Generic clubs in financial crisis Thread

[Royal With Cheese]

I still don't see how the previous administrators could afford to get in the likes of Kitson in when they were clearly so much troble.

Still, fcuk 'em I say.

[Silver Fox]

There are six home games coming up in the next five weeks so let's make every single one a sell-out - starting with Leeds on Saturday.

Good luck with that, at least Leeds will bring a few

[Franchise FC]

There are six home games coming up in the next five weeks so let's make every single one a sell-out - starting with Leeds on Saturday.

Good luck with that, at least Leeds will bring a few

If you assume that the ticket price is an average of, say, £25 (face value adults is £30, but juniors and concessions are £15 and £22)
That there are, say, 5000 season ticket holders
And that the 6 games are a sell-out

That's £325,000 per game and a total of just under £2m.
According to their latest accounts they're average wage bill for a week is c£750k
6 weeks worth of that is £3m - even if there are no breaks in the number of weeks home games

Assuming they are consistent and don't pay the VAT ( ), that provides not nearly enough to even pay their way on a day to day basis.

In fact, to break even they need 30,000 paying customers every week and their capacity is .............18,000.

Someone please prove me wrong otherwise this is just madness.

[facaldaqui]

I still don't see how the previous administrators could afford to get in the likes of Kitson in when they were clearly so much troble.

Still, fcuk 'em I say.

I was gobsmacked that at a time when it looked like we couldn't even afford someone on loan, this lot were signing Kitson, Halford and other players on daft wages, while keeping such as Mokoena and Kanu on the books. The one that really took me aback was Liam Lawrence, who always looked a good premiership player to me. Why on earth did Portsmouth start paying premiership wages again after administration and relegation? There were people on this board saying why can't we take risks and buy success the Portsmouth way, that honesty doesn't pay. But now we see that it does; they are in crap and we've attracted potentially decent investors. In fact, I believe one reason we stay in this league is that every year several teams we compete against are hobbled by the consequences of being improvidently run.

What really shocks me is that this could happen after the previous meltdown. Why would a club who had collapsed through living above its means just start living above its means all over again? That's a separate question from the fact that the new owner turned out to be a villain--you have to insure yourself against that possibility, as I hope Reading will. Even in the recent window Portsmouth decided to keep their players instead of trying to raise some cash to pay their staff--obviously the idea was that these players could keep them up, even against a ten-point deduction. It remains to be seen, but will that gamble pay off? If these players do indeed play on without wages and keep the club up, how fair is that on the other teams at the bottom?

[TFF]

There are six home games coming up in the next five weeks so let's make every single one a sell-out - starting with Leeds on Saturday.

Good luck with that, at least Leeds will bring a few

If you assume that the ticket price is an average of, say, £25 (face value adults is £30, but juniors and concessions are £15 and £22)
That there are, say, 5000 season ticket holders
And that the 6 games are a sell-out

That's £325,000 per game and a total of just under £2m.
According to their latest accounts they're average wage bill for a week is c£750k
6 weeks worth of that is £3m - even if there are no breaks in the number of weeks home games

Assuming they are consistent and don't pay the VAT ( ), that provides not nearly enough to even pay their way on a day to day basis.

In fact, to break even they need 30,000 paying customers every week and their capacity is .............18,000.

Someone please prove me wrong otherwise this is just madness.

You're ignoring TV revenue and parachute payments, but yeah, madness.

[facaldaqui]

There are six home games coming up in the next five weeks so let's make every single one a sell-out - starting with Leeds on Saturday.

If you assume that the ticket price is an average of, say, £25 (face value adults is £30, but juniors and concessions are £15 and £22)
That there are, say, 5000 season ticket holders
And that the 6 games are a sell-out

That's £325,000 per game and a total of just under £2m.
According to their latest accounts they're average wage bill for a week is c£750k
6 weeks worth of that is £3m - even if there are no breaks in the number of weeks home games

Assuming they are consistent and don't pay the VAT ( ), that provides not nearly enough to even pay their way on a day to day basis.

In fact, to break even they need 30,000 paying customers every week and their capacity is .............18,000.

Someone please prove me wrong otherwise this is just madness.

You're ignoring TV revenue and parachute payments, but yeah, madness.

