Personally I think the pressure will be on MA to keep us in the top ten all season, purely to keep attendances up.
Yes, we are a well run club - but a club, like many others, who have incurred huge losses so far in 2020. We still have some high earners under contract that we are basically stuck with for another year - players who are not really part of MA's plans (Payne and Coker for example). The first few home games will be behind closed doors and it could be December at the very earliest before we are allowed decent attendance levels. Unlike EPL clubs with TV money, a very large percentage of our income comes from gate receipts. So the losses will continue unfortunately.
Once we are allowed full capacity, MA will have to provide winning football, otherwise crowds will decrease. A season of mid to lower table mediocrity would therefore be disastrous for the finances, and would not help either with the strategy of MA developing players who might command a decent transfer fee.
So, while Covid has levelled the playing field as regards competitor's budgets, MA will still have to produce the goods. Clive and Co do not have bottomless pockets, and some of the new directors that came on board the past two years were inevitably attracted by success. If its not forthcoming and we are lower table and back to 4-5k per game, they may well not stay around.
I don't think you can rule this scenario out. with the initial capacity constraints and the general economic situation,you could certainly see an average crowd in the region of 4,500. Mid table mediocrity is certainly possible and will not help. There has to be some uncertainty over the level of commercial income £m 1.21 in 2019-how well will this hold up ? And how robust are the central distributions, £m 1.47 in 2019 ?
Cashflow wise my take on the situation,I would say all the season ticket money received earlier,has been spent. And we may have to pay some of this back in respect of partial season ticket refunds. And it is difficult to see much more matchday income in the short term.Certainly there will be no meaningful revenue from pre-season friendlies.
I do think the cost cutting has got a lot further to go.
I sincerely hope Clive and Co do stick around, but the situation is challenging to say the least.