Personally I don't know any city fan that isn't hoping to get at least to the play offs this season or for better than that. Would love us to be promoted and not via the playoffs. But that isn't this discussion is it.
Mr Fletcher says to be in the Premiership you need to own your ground. Clearly you don't. You need access to as much income as possible, and even then most of the income (over 90% in Swansea's situation) is not actually related to ownership or not. Using Swansea as an example then I would guess less than 5% relates to the incomes we don't at present have any access to - yes that's around £5m but That still implies 95% of our income in the Premiership would be from sources we potentially have access to now
But we haven't got there have we. Still in L1 with a good chance of promotion to the Championship. That promotion brings, like it or not, financial gains but also financial problems which make the next step to Premiership very hard indeed. Like it or not available spend is even more important in the Championship - it is vital
Our situation is what it is. It restricts other incomes - but not most of the income. It clearly does not restrict the clubs ability to compete at the top end of L1 - although I would guess the budget is one of the lowest we have had in recent times but we are told it is one of the biggest in L1.Thanks to SBAndy for his "digging" it seems there is a significant increase in solidarity payments etc coming in. That appears to cover the wages gap I suggested, which I had guessed however that's just the wages what about funds for buying players? what about competing with clubs that have the parachute payments? what about competing with clubs who historically have bigger turnovers? What about the effect the new Premiership deal will have on the value & wages of the players we might hope to attract?
Is there potential for a better deal at the Ricoh, yes I would think so. However don't base it on what the cost bases were 4 years ago, things are very different now. But the first step is that both Wasps and CCFC have to commit to a long term mutually beneficial "partnership" of some kind. The key there is that Wasps have to want CCFC there long term and CCFC have to want to be there long term. Right now at least one side of that does not seem to exist. Right now Wasps will give/negotiate CCFC very little on a short term basis - be honest why would you. But perhaps if the owners say we want to stay but cant progress on the present basis, we want to be higher Championship and ultimately Premiership, long term you need us and would benefit, this is our business plan, both at the Ricoh we are all worth a whole lot more - then just maybe there might be room to negotiate a better deal. I am not saying that this will happen and if the owners assess that such an option is not in the best interests of the CLUB then so be it. But to say a better deal on incomes will never happen is the typical blinkered financial view that got both clubs in the financial messes in the first place. The old thinking doesn't work in reality, it masses debt upon debt and ends up as a disaster, we have to be more creative and I think this is where Anderson has suggested we should be in thought process
Will Seppala work with Wasps? Was she at this weeks SCG by the way?
There are things they could do to get some of the other incomes - they could put conferences, events, etc on using the site for example. Yes that benefits Wasps but it also primarily benefits CCFC. But they don't do it despite being always able to have done so. Thing is aside from the antipathy that in my opinion exists at the top of the ownership towards the site/Wasps/CCC, I get the impression of an amateur commercial side, but also the lack hard cash to do it or even the will
Look at just about any Championship team and they all keep adding debt season after season in their attempt to get to the promised land. Most of those teams will have wage costs well over £8m pa but also have the ability to buy players. The league rules allow losses to be made annually - up to £15m over three years. That has to be financed, bills have to be paid, losses covered by someone. Our owners have said stand on your own two feet, no more money, will that change if we get promoted? Can it change? Is there the passion to change and "invest" more? Does the club need more debt can it survive more debt?
Not pissing on anyone's chips in saying any of this. There are solutions that can help, if there were not we might as well give up now. Would rather go in in eyes at least partly open rather than with unfounded over blown expectations. This is a thread about owning the stadium and the finance it brings isn't it
Why do I worry about the finances of going up - because our finances are precarious and if we do and fail because of lack of funds, investment, turnover then we get relegated it is a big problem. We might of course really succeed who knows but I suspect there will be a debt risk to that
Yes I and others might be getting ahead of ourselves, we may be wrong and the club has it all sorted (very sceptical of that), but above all we should enjoy the success we are having- what will be will be
Looking forward to a win this weekend
PUSB's
