Barnsley FC Account to 31 May 2016

I think running an academy needs to be evaluated over a relatively long period. 10 yearly reviews because you can't evaluate it based on fluctuates within individual seasons. Where we need to start recouping value is in selling players not quite good enough for us but good enough to generate fees.

I guess the fees for Stones, Holgate and Bree mean it has been at worst cost neutral to run since its inception.

As you say whilst ever mr Cryne wants to run it then we will have it.

 

Exactly. As I see it, Barnsley were acting as a Championship club, maintaining Championship infrastructure in League 1. To some extent this is a gamble, but so far it's one that's paid off. Burton were essentially a League 2 club, with League 2 infrastructure, who received a windfall from doing so well in League 1. Getting back to the Championship was presumably in our medium/long term plan, and risks were taken with that in mind - it wouldn't have been in Burton's.

The accounts that we're discussing are a snapshot in time, and under these circumstances it makes perfect sense that Burton would have made a profit that season while we would have made a loss.

 

I don't think my understanding is too far away from that, except that as you say the loan account (now including the unissued share figure) really falls under capital, rather than income and expenses. I think that the principles of accounting I studied in a former life are still the same - it's just the reporting style that is different. I'm a SSAP man, not a GAAP man!

 

Yet both clubs are supposed to be run within the restrictions of SCMP - your mortal enemy.

Burton were able to make a profit on a smaller turnover. The immediate reaction to a £1m loss is that people will say it shows how reliant we are on Cryne. This is not the case. If the club is choosing to spend excessively it is their own choice and I will not consider myself indebted to Cryne because of it. Shame they can't look at redistributing their overspend a bit.

By the way, your opening gambit in post 78 - very condescending. Does you no favours.

 

SCMP is presumably the reason that Mr Cryne chose to donate, rather than loan money to the club. He can never recover that donation, unlike a loan which he can recoup when the club sell a player. I am not suggesting he has done that by the way.

Whether you are grateful to Mr Cryne for his generosity is entirely the choice of the individual. I am sure that Mr Cryne has not invested in the way he has because he wants our goodwill. He will know that being the owner of a football club attracts praise only when the club is doing well. He has also received his fair share of criticism on here as well. He has invested because he wanted to, he is passionate about the club and wanted to see it back playing at a higher level than third tier. It was his choice. I have often questioned whether Barnsley is large enough or wealthy enough to support a team in the second tier of English football. Whereas most posters began supporting the club when it played in the second tier, and because of that, they regard it as our natural position, I began supporting the club when it was in the fourth tier, and I am happy that for most of the years I have watched the team, it has played above that level. But I am aware of what it is like down there, and I do not look forward to returning to that level. As a result, I tend to question whether the town wants a second tier football team badly enough. Some posters say that it is the club's fault that it does not have a higher turnover. It does not have enough advertising, the shop is poorly stocked, they do not use the ground for other activities besides football. That is one view, a view that takes all responsibility for the quality of the team and its level of performance away from the town and the fans. However, it is a fact that league position is entirely dependent upon funding. You can always find an exception in the short term, when a club achieves a measure of success against the odds, but in the long term Burton cannot sustain second tier football. When fans do not turn up, someone else has to foot the bill for the club's ambition, or it drifts down the leagues. Mr Cryne has done that, and I am grateful. But gratitude is entirely a personal thing. If you want to only to find fault, I would not be the one to stop you.

 

Well put. If we had a foreign Celino type owner for example that had posted a loss in five of the last seven years they were the main decision maker for, much more would be made of this. I don't want Patrick Cryne to spend his hard earned money running us at a loss. We really should have been in the black last season for all we achieved, especially if Burton Albion can. It's his choice to run the club at a loss so often. We as fans haven't told him to because it's nothing to do with us.

 

Perhaps we just have a very good accountant.

 

If Burton hadn't sold a player they'd have made a loss. They also rent their facilities to the FA sometimes.

 

We sold a player.

We also "sold" a "manager".

 

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