The Financial Brutality of The Championship

BBC news story today.  Portsmouth need to quadruple their wages to be competitive in the Championship.  Their squad is valued at about £2 million.  Other teams valued at £100 million.

Football Financial expert Kieran Maguire said that promoted teams need to be ready for the “brutal” financial nature of the Championship.  

He said that the average loss per week is a massive £476,000.

I almost feel sorry for Lincoln if they get there.  They won at close rivals Oxford last night.  

Ipswich are a very impressive exception. Especially, when competing with parachute payments.

Also cannot see us getting into the Championship,  Division 1 is tough enough to get to and survive.  

Wow, that’s insane. I remember Danny Coyne was rumoured to be our highest earner in the 1999-2001 era and that was supposedly around £4k a week.

Not sure what our squad’s wage added up to back then, but using that figure as a barometer I’m guessing 22 players on an average of £2.5k is fair… that’s around £55k a week, plus non-playing staff costs…

All that was offset by match day income, player sales (which were rare), etc.

It’s just a different beast now. How is our country’s game sustainable if clubs are willing to lose half a million quid a week, for what?

Is the dream to play in the PL really worth putting your club’s existence in jeopardy? Maybe they all think there are saviours lining up, willing to take on that debt in the hope that they will be the ones capable of leading them to the promised land?

But even if you do make the PL, you need to spend phenomenal amounts just to compete again. More debt, etc.

I know some people may accuse me of having a lack of ambition, but I’d just like to see us go as far as we can without overspending. I think bottom half of L1 seems doable. Anything beyond that, in today’s game, is overachieving in my opinion.

Quoted from RichMariner

Wow, that’s insane. I remember Danny Coyne was rumoured to be our highest earner in the 1999-2001 era and that was supposedly around £4k a week.

Not sure what our squad’s wage added up to back then, but using that figure as a barometer I’m guessing 22 players on an average of £2.5k is fair… that’s around £55k a week, plus non-playing staff costs…

All that was offset by match day income, player sales (which were rare), etc.

It’s just a different beast now. How is our country’s game sustainable if clubs are willing to lose half a million quid a week, for what?

Is the dream to play in the PL really worth putting your club’s existence in jeopardy? Maybe they all think there are saviours lining up, willing to take on that debt in the hope that they will be the ones capable of leading them to the promised land?

But even if you do make the PL, you need to spend phenomenal amounts just to compete again. More debt, etc.

I know some people may accuse me of having a lack of ambition, but I’d just like to see us go as far as we can without overspending. I think bottom half of L1 seems doable. Anything beyond that, in today’s game, is overachieving in my opinion.

It's a billionaires playground. Stoke City are owned by bet365 who paid their founder Denise Coates a salary of £221m last year plus a rumoured dividend of £50m. Despite this though, one of their players from the women's team who plays in a bet365  sponsored kit has to crowdfund major knee surgery sustained playing for them. It's so, so wrong.

https://gofund.me/03748468

I cannot advise enough of you to listen to the podcast The Price of Football. It is a geek-fest, admittedly, but Keiran McGuire comes out with FACTS like this every week. Football is completely broken, honestly, an idiotic shambles.

But remember… “ when the fun stops , stop “ yeah righto the betting industry cares about you !!

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

But remember… “ when the fun stops , stop “ yeah righto the betting industry cares about you !!

On Monday afternoon  I went to collect my meagre National winnings from the - localish - Betfred.
I was told by a grinning lad that there was no cash available to pay me & he didn't know when it would be available. I accepted that it was not his fault.
I pointed out that they seemed to be taking bets from the few punters in the the shop & that could very well be illegal if they were unable to honour any possible returns.
Okay I eventually drove back the few miles to Betfred & collected my winnings - but what miffed me was that these billionaire owners didn't seem to have made it a priority to provide immediately to honour their obligations ASAP.
Rant over - UTM.

  

Its a far cry from the average working mans game anymore. It seems more like a rich mans play thing. There is no such thing as a level playing field anymore .We would be lucky to survive in div 1 now even if we could afford to get there in the first place. Makes you wonder if there is any point anymore

Quoted from denni266

Makes you wonder if there is any point anymore

Escape the Mrs for a few hours without too many questions.....

Mind you...have been getting questioned why I do go when I come home mardy as my bottom most weeks 😆

Quoted from Heswall Mariner

On Monday afternoon  I went to collect my meagre National winnings from the - localish - Betfred.
I was told by a grinning lad that there was no cash available to pay me & he didn't know when it would be available. I accepted that it was not his fault.
I pointed out that they seemed to be taking bets from the few punters in the the shop & that could very well be illegal if they were unable to honour any possible returns.
Okay I eventually drove back the few miles to Betfred & collected my winnings - but what miffed me was that these billionaire owners didn't seem to have made it a priority to provide immediately to honour their obligations ASAP.
Rant over - UTM.

  

I managed betting shops decades ago. I'd never grin if I'd been cleaned out but wasn't able to pay out on some large bets on occasion which the punters accepted. I could always pay out more modest earnings and in the days where you had more people in the shop, you could carry on taking bets because you'd always be winning some of that.

I don't know what it's like now but you had a limited float in those days and banked excess funds in the morning after adjusting for any liabilities over a tenner. It made holding up a bookies less attractive. Having been on the receiving end of a few blags with sawn-offs in a short period of time I completely agree with that stance.  

I ran one place opposite a bank's sub-branch and spent one week relieving them of their high denomination notes by cashing reserve cheques as I was cleaned out day after day by heavy hitters. I actually ran well above target profit but got a right caning now and again. Exciting days but left the job to get Saturdays off again and watch Town. While the first eleven or twelve years were great, the last twenty plus have been awful!

Quoted from moosey_club

Escape the Mrs for a few hours without too many questions.....

Mind you...have been getting questioned why I do go when I come home mardy as my bottom most weeks 😆

Yes it was pure escapism in the "old days" now its a toss-up between BP for a couple of hrs or manning The Samaritan's phones.  Depressing.