windows. Como makes offers for players that even bigger clubs sometimes cannot match. For a city that has spent years without a top-division team, that ambition is a clear break from the past.

For older supporters, who were taken to the stadium by their parents, the rise is a return to something they missed. For the club, it is simply the first building block of a longer plan.

Why a Small Town Needs More Than Ticket Sales

Como is a small town, and its stadium holds about 12,000 people. That capacity cannot easily pay for a competitive squad on match-day income alone. The club recognised this problem as it moved up the leagues.

The answer was to build revenue streams beyond the pitch. Management identified hospitality and merchandising as the first two. Retail followed. Each area now sits in a separate company, which makes it easier to set targets, manage costs and grow each business on its own terms.

• Hospitality for guests who want more than a seat
• Merchandising linked to the club's identity
• Retail and fashion built around the lakeside lifestyle

This structure is a practical lesson for any organisation with a limited core product. When the main channel has a ceiling, the next move is usually to add channels that use the same audience, not to hope the original one will expand.

“We'd like to build a brand like Disney.”

Tourism Instead of Television Money

Como's leaders say they do not want to build success around television revenue. In Italy, France and elsewhere in Europe, they see TV income as unreliable. What they believe is sustainable is tourism, and specifically football tourism.

The numbers they cite are striking. Around 5 million people visit Lake Como as tourists each year, in an industry said to be worth about a billion euros. The club wants to capture part of that spending. Most visitors arrive in June, July and August, which is when the team is not playing.

To fill that gap, the club created the Como Cup, a summer tournament that keeps the team in town and allows commercial activity to continue. The lesson is straightforward: plan for your quiet season so that the months when your main product pauses still earn something.

The Disney Model: A Theme Park, a Product Line and a Lifestyle

The club describes itself as the Disneyland of football tourism. The comparison is deliberate. Disney's theme parks introduce people to its characters and products, and the wider company then sells licensed goods and experiences. Como sees its football team in the same way.

In this model, the team is the theme park. It is where people first come into contact with the brand. The merchandising and fashion divisions act like the licensing business, and most of the output is tied to the lifestyle of the lake, not just to football.

The framework is useful for thinking about your own work. Identify the single experience that brings people in, then ask what they might buy or try next. The product that draws them in does not have to be the product that earns the most.

Star Power and the Red Carpet

Celebrities have become part of Como's appeal. The club has rolled out a red carpet and promotes famous visitors on social media. Among those named are Andrew Garfield, Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Tyson Fury and Hugh Grant.

They sit in the owner's box in the luxury section. Because the stadium is small, everyone in the ground can see them. That visibility turns guests into part of the stadium atmosphere itself, which makes the club more attractive to tourists and international fans.

It is a reminder that visibility can be engineered. A venue does not need to be large to become a destination if it puts the right people in clear view and tells the story on social media.

Attacking Football as a Marketing Tool

Como's aim is to become a premium sport tourism destination. To attract visitors from abroad, the team has to be entertaining to watch. The club's view is that traditional Italian football, built on tactical discipline and defensive structure, may not appeal to a global audience as much as they would like.

This is where Cesc Fabregas comes in. He joined as a player, partly through a stake in the ownership, which is unusual in football. He later became coach and brought a style built on possession, fast passing, high pressing and an engaging pace. The club believes that this is the kind of football that draws new fans to the stadium.

The case shows that style is not only a sporting choice. When the goal is to attract new people, how you play becomes part of how you sell.

Stadium, Lake and the Long Road Ahead

The Sinigaglia stadium sits in one of the most striking locations of any football ground in the world. It needs renovation, and the club plans to expand it. It also wants to become a community hub, with restaurants and bars that could be used on non-match days.

The ambition is clear, but the sources are mostly people inside the club, and the tourism figures come without a year-by-year breakdown. The strategy also depends on sustained investment from owners whose first interest was a television project, and on the team's sporting success.

Still, the core idea is worth keeping. The club is betting that a small place with a strong identity can build more value than its size suggests, as long as it treats each of its assets as a gateway to the next.