The complication of Football Finances - 'The Price of Football' | Vital Football

The complication of Football Finances - 'The Price of Football'

cherryexile

Vital 1st Team Regular
There is a really good BBC article on 'The Price of Football' covering football finances, with some really interesting points and case studies. It is a little long but well worth a read,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44850888

It includes the headline that 10 Premiership clubs don't need fans to turn up to matches in order to make a profit. That Forest Green appear to rely more than most on ticket sales to support their finances, that there are a number of clubs who spend more than their income on wages alone, and that Man United are almost as big as the entire Championship in terms of turnover.

There are some caveats, the research is up to 2016-17, and only include teams that provided a reasonably detailed breakdown in income and spending.
 
The key point is that is the FIRST season of the improved TV deal.

If you look at the Bournemouth example, their profit for 2016-17 increased by 11m but their turnover increased by a whopping 48m. That was all due to TV, none of their other income streams increased at all.

Staff costs alone that year went up by 20% and if you take into consideration the massive transfer fee and wage inflation since then they'll be back making losses again soon, if not already. Bournemouth's net transfer spend this summer was 30m.
 
I'm not sure how to take that report, I wouldn't have expected Forest Green to be one of those relying on match day income more than others. I suppose it depends how it measured and then how each club uses the 'rules'.
 
I'm not sure how to take that report, I wouldn't have expected Forest Green to be one of those relying on match day income more than others. I suppose it depends how it measured and then how each club uses the 'rules'.
I wonder if Ecotricity 'buy' lots of expensive matchday packages...
 
I'm not sure how to take that report, I wouldn't have expected Forest Green to be one of those relying on match day income more than others. I suppose it depends how it measured and then how each club uses the 'rules'.

It's obvious rubbish. But then the BBC like FGR and Salford being as they are an essentially elitist organisation swayed by money.

BTW, I quite like the BBC, but their craven approach to any government that threatens the licence fee does not cover them with glory.
 
I wonder if Ecotricity 'buy' lots of expensive matchday packages...

Forest Green still publish accounts that contain information the general public can see, most clubs hide behind the Small Company provisions which makes any sort of analysis impossible. In that sense they are more transparent than most.

But... in 2016-17 their turnover almost doubled, from 1.1m to 2.0 million, practically all the extra (800 of the 900k increase) made up of increases in "advertising and sponsorship".

Make of that what you will....
 
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....my other point though is that the analysis is false.

Let's take Sheffield United, according to the report the club most reliant on its fans.

The report says that 69.6% of Sheff Utd's turnover is from fans.

Well, baldly, that's right. But in 2016-17 they won League one with a turnover of 11.6 million, but expenses of 17.3 million.

In reality, fans only contributed 45.7% of the Blades costs that season. They, like practically every other professional and semi professional club, are heavily reliant on the funding coming from their owners.
 
The percentage of Lincoln's income from gate money would be an interesting figure. Despite increasing the average attendance to 5,477, the final figure will be massively distorted by prize money from the FA Cup run (£395,000) and live television revenue (£671,000).