Stoke away | Vital Football

Stoke away

Fuck the cups. We have barely 13 fit seniors. There’s no worthwhile financial gain this year.
Is it true there’s no prize money in the early rounds of the EFL Cup? So it’s actually costing us money the more we play in it?
 
Is it true there’s no prize money in the early rounds of the EFL Cup? So it’s actually costing us money the more we play in it?

Last year's figures which is probably the same this season.

1600413951823.png

At this point we've made about £12,000 in prize money without needing to pay the cost of away travel and hotels. Possibly we have made extra money via iFollow if more people have been paying for the service than would otherwise bother to buy matchday tickets.

Normally gate receipts for this tournament are shared so if Stoke supporters are really into the match and sign up en-mass to iFollow then we might make a bit of money. This is on the assumption that with the Carabao Cup being EFL run as is iFollow then they will be splitting the iFollow subscription money too.

I don't think we are making any money but we maybe aren't losing any at this point.
 
[QUOTE="Baghdad_Rob, post: 2456439, member:

I don't think we are making any money but we maybe aren't losing any at this point.[/QUOTE]

That would be good news - but to ask a very basic question: Does anyone know how lower league clubs are being funded with no significant income from supporters?
 
I've not seen any confirmation anywhere of this year's prize money, but I don't think there's any guarantee this year will be the same as last year. The FA Cup prize money this season has been reduced to 2017/2018 levels, apparently (not sure how big a reduction that involves).

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...next-season-while-prize-money-is-also-reduced

This is last season's FA Cup prize fund:

1600427115252.png

If you do the math then the total prize pool is:

1600427318236.png

I can understand why the FA would love to half the prize pool for the FA Cup. From a quick Google this was the 2017/18 prize pool:

1600427545463.png
so they have halved it.

The total prize fund for the Carabao Cup is £1,000,000.
 
That would be good news - but to ask a very basic question: Does anyone know how lower league clubs are being funded with no significant income from supporters?

I'm guessing they are relying on season tickets already sold to keep them ticking over with some additional funds from iFollow if all the non-season ticket holders can be encouraged to use the service.

Usually the season ticket sales would be budgeted to pay the bills over the full season, but I am guessing a higher percentage of it is being used to pay all the bills in the short term. I'd expect that a lot of clubs will run out of their season ticket sales by January and will be desperate for the (non-season ticket) crowds to come in on mass to boost the cash reserves to the end of the season.

I would not also be surprised if clubs offer season tickets earlier this season in order to get more cash in around spring.
 
Scally said on TalkSport earlier on the week that it costs £60k-£70k per match to put homes games on, so if the prize money was only £12k total for the first two rounds then we are definitely making a loss in the competition so far.
 
Scally said on TalkSport earlier on the week that it costs £60k-£70k per match to put homes games on, so if the prize money was only £12k total for the first two rounds then we are definitely making a loss in the competition so far.

I would think £60-70k with a crowd but an empty stadium can't cost that.
 
I would think £60-70k with a crowd but an empty stadium can't cost that.
Yes that’s possibly true, I suspect Scally was exaggerating somewhat on air, as he was talking about our lack of money in general and wanting help from either the PFA, EFL or Premier League. He was hopeful of getting something from the Premier League in the coming weeks to support the whole football pyramid.
 
This financial situation could have easily been solved by adding a small levy (1%?) on all transfer fees across English football, which could be distributed to the FL. Chelsea have spent £200m, if they’d have spent £202m they’d hardly have noticed the extra £2m which could have been filtered across the lower leagues. Not sure if such a model has been suggested or discussed previously but when we look at the transfer fees spent across the PL and Championship this summer, it must be almost £1b?