The Admin rumours

Pretty much. Without player sales we've been making a loss since, pretty much forever, but certainly since we exited administration. But as football has got dafter and dafter the gap between income and expenditure has grown. But we've always had decent players who we've sold for a tidy profit that helped plug the gap. Patrick put a bit in too I believe. But the talent has dried up, the shortfall is huge and the current owners are shovelling money in to fill the hole.

 

Budget = operating profit/loss.

The lack of player sales means that there is minimal player trading profit to offset against the operating loss.

However, the continual reduction in the value of the squad means that the amortisation of intangibles is also significantly lower reducing the operating loss.

The operating loss of £6.8m the prior year included the £3m legal settlement in respect of the purchase of the club.

If the club is losing over £8m pa then salaries have increased by over 30% which I find a stretch.

 

The EFL loan was to be paid up by 2024, and was to be taken directly from solidarity payments. According to publicly available sources. So I wouldn’t think that’s an ongoing concern.

I’d be surprised and concerned if the current spend on the playing staff is higher than it was summer of 2023. If it is, then something has gone spectacularly wrong, because the difference in quality/ability is stark. That was the period where the club made good money on such as Kitching, Andersen etc. Replaced by Shepherd, de Gevigney and so on. Then last summer, a number of players on Champ contracts left the club. I can’t see any way where those brought in as replacements could be earning more cash.
Styles leaving (another big wage plus transfer fee) should have paid for DKD. So you’d have to think that the spend has been reduced across these third tier campaigns.

I remember something public last year stating commercial deals were at record levels. The number of season tickets have held up across recent seasons, and there was an increase in price last year. The Sky deal for streaming was said to be more lucrative than the in-house ifollow arrangement. The club had the Simpson fight in the summer. We had a cup run that ended in an Old Trafford money spinner. So you’d like to think with all that taken into consideration, we ought to be better off financially this year.

As we’ve seen elsewhere this week, rumours often take on a life of their own. But that is made more possible when we exist in an information vacuum. I wish the club would be more communicative, engage with the fanbase and work together on moving forward. The radio silence only exacerbates the issue.

 

We have employed 3 new executives, who I'm sure combined are on more than Khaled, maybe? Are we seeing their benefit?

 

The key will be any compound effect on inflation across the couple of years. I wouldn't be surprised if we're pretty flat expenditure wise when you factor that in, and with us holding season ticket prices through that then it doesn't really close the gap.

 

If anyone wants a guide to what the value of the club is just have a look at Oakwell Holdings’ accounts.

The accounts to November 2023 show the total investment made to be £4.15m, this is based on the initial 20% holding being valued at £2m and the subsequent additions through rights issues of a further £2.15m.

The accounts show an impairment of £4.15m on the value with a remaining book value of £1!

 

So basically written off value and officially valuing the club at a couple of quid... Yeah?

 

Very good post...I've been banging the drum on here for ages we need a mission statement from the club, outlining our short , medium and long term goals. We have the FAB thing and all kinds of media outlines to do this but unfortunately what we have to go on are the accounts and the way we conduct our transfers. By that I mean, with the exception of DKD, we replace with lesser players from lower leagues to replace players on higher wages.
I don't want to know week on week where we are at with our finances but half yearly would be an improvement. Football really is funny....I can't think of any other business where the customers/ custodians, people chucking their hard earned cash etc are treated like this...if we are skint and need a re set.....tell us, they may be surprised on the reaction (happened a few years ago at Dortmund).
I do think if we are hemorrhaging all this money at the rates quoted, we need a proper root and branch investigation.

 

I imagine you’re spot on there.

 

Do season ticket sales really make that much difference?

The average ST price looks to be around £450. So based on our 8000 current number, that's 3.6m

Say we lose a thousand, then 7000 at £450 is 3.15m.

It's 450k. I suppose to answer my question, it's probably the signing of a player - so it does.

For more life advice, stay tuned.

 

It's not like our fan base to misquote a board member. Not at all.

 

Aye it's Sam Cosgrove for 6 months.

 

Do you think they would sell the club for a nominal amount to someone willing to take on the ongoing operational shortfall?

 

Either that, or it's the final nail to complete the devaluation of the "other shareholders" not currently on board, maybe....

One or the other anyway I'd say at least.

 

But are we not paid transfer fees owed to us yearly/monthly, if so without this money coming in the shortfall would be over a million a month???

 

Yeah but you could say the same about our outgoings too. Without it it would be less per month etc.

 

Still a vast amount of for such a very substandard team

 

Lots of it is relative though - running a football club is expensive. Player wages, staffing, event costs etc.

 

That I understand, still does not make the amount any less a significant figure to sustain over any long period ,especially now the players recruited are not at the minute likely to bring in high transfer fees

 

So without reading every post with a fine toothcomb, we are basically waiting for Al Ittihad to come in for MDG.
Then we'll be solvent, and can build a new ground?
The Mael De Gevigney Grove Street Arena.