Thetownend.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20607144

City have announced losses of 14.4 million for 2012. 2011 they had a loss of 11.45m.

Is this another case of a club chasing the premiership dream? Surely if they get relegated they are going to be in deep financial shit.

When I see figures like that, I wonder when football finance is going to get its reality check.  The rest of the economy has been undergoing a painful readjustment for 5 years, but football hardly seems to have been touched.  Why do footballers playing for loss making businesses in the 2nd & 3rd tiers still get paid 6 figure sums (annually)?  I don't get it.  How can this be sustainable?

And I take no pleasure from the fact that it's Bristol City.  Could easily be us another day.

Agree with this Ardiles, hence the post. Obviously because its City then there is more interest on here.

I also have a niggling concern that we might also see scary figures (albeit at smaller levels) for ourselves. Hopefully our owners know what they are doing. I am sure they are but you can't help but be a little concerned.

Bristol City Losses:
    2012: £14.4m
    2011: £11.45m
    2010: £11.8m
    2009: £6.5m
---------------------
            £44.15 million in 4 years

Whilst people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, that is staggering. They are lucky to have such a supportive board. As are we.


     

Out of interest, what are our 'losses' over the same period?

Think it's about 14M-ish, although that includes cleaning up the mess from the previous lot.

I honestly think these things will be a thing of the past within the next decade or so (at least outside the PL). More and more regulations are being introduced to stop such shenanigans.

Their ground can't be big enough to reach breakeven with attendances, can it?

Think it holds around 22000 and even if they sold out every game with people paying 25quid a ticket, they would raise 12m.

Obviously you dont get 22000 adults paying on the gate though.

So what happens if we do manage to go up this season?

Does PdC stay to spend another shedload of the Board's money in the off-chance we an make the PL?

Do the Board put the brakes on until the CG has been redeveloped?

Momentum is a great thing in football.

With PDC in charge we are never going to be a break even or profit making club.

Regardless of who is in charge we won't until a new CG is developed.

Excuse my ignorance, but unless our attendances burgeon to the point that the County Ground is packed to the rafters week in and week out and we're having to turn people away, what essentially is the financial incentive of redeveloping the ground? Aside from being able to accomodate more people, in the unlikely event we average in excess of 16,000, how can the enormous outlay of developing the ground be justified? I'm very happy with the ground way it is. I keep hearing this thing about new revenue streams being tapped into in terms of gleaming new out-of-town identikit grounds. What does that actually mean?  :hmmm:

Hotels, shops, offices. Stuff that brings in additional revenue in addition to the actual football.

A theme park would be good

We currently use the ground properly once every couple of weeks. A redeveloped ground can greatly increase the non-matchday facilities (build in stuff that generates revenue 5 days a week instead of once a fortnight) as well as improve the revenue-generating facilities used on matchdays (corporate hospitality that kind of thing). So you use it more and get more when you do.

As the board have said in the past the football club has to have a stadium that can provide revenue 7 days a week for us to move forward financially. It also means on matchdays the club has to be able to tap into the corporate market more with boxes, better hospitality facilities etc which we don't have at present.

Rikki Hunt (sorry everyone) was even saying this 15+ years ago.  It's sad that, all this time later, nothing has happened on this front.

This stuff was being talked about 50 years ago....we even got a squash court and betting shop in the Arkells, both of which were quite cutting edge for the time.

Sadly the squash court leaked, and my use of it never got beyond losing to my sister.  Such was its state of the artness, we'd attract England U 21 games.

This is a serious suggestion....the Board should look at an artificial pitch, it would be cheaper to maintain once installed, could be used all week by outside agencies, wouldn't cause damage if it was used in the summer for events.

The technology is better than the old Oldham/Luton type....and the game has changed, into more or less a non contact sport, so sliding tackles etc, which were dodgy on plastic, are no longer required, because staying on your feet is all.

Jake Humphrey tweeted this earlier

That does sound horrific.  To put it in to some context, what are we spending at the moment?

Not 100% sure but isn't it around £4m?

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Not necessarily cheaper to maintain than a grass pitch over a lengthy time but offers a decent income stream to completely offset that. Latest technology allows sliding tackles, diving for keepers etc with next to no worries of injury.

Not the same as grass though.

If you pay 10k a week to shite like Jonathan Stead its pretty safe to say your fucked.

OK, now I'm properly shocked.  Financially incontinent.  And shit at the same time.

A couple of other figures - which I cannot corroborate.  The club now owes £44 million to Steve Lansdowne (Chairman/owner).  Which sounds bad, but also saw elsewhere that he is worth £880 million and is a big fan.  Maybe losses of that magnitude are sustainable - for them?

It's a mad world.

Well if they had achieved promotion then they wouldn't have no debt at all....it being worth close on 100 million over a few years.....that is the tantalising carrot being dangled to all Championship clubs....Stoke,Wigan and a few others have shown it can happen.
Swansea are showing it can be done on a relative budget.....and it will be interesting to see there finances after one season with the big boys.

If Swansea are struggling I'm sure they could offload Michu for a sizeable fee. Only cost them £2 million, I'm sure he'd go for about £10 million now.

That was my point Fola...they are not struggling...not really spent loads...got a big chunk for the lad who went to Liverpool....and are raking in money left right and centre now they have reached the promised land.

There coffers are crammed i reckon.

They were always pretty well run when they were at this level as well. The new stadium is what did it for them. Extra facilities etc and then bigger crowds came with the success. They found a gem in Martinez who got them playing the same brand of football they still play now and it's got them up the leagues.

Aren't Wigan close to £100m in debt?

Think Blackpool pretty much just banked all the money didn't they?