Financial Results
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Grimsby Town: Seven Seas
Introduction Remember ITV Digital? The board of directors of Grimsby Town certainly do. They are still blaming the demise of the company for the financial woes of the club 15 years after the Monkey advertised channel went kaput in…err…March 2002. For those of you unfamiliar with the company. ITV Digital went bust after signing a £105 million per season TV deal for live broadcast of Football League matches. To give some context, the current Sky deal for the Football League is worth about £60 million. Whoever signed the contract on behalf of the Football League was clearly put on the naughty step, as it ended up losing about £180 million…
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Glasgow Rangers 2016/17: Orange Crush
Introduction I’ve only ever seen Rangers play once, which was at the 2008 UEFA Cup final. It’s fair to say that there was a discrepancy between the number of people who came to Manchester for the event and those who had tickets. The following morning I was on a breakfast TV show, and had to walk around and over hundreds, if not thousands, of Rangers fans who had decided to sleep al fresco on the streets following the match. 2016/17 saw a return after four years to the Premiership, Joey Barton scrapping with team mates, lawsuits against former directors and Mike Ashley, three managers, fan groups buying shares in the…
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Stoke City 2016/17 Results: Bring on the dancing horses
Introduction We like Stoke City, owned by a local who has underwritten the club’s rise to the Premier League, free coaches organised for fans to away matches, decent ticket prices, oat cakes (if you’ve not tried them you are missing out), cheap beer…and Peter Crouch, one of the game’s most likeable players. The club’s financial results are similar to the club itself. Nothing too flash, solid, dependable, which begs the question, why on earth have they just been relegated? Summary of key figures Income £136 million (up 30%) Broadcast income £108.7 million (up 37%) Wages £84.9 million (up 3%) Wages to income 62% (79% in 2016) Profit before player sales…
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Manchester City: Some girls are bigger than others
Introduction No trophies, third in the league, and the costs of embedding a new managerial regime may have had some thinking City would struggle financially in 2016/17 The headline figures are mixed, income is up significantly, profit before interest down 80%, but the club claims to have no debt and is self sufficient. Direct comparatives with the previous year’s profit and loss account figures are slightly distorted by City having a 13 month period of account for 2016/17, so bear this in mind when looking at growth compared to 2015/16. There’s nothing sinister in our opinion in changing the year end to 30 June. Income Clubs have three sources of…
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Hull City 2017: Marooned in Flamingoland
Introduction They came, they saw, they went back to the Championship. If ever a club in recent years deserves the ‘Yo-Yo’ label, it is Hull City. In the ten seasons commencing 2007-8 the club has been promoted and relegated three times. Hull were promoted via the playoffs in May 2016, but spent the summer in limbo, with a clear conflict between the owner Assem Allam and manager Steve Bruce, presumably over recruitment. Mike Phelan took over as caretaker, and on the back of a victories in the first two matches the club made the decision to appoint him as manager on a full-time basis. It’s doubtful whether any other £100…
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Norwich City 2017 Financial Results: Up the Down Escalator
Introduction It’s difficult to dislike Norwich