It's amazing that there seems to be more financial acumen on this board than on Portsmouth's. Some here have grumbled, and the occasional whinger has said, "Where's the money gone?" but most of us have paid attention and grasped that we need to sell players for millions and millions just to stand a chance of running Reading in this division. This is why we are bewildered to see the sorts of players some clubs sign--but obviously they are gambling and we aren't. Recently we've seen the likes of Plymouth and Preston go down after overstretching themselves--Coventry probably to follow. If Portsmouth don't pay the price and get relegated it will be cheating, basically, by fielding top players they can't pay, won't pay. The Reading way is a bit grim at times, but it's honest and relatively successful.

[Terminal Boardom]

There are six home games coming up in the next five weeks so let's make every single one a sell-out - starting with Leeds on Saturday.

Good luck with that, at least Leeds will bring a few

If you assume that the ticket price is an average of, say, £25 (face value adults is £30, but juniors and concessions are £15 and £22)
That there are, say, 5000 season ticket holders
And that the 6 games are a sell-out

That's £325,000 per game and a total of just under £2m.
According to their latest accounts they're average wage bill for a week is c£750k
6 weeks worth of that is £3m - even if there are no breaks in the number of weeks home games

Assuming they are consistent and don't pay the VAT ( ), that provides not nearly enough to even pay their way on a day to day basis.

In fact, to break even they need 30,000 paying customers every week and their capacity is .............18,000.

Someone please prove me wrong otherwise this is just madness.

The one thing that has been overlooked is that PFC get no revenue from away games but the wages will still be there. So...

Wage bill of £750k per week x 10 weeks = £7.5m
Maximum ticket revenue £325k per game - £2m

Bring it on!

[Mr Angry]

Those costs won't include the stuff that gets overlooked; insurance, travel and accomadation, cleaners etc etc.

As I have said before, if I was supplying a service to Portsmouth football club, I would expect cash up front before I got my cleaners in, or had a coach take the players to Barnsley.

[Wycombe Royal]

Erik Huseklepp (or whatever his name is) is going on loan to Birmingham.

[Fox Talbot]

Those costs won't include the stuff that gets overlooked; insurance, travel and accomadation, cleaners etc etc.

Nah they don't count, "we're Pompey and we'll pay what we want!"

[Cobi]

Good chance of it kicking off a week Tuesday. We're in good form for pee taking and they will bite, especially if we're a goal or two to the good.

[Mr Angry]

Good chance of it kicking off a week Tuesday. We're in good form for pee taking and they will bite, especially if we're a goal or two to the good.

Can someone translate please?

[Royal Lady]

If they're not paying their players, why are the players bothering to turn up. Cynics might suggest that Kitson got himself sent off the other day so he wouldn't have to play, if he's not getting paid....

[Barry the bird boggler]

Shame the players probably all have termination compensation in their contracts otherwise the obvious place to start making redundancies would be there.

[facaldaqui]

If they're not paying their players, why are the players bothering to turn up. Cynics might suggest that Kitson got himself sent off the other day so he wouldn't have to play, if he's not getting paid....

I wouldn't be surprised if the players stop playing ball. They've now been told to defer their wages till the end of the season; but they must suspect that when the end of the season comes they will be asked to accept only a proportion of the wages they're owed, as happened at Plymouth. No matter how wealthy they are, that would chuck a few mortgages out for sure. I just wish we were playing them later rather than sooner.

[facaldaqui]

Erik Huseklepp (or whatever his name is) is going on loan to Birmingham.

Not happy that he's gone to our close rivals. And lets not forget that Birmingham City are owned by a bloke who is up on several charges of grand theft in Hong Kong.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

If they're not paying their players, why are the players bothering to turn up. Cynics might suggest that Kitson got himself sent off the other day so he wouldn't have to play, if he's not getting paid....

he probably did and can you blame him?

If it was me, Id be off like a shot. Wouldn't be risking injury and a career for that lot. Who knows if Pompey have paid the players insurance premiums? I doubt it.

[TFF]

Players agree deferred wages - and write off January pay

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompe ... _1_3555067

and the loans have started http://www.wba.co.uk/page/News/0,,10366~2621077,00.html

Why won't they just die quietly?

[Barry the bird boggler]

Presumably they also aren't paying anything for these loans?

[ankeny]

The sooner their club dies the better,no time for the club or it's fans.