Can we afford to stay in league one? (1 Viewer)

[skybluetony176]

As the title really. There's been a lot of talk about not being able to compete with club's who have rich owners in the championship but why would we have to compete with these? Surely mid table mediocrity in the championship will be more financially rewarding than mid table mediocrity in league one?

We'd benefit from extra prize money, extra TV money, bigger home crowds (if nothing else boosted by a fuller away end), extra sponsorship (I find it hard to believe there won't be any) and extra money from the shop.

I don't buy the whole "we'll be a yo yo league one - championship club" argument if we have the right manager in place. Who knows we might even fluke a promotion to the premier league, it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

Rather than add to our debt mountain I would argue that it's our best chance of paying some of and who knows, if we fluked a season in the premier league we could pay the lot of and maybe even have enough in the bank (with parachute money) to start talking seriously about a new ground.

One things for sure. We're stagnating at best if we stay in league one. Financially and on the football side. The latter actually making it more likely that we'll deteriorate than stagnate. So like I originally asked. Can we afford to stay in league one?

 

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[Otis]

Think we'd be saying the same thing if we went down to League Two.

 

[Astute]

The one problem we seem to have is lack of confidence. And who could blame us? 35 years approx since our last top 6 finish. Mainly relegation battles. But it isn't how much money you have to spend. It is how you spend it. If you go spending it on buying players you would need a lot. But if you pick up decent freebies you can afford to pay better wages.

It is said that it is worth 5m a season to be in the Championship. That is 10 players on 10k a week. I am not saying we should spend it on just 10 players but it shows how much TM could improve our squad with no cash coming from SISU. Our attendances would be bigger. It is hard for us to say by how much but how much would our attendances go up after promotion? They would surely go up even during this season if we do well. And with a better squad we would have a better chance of a good cup run and getting a big tie.

Do we remember Yeovil a couple of years ago? I tipped them to get promoted as I liked the way they played. Some on here called me deluded (nothing unusual there) and was told my bet at 80/1 was a waste of money. They had one of the lowest budgets in this division. They got promoted. It doesn't happen frequently but it shows what a well run club can do. That is something else we are not used to. When was the last time our club was well run? TM has changed things. We are now well on the way to being run as we should be. My top priority is keeping hold of TM. With him we have a chance.

 

[JulianDarbyFTW]

There has to be a level of realism. If the club is to stand on its own two feet financially, then the chances are that we won't compete in the Championship. That said, if / when the books balance, then gradually the state of the club (financially) should improve with a stint in that division. I can see us yo-yoing for a while tbh. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Rather some excitement at the top end of a table every couple of seasons that just never-ending mediocrity.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

I think you're right to a point but underestimate how difficult even that we will be.

The aim should be to stay in the championship as long as possible and hope we fluke a promotion in the way Burnley, Blackpool and Crystal Palace did and Ipswich nearly did last year.

However even being a mid table championship club comes at a price for many. Look at Blackburn and Bolton who have massive debts now probably over the 150 million mark and both are now mediocre championship clubs, both have been a mess though for a while now.

If we get ourselves sorted out, with a good manager which I think we have, with good recruitment and a good academy I think it's possible to out perform our budget to stay in the championship. Problem is its very fragile an a couple of mistakes and it could all come crashing down as the margin for error would be next to none.

 

[skybluetony176]

I think you're right to a point but underestimate how difficult even that we will be.

The aim should be to stay in the championship as long as possible and hope we fluke a promotion in the way Burnley, Blackpool and Crystal Palace did and Ipswich nearly did last year.

However even being a mid table championship club comes at a price for many. Look at Blackburn and Bolton who have massive debts now probably over the 150 million mark and both are now mediocre championship clubs, both have been a mess though for a while now.

If we get ourselves sorted out, with a good manager which I think we have, with good recruitment and a good academy I think it's possible to out perform our budget to stay in the championship. Problem is its very fragile an a couple of mistakes and it could all come crashing down as the margin for error would be next to none.

I was thinking more along the lines of a Huddersfield or Charlton. What type of budget do they survive with? Bolton and Blackburn are in disarray much the same as we were when we came down. Consistent bad management in all area's of the club, on and of the field.

It would be interesting to know what budget TM actually feels we would need to survive the championship. He seems to be a realist. He wasn't looking for extra money when he took the job, just control of that money and has only ever talked about getting out of this league so you have to assume that he has a budget that he feels will allow him to do that if spent better.