Lee Power, budgets and finances

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Firstly you'll have to forgive me for being a bit out of touch with everything at the moment, because I am. But as the season edges nearer I've been reading a lot of the comments coming from Power, Cooper, etc. and generally trying to keep tabs on the noises coming out of The County Ground.

Many have commented on here that Cooper seems pessimistic in A. Making any signings and B. Keeping hold of our current team. I also saw an article on Power a while back where he commented that he was considering cutting the the wage budget, if the gate wasn't met. The numbers were £1,800,000 a year based on 7,500 a game I believe?

This got me thinking about the finances and I looked for comments on this on this forum. Many have commented Powers explanation of using a 'sustainable model' which I get and understand. I completely agree with this model.

The problem I have is that the more I think about it....the more I can't understand why we seem to be in such a dire position financially with our squad.

If Power was quoted as saying he needs 7,500 gates to keep our £1,800,000 wage budget. I can't understand why? If half of that is made up of season tickets, that's £1,125,000 at £300 a go (pretty sure they're more expensive, but lets go conservative to include concessions), if the other half is made up of ticket purchases at £20 average(again, to be conservative), that's another £1,725,000....so £2,850,000 revenue a season just on home league ticket sales only.

I understand that there are plenty of other costs in running a football club, but £1m a year costs? This is before anyone has bought a burger, a coke, a replica shirt, before any money has come from sponsorship or cup games,etc.

Am I the only one that thinks that things aren't adding up? It worries me that comments are being made about selling players and cutting the wage budget, when a quick calculations seem to indicate that our budget is already very conservative for the amount of money that should be coming in.

Is this possibly Power's attempt to recoup his £2m that he claims to have put in to the club? Is there any evidence that he actually kept this in the club anyway?

Forgive me for being skeptical...but as happy as I am we didn't end up with Jed, I can't say I trust Power either. I have serious concerns Power is having a party on our wallets just as much as Jed was. If anyone is able to rationalsie the circumstances/debunk my concerns, I'll be more than happy to be proved wrong.

[Tails]

Your first problem is that you assume that football finances are as black and white as what you've written in your post. It is never, ever that simple.

Your second problem is that the calculations you have done are probably wildly inaccurate.

Your third problem is that no one can know until any accounts are published.

Tbh it's got to a point where I can't be arsed to talk or really think about it too much. I just want to go and watch some football. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't starting to get concerned about how our team is shaping up at the moment. But as it stands, I have no reason to distrust Power or Cooper. I just hope they know what they're doing as it's looking like this year will be all about survival.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Your first problem is that you assume that football finances are as black and white as what you've written in your post. It is never, ever that simple.

Your second problem is that the calculations you have done are probably wildly inaccurate.

Both points really are why I've tried to be so conservative with the figures used. Out of interest, how much was a season ticket to renew this year? I didn't get one last year so I'm a little out of the loop.

[Bob's Orange]

Both points really are why I've tried to be so conservative with the figures used. Out of interest, how much was a season ticket to renew this year? I didn't get one last year so I'm a little out of the loop.

In the DRS - £375 ish with the early bird/10% discount, about 410 ish without.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

In the DRS - £375 ish with the early bird/10% discount, about 410 ish without.

Ouch. I knew there was a reason I didn't even contemplate it. Town End?

[suttonred]

The other 1 million would cover about 20 staff on 20k-25k  a year. I think we have more than that in FTE's, so that would eat that for starters.

[Bob's Orange]

Ouch. I knew there was a reason I didn't even contemplate it. Town End?

I'm not sure about figures in the TE, sorry.

I think what Tails says is salient, I doubt that anyone on here is going to REALLY know the income and expenditure of STFC, sans accounts.

[ronnie21]

The other 1 million would cover about 20 staff on 20k-25k  a year. I think we have more than that in FTE's, so that would eat that for starters.

Rent is expensive as well, council give us nothing really but take their rent - when we pay it!  Other costs we need to factor in would be away travel and hotel, food expenses.  Not sure how much we make out of the food outlets as Jed sold that off!!  There are lots of expenses we don't know about I would guess, general maintenance on ground and pitch must be costly.  FWIW I never trused Jedco but I don't think Power is out of the same mould as him so until we find something wrong give him a chance.

[Cookie]

The Council do give us a ground in return for the rent which seems pretty fair to me.

[Ardiles]

Your third problem is that no one can know until any accounts are published.

And the fourth is that any set of financial statements are, by their very nature, a historical document.  Even when they hit the filing deadline set by Companies House - which, as we know, does not always happen - the period that the accounts relate to is often, in football terms, another era.  How are the revenues and costs stacking up for the early part of next season?  No idea.  But if you can be bothered to wait for the accounts, you'll find out some time in 2016.

[Reg Smeeton]

 Look at a copy of the administration statement of 12 years ago, which lists 14 A4 pages of creditors not paid for the various services you need to run even a small football club.

 So for example £37,295.91 to Wilts police.....£7,178.50 to Wilts ambulance.  £22,252.99 to Thames Water. £10, 616.75 for fire protection etc.  £4,312.46 to Jewsons.  £16,000 to security consultants. £12,000 to Barnes. £3,139.03 to Biffa Waste.
£3,230.30 to East Lancs Towel Company...as I say 14 pages of this shit.

[kerry red]

East Lancs Towel Co?

No wonder they were so expensive travelling that far just to change the towels

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Probably a fairer way of looking at my concerns would be looking at how a £1,800,000 yearly wage budget for a team with a £19-£25 ticket price and 7,500 fans stacks up against other teams in this division?

Anyone know what other teams in this league look like for their budget compared to their average attendance and ticket prices? Obviously transfer fees would need to be looked at as well which is kind of irrelevant where we're concerned as we're not buying anyone.

[OrangeTransits]

East Lancs Towel Co?

No wonder they were so expensive travelling that far just to change the towels

Not sure why I'm posting this... East Lancs Towel Co is an Anagram of "Coals to Newcastle". Just finished the morning crossword with me coffee and it just jumped out at me.......:-)

[kerry red]

You need to get out more