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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).

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