BBC News: Swindon Town to halve playing budget for next season

[jonny72]

Add the potental of 1.8m in concerts plus 300k for caddis, tidy profit.

This is the bit I don't get with the new wage budget. Based on the 10/11 accounts a playing staff wage bill of £2m would get us to about break even. But this doesn't include player sales or other income (such as the concerts).

Would be interesting to get Jed to explain what will happen to any additional income above budget.

[pauld]

On the ticket price calculation to work out the budget you could also add; FITC, corporate hospitality, food and drink sales, programme sales, merchandise and sponsership revenue.

FITC is separately funded by grants and the revenue it raises itself. Insofar as it contributes to the club's budget (which I think is what you were getting at), surely it would just count as A N Other corporate customer for the matchday packages they do and for the (fairly limited) use of the ground in half-term courses etc?

[corner]

Do you seriously think we're going to make that much profit on concerts? I mean, really?

That was the figure quoted on 12 concerts

[pauld]

If we can't afford the higher budget then fair enough, I'd rather have a stable L1 club than a  defunct one.

So (for example) take up the option on Ferry's contract and listen to offers to buy him if needs be. Letting valuable assets go for nowt is a business model tending more to the "defunct" than "stable" side of things. Unless by "stable" you mean "full of horse-shit"

[sonicyouth]

So (for example) take up the option on Ferry's contract and listen to offers to buy him if needs be. Letting valuable assets go for nowt is a business model tending more to the "defunct" than "stable" side of things. Unless by "stable" you mean "full of horse-shit"

this is what makes me think Ferry chose to leave... I have as much business acumen as roadkill and can see that giving away saleable assets for free is a pretty fucking daft thing to do

[Trashbat?]

The problem with the whole concert scenario is that in the next few years this town will have a purpose built arena at North Star, I just can't see how the CG can compete with that as a venue once it opens. So this whole concert idea can only surely work in the short term, if it works at all.

[horlock07]

So (for example) take up the option on Ferry's contract and listen to offers to buy him if needs be. Letting valuable assets go for nowt is a business model tending more to the "defunct" than "stable" side of things. Unless by "stable" you mean "full of horse-shit"

But and this is a bloody great big but, what if tou take up the option and then discover that no one wants to buy him, for all we know they could have been listening for interest and concluded the risk isn't worth it.

When you look at the number of players still under contract and the budget it was never close to adding us so high profile departures were inevitable.

[pauld]

this is what makes me think Ferry chose to leave... I have as much business acumen as roadkill and can see that giving away saleable assets for free is a pretty fucking daft thing to do

I'm sure you're right. But they could still make the offer, then we could at least command some kind of fee for him, instead of just letting him wander off

[BenTheRed]

This is the bit I don't get with the new wage budget. Based on the 10/11 accounts a playing staff wage bill of £2m would get us to about break even. But this doesn't include player sales or other income (such as the concerts).

Would be interesting to get Jed to explain what will happen to any additional income above budget.

In the ideal world they're showing some financial prudence and will reinvest any profit 

[horlock07]

The problem with the whole concert scenario is that in the next few years this town will have a purpose built arena at North Star, I just can't see how the CG can compete with that as a venue once it opens. So this whole concert idea can only surely work in the short term, if it works at all.

As they are only planning to be here short term it makes perfect sense.

[pauld]

But and this is a bloody great big but, what if tou take up the option and then discover that no one wants to buy him, for all we know they could have been listening for interest and concluded the risk isn't worth it.

When you look at the number of players still under contract and the budget it was never close to adding us so high profile departures were inevitable.

If there were any evidence of considered shrewd dealings in any of this, I'd be right with you.

[horlock07]

In the ideal world they're showing some financial prudence and will reinvest any profit  

I honestly would not be surprised to hear that its needed to pay some debt off somewhere or that we are still paying Paolo and Spencer for the next 12 months - or something equally bizarre!

[Dozno9]

So (for example) take up the option on Ferry's contract and listen to offers to buy him if needs be. Letting valuable assets go for nowt is a business model tending more to the "defunct" than "stable" side of things. Unless by "stable" you mean "full of horse-shit"

I agree... I was talking about a longer term strategy rather than a single event.

I also don't know what the finances were on his contract in terms of wages or even if he wanted to stay for all we know his wages could have been huge.

[Flashheart]

But and this is a bloody great big but, what if tou take up the option and then discover that no one wants to buy him, for all we know they could have been listening for interest and concluded the risk isn't worth it.

When you look at the number of players still under contract and the budget it was never close to adding us so high profile departures were inevitable.

...... or that Ferry doesn't want to make the switch.

The rumours are that he wants to be closer to home. How many Scottish clubs can afford to pay transfer fees?

[pauld]

I agree... I was talking about a longer term strategy rather than a single event.

And on that I agree with you too. But in relation to this discussion, I don't think there is a longer term strategy, there's a short-term holding strategy to spend very little and hope they don't burn thru all the season ticket money before they can off-load the club. Which, hopefully, they should be able to do in pretty short order as currently it's actually in quite good nick. I worry whether that will still be the case in 6 months time if we don't get more long-term owners by then