TrueBlueArmy Forums

Looking at some of the posts on the Lapado thread got me thinking about the numbers should we reach The Championship this or next season. I referred to 888 and Pompey website and then guesstimated some numbers. Obviously very ‘finger in the air’ and open to changes by other poster but here goes:

PLAYER EXPENDITURE
Cowley opts to go with 18 senior players earning 50% of Championship average, this equates to £910K each, giving a total of £16.4 Million (plus add ons like NI).
He tops up with 6 players just about Championship standard earning £600K each totalling £3.6 Million

A total playing budget of £20 Million plus add ons
Would that would buy a team that might have a chance of 4th from bottom ?

The above provides nothing for Youth/Academy development !

GATE INCOME

14,000 Seasons at £300 average brings in £4.2 Million
3,000 Matchday tickets at £30 each for each home game gives £ 2 Million

Total gate income totals £6.2 million

Player expenditure less gate income leaves a shortfall of £13.8 million

Pompey will get c.£ 6 Million for being in the Championship plus maybe £200K for televised matches

So the shortfall is reduced to £7.6 Million

There are other things to be factored in:

OTHER EXPENDITURE
Will include Development of a Youth structure/ Academy, non-playing wages and salaries and NI, Business rates, HLP, Stadium and Ground maintenance, Insurances etc and myriad others.
It is assumed that Eisner will pay for all HS&E related and capacity improvement matters relating to the stadium as promised.

OTHER INCOME
Will include Sponsorship, Merchandising, hospitality, iFollow, food and beverage sales, programmes etc

It might be wishful thinking that, the OTHERS above, will cancel each other out ……but the Youth/Academy set up may make that difficult. How is the £7.6 million shortfall funded ?

All above numbers and assumptions are open to criticism of course, maybe the squad is too large, maybe the discount to average Championship wages should be 70% but the smaller the squad and the less the quality the more certain of a season of struggle.
I don’t think Gate receipts can be improved, in fact, they may be optimistic if we struggle.

Those of you who are ITK or have access to the accounts can put some flesh on the bones perhaps.

I don’t see how EWWK enables us establish ourselves in The Championship, we simply can’t ‘kill’ enough to ‘eat’ to survive in it. 
Maybe acceptance that we are, like Wycombe and Peterborough for example, at best, yo-yo clubs, is required……a bitter pill to swallow for myself.

Anyway, kick the numbered to death, change them to fit your own narrative but most of all, show me how to square this particular circle !

Really interesting post (BTW, are you still in California? If so, we are practically neighbours at the moment).
I'm sure there must be something missing from the potential income, as we would probably be mid-table Championship in terms of gate receipts, and certainly a fair few with gates significantly less than ours. Sponsorship money would definitely increase significantly, but we definitely need to balance the books. I also believe players wage expectations at all non-Prem clubs will have to be modified in the aftermath of the huge costs to clubs of Covid (which is where we are lucky with the Eisners). That said, we have a reason to expect the Eisners to increase the budget enough to be able to stay in the Championship if we get there, it would be as much of interest to them as to us. Meanwhile, let's get that elusive CF in!

I don't think those figures are too far out Wightblue. Possibly a bigger discount on the average wage would not guarantee a struggle as I think that average is a mean average dramatically skewed by a relatively small number of very high paid players at the top few ex Premiership clubs. Rocketman is right that our attendances would be roughly in the mid table so theoretically we would have a mid table income. I do think attendances at FP would increase with a significantly increased capacity. While it is rarely full at present, it is difficult to get 3 or 4 seats together if you're not a season ticket holder except in the Milton End. 
More away fans also in the Championship due to more bigger clubs also brings higher gate receipts

Our revenue is currently circa £12M (without gate losses from covid) assuming your gate is about 17,000 on average and you have a moderate cup run. You get an extra £6M in solidarity payments from the championship.

TV revenue in L1 is 30k per game. In the championship it is over 100k.

The revenue would jump to about 20M in year 1 in the championship which is actually plenty. It is mental cases and parachute payments that skews the average budget for that league. Average median gives a more realistic number.

Still bottom 6 or 7 budget but survivable. There would need to be smart investment in the academy though. Much more than they are currently putting in.

(10-01-2022, 05:00 PM)Wightblue Wrote: [ -> ]Looking at some of the posts on the Lapado thread got me thinking about the numbers should we reach The Championship this or next season. I referred to 888 and Pompey website and then guesstimated some numbers. Obviously very ‘finger in the air’ and open to changes by other poster but here goes:

PLAYER EXPENDITURE
Cowley opts to go with 18 senior players earning 50% of Championship average, this equates to £910K each, giving a total of £16.4 Million (plus add ons like NI).
He tops up with 6 players just about Championship standard earning £600K each totalling £3.6 Million

A total playing budget of £20 Million plus add ons
Would that would buy a team that might have a chance of 4th from bottom ?

The above provides nothing for Youth/Academy development !

GATE INCOME

14,000 Seasons at £300 average brings in £4.2 Million
3,000 Matchday tickets at £30 each for each home game gives £ 2 Million

Total gate income totals £6.2 million

Player expenditure less gate income leaves a shortfall of £13.8 million

Pompey will get c.£ 6 Million for being in the Championship plus maybe £200K for televised matches

So the shortfall is reduced to £7.6 Million

There are other things to be factored in:

OTHER EXPENDITURE
Will include Development of a Youth structure/ Academy, non-playing wages and salaries and NI, Business rates, HLP, Stadium and Ground maintenance, Insurances etc and myriad others.
It is assumed that Eisner will pay for all HS&E related and capacity improvement matters relating to the stadium as promised.

OTHER INCOME
Will include Sponsorship, Merchandising, hospitality, iFollow, food and beverage sales, programmes etc

It might be wishful thinking that, the OTHERS above, will cancel each other out ……but the Youth/Academy set up may make that difficult. How is the £7.6 million shortfall funded ?

All above numbers and assumptions are open to criticism of course, maybe the squad is too large, maybe the discount to average Championship wages should be 70% but the smaller the squad and the less the quality the more certain of a season of struggle.
I don’t think Gate receipts can be improved, in fact, they may be optimistic if we struggle.

Those of you who are ITK or have access to the accounts can put some flesh on the bones perhaps.

I don’t see how EWWK enables us establish ourselves in The Championship, we simply can’t ‘kill’ enough to ‘eat’ to survive in it. 
Maybe acceptance that we are, like Wycombe and Peterborough for example, at best, yo-yo clubs, is required……a bitter pill to swallow for myself.

Anyway, kick the numbered to death, change them to fit your own narrative but most of all, show me how to square this particular circle !

ITK? EWWK? WTF? IMO we need to cut down on the acronyms.

I don't know how people can be arsed to put so much thought into it. We've got a decent owner and a good manager, let them get on with it

It's impossible to square without sizeable investment in our infrastructure.

As things stand we are too "revenue-small" if such a phrase exists.

However, an increase in the capacity and facilities at Fratton Park so that you can have more season ticket holders (25k at £400 helps to bridge the Championship finance gap) and more revenue flowing in through events at the "stadium" outside of match days. If you also develop a successful academy for players (with some homegrown player sales thrown-in) and the numbers in the Championship might just start to make sense.

Cash from the owners for stadium development - yes please. This would also increase the value of their asset.

Cash from the owners for increasing players wages - no thanks, we've been down that road before.

2 Key Areas are vital to increased revenues:
1) Increased Capacity
2) Bigger Sponsorship Deals