Sale of the Club

[Batch]

9000 @ £20-odd per ticket

We have 5000 season ticket holders, thats £13.50 per ticket or something like that. But its less than that because of pensioners, students, children and other sundry concessions.

[kerry red]

Ok so thats £67.5k per game from STs and 4000 paying £20 per ticket makes £300k per month income.

Again that leaves £50k monthly after taking out the supposed £250k monthly wage bill

With other income streams it still seems enuf to me to cover running costs

[Batch]

50k is nothing, travelling costs, non-playing staff wages, transfer fees, agents fees, etc, etc. I know there are other sources of income, but historically under the new regime (whose accounts are reliable) it seems they don't meet the outgoings. Sad but true, and certainly not unique.

[ronnie21]

Ok so thats £67.5k per game from STs and 4000 paying £20 per ticket makes £300k per month income.

Again that leaves £50k monthly after taking out the supposed £250k monthly wage bill

With other income streams it still seems enuf to me to cover running costs

There is a non-playing/coaching staff of about 40!  Add to that the youth team set-up costs, as said before travelling, hotel costs etc. there is bound to be a shortfall.  Yet Watkins said they were running about 15% ahead of budget, but what budget?

[Arriba]

Very little chance. The only way would be if the new owners were prepared to pay him back as part of the takeover, or if he decided to sell off some players to enable the club to pay some of it back.

thanks. Thought as much. Alot of confusion regarding the whole thing remains. Time will tell and we will learn things over time I suppose.

[red socks]

50k is nothing, travelling costs, non-playing staff wages, transfer fees, agents fees, etc, etc. I know there are other sources of income, but historically under the new regime (whose accounts are reliable) it seems they don't meet the outgoings. Sad but true, and certainly not unique.

£50k prob doesn't even cover PDC,s salary.....

[Saxondale]

Sponsorship, advertising revenue.... some other things.

[DiV]

Plus costs like gas, electric, water plus the rent for the CG and money for the use of the training ground to? Maybe even the car park on match days?

[jonny72]

Ok so thats £67.5k per game from STs and 4000 paying £20 per ticket makes £300k per month income.

Again that leaves £50k monthly after taking out the supposed £250k monthly wage bill

With other income streams it still seems enuf to me to cover running costs

The £250k monthly wage bill is for the players only.

From the accounts our total staffing cost in 2010/11 was £4.38m. It looks like the non-playing staff costs were £1.18m, leaving £3.20m for playing staff. So roughly £250k for playing staff and £100k for the rest every month. Other general running costs were about £100k a month.

[RobertT]

Generally speaking, we lose about £1m a year on average before player sales.  Our income has actually risen for pretty much the first time in 20 years thanks to the Fitton and Wray era's, that despite having lower season ticket prices.  This is primarily down to much greater commercial revenue - better sponsorship deals, corporate hospitality etc.

The season we sold Austin we made a profit - given the Cox sale before that, it looked like Fitton's era was going to get the Board into a position of some sort of self sustainability.  Unfortunately, we went and got relegated rather than promoted which fucked up the "plan".  I don'tthink we are spending much if any more than we did 3/4 seasons ago, we just aren't generating the income from player sales to offset the cash shortfall.  I don't doubt this is one of the reasons Black is walking - Id hazard a guess from previous accounts that about half his investment in the club occurred in the purchase and paying all the debts.  He was probably ok with that, and maybe even a few quid each year as a top up.  The past 2 years he's been pumping cash in to maintain the same desire to get promoted.

The sale of Ritchie probably protects this season for now, it's then down to new owners to decide if they continue covering the shortfall, find some way of getting new money in (ground) or stem the flow.  I'd imagine where we are may play a part in that.

[cheltred69]

Just seen the BBC article where Brighton reckon they will struggle to get under the cap next season whereby championship teams aren't allowed to make a loss exceeding £8 million in a year!
What is going on?  Are there any clubs at that level being run in a sustainable manner?

[random_five]

Just goes to show how important the sale of Austin will be..

[bigbobjoylove]

Just seen the BBC article where Brighton reckon they will struggle to get under the cap next season whereby championship teams aren't allowed to make a loss exceeding £8 million in a year!
What is going on?  Are there any clubs at that level being run in a sustainable manner?

Blackpool probably. Chairman is a bit of a skinflint with wages and takes a nice cut for himself.

[reeves4england]

What he said ^

Blackpool got the the Premier League on a sustainable budget, partly through good buying and partly through great management by Holloway. I'd love us to follow their model but it's obviously not easy.

[kerry red]

But I would hazard a guess Blackpool will never see the PL again and, as with all clubs of their/our size will fall another step down the ladder.

So what we are saying here is that if people want a sustainable club they must give up the dream and be happy with our lot.

Yet again the only club with a history similar to ours that appears to have broken the mould is Reading