Skip to main content

How do League Two clubs survive?

The latest accounts for Exeter City have come out. They are in the small company format, so there is limited information, but they lost £792,000 in a year. However, they only owe money to the Supporters' Society who are an industrial and provident trust and the sole owners.

One challenge for Exeter is they are in a city with a very successful rugby union side. The surrounding area has a high retired population who may not be inclined to come to matches and/or have allegiances to up country clubs.

Accrington Stanley are having a very successful season, but they are sandwiched between a Premier League club at Burnley and Blackburn Rovers that fell on hard times, but are now reviving. A Burnley fan tells me that some of their fans do treat Accrington as a second club if they want to see a game when the Clarets aren't playing. In 2016/17 they had the lowest average home attendance in League Two at 1,699. The figure for Exeter was 4,166. Lower league clubs are very reliant on gate money whereas it is only around 15 per cent of the income of a typical Premier League club.

Stadium occupancy in the Premier League is 96.5 per cent, in League Two it is 52 per cent in much smaller stadiums.

The club is on a more stable financial footing since Andy Holt, a local businessman, bought it in 2015. When three players left last summer, the fact that they were on longer term contracts meant that £750,000 could be recouped in transfer fees. About £2m has been invested to improving the decaying facilities that caused the floodlights to trip out when a substituted player went for a shower and tripped the power during the play off game against Wimbledon. There are plans for a new stand to replace the 'cow shed' that runs along one side of the pitch and also for a new training ground (players currently train at the local leisure centre).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
Post a Comment
Read more

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

A poor financial record, but new hope at Everton

I recently saw an amusing video online in which a group of Everton fans were rebuked in jest for being hopeful.  Football fans in general tend to swing between excessive optimism and excessive pessimism, but for many it seems that moaning is in their bloodstream (Spurs fans probably take the trophy).  However, Everton fans have had plenty to moan about on and off the pitch.   Let’s hope that a new era is about to begin for this grand old club. Everton’s 2023/24 financial results covered a fairly momentous season, when they ended up 15th in the Premier League, though they would finished three places higher if they had not received an 8-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR). It was a worrying time for Everton fans, as the club faced a “perfect storm” of issues, including large financial losses, an ever increasing debt burden, a challenging stadium build and the tortuous sale of the club. There were eve...
Post a Comment
Read more