Category 1 costs somewhere in the region of 3 million pounds a year to fund at a minimum, the richer clubs spend a lot more than that. There are no freely available figures I could find that show how much each academy receives from the Premier League and FA.
It's very much economies of scale at work. The bigger the club, the more they spend, they more likely they are to make a bit of money (or rather save money on buying in players). Portsmouth do not, and probably will not for very many years, exist at at level where that is affordable.
If you look at Swansea, for an example, when they had a Category One academy it was costing them 6-7 million a year to run. Dropping down to Category Two meant costs would reduce to around 2 million.
You can still compete in the regional U23 competitions at Cat 2, but not in Premier League 2. You may, if fortunate, cover your costs or maybe make a couple of million either by saving in transfers or in sales at that level.
Perhaps at some point in the future, when everything else that will make more money or is better value has been undertaken, there would come a time when the club should consider this. But we are quite a long way from that.
It's very much economies of scale at work. The bigger the club, the more they spend, they more likely they are to make a bit of money (or rather save money on buying in players). Portsmouth do not, and probably will not for very many years, exist at at level where that is affordable.
If you look at Swansea, for an example, when they had a Category One academy it was costing them 6-7 million a year to run. Dropping down to Category Two meant costs would reduce to around 2 million.
You can still compete in the regional U23 competitions at Cat 2, but not in Premier League 2. You may, if fortunate, cover your costs or maybe make a couple of million either by saving in transfers or in sales at that level.
Perhaps at some point in the future, when everything else that will make more money or is better value has been undertaken, there would come a time when the club should consider this. But we are quite a long way from that.