There is absolutely nothing in that link that says "this revenue increased due to big name signings" and no data that can be interpreted that way.
Every club there has had their revenue increase in general every year since the tv money started getting big around 2000, the prem league simple started to increase the tv money first, and Spain followed but with completely unfair practices. EPL as a joint bargaining tool where the biggest and smallest club get fair spread of cash, Spain, no spread, top two get all the money the rest feed on scraps.
People have banged on about Rooney selling loads of shirts for Utd, but as soon as RVP came in, everyone jumped to RVP shirts and Rooney started selling very little.
Ultimately if you take 99% of clubs, remove their top player, or bring in a new top player, then the shirt sales shift dramatically because, thats football. 90% of fans don't really give a damn who is on their shirt, their favourites shift on a yearly basis to whoever is deemed best.
In terms of shirt sales, there are likely many clauses in contracts, bonuses that can be made if shirt sales get to certain points. Bonuses for success in the league/champs league/whatever. Arsenal have lost RVP/Cesc/Nasri/Ade, yet when shirt sponsorship deals came up and got renewed the figure went up hugely... the only thing we can see from various deals is, they go up every time no matter which player is bought or sold.
Its effectively impossible to quantify what signing a particularly big name player does for commercial revenue, no one breaks down the numbers, no one says "we made 400mil this year, but 8mil was a bonus due to the massive extra shirt sales triggering a bonus payment" . So its anyones best guess, I know(using basic logic and with my BS detector on high alert from any football "president" talking) that Ronaldo did not pay back 80mil commercially in his first season. Did they sign a new shirt deal that year, maybe, did they get an extra 5mil that year due to the surge of shirt sales when a new player joins, sure.... but most people DON'T buy shirts every year, so you're just talking about people choosing a year earlier to buy a new one which they could keep a year longer than they otherwise would... so less money 3 years later. Tv money and sponsorship deals have increased most seasons for most clubs regardless of which players they buy or sell.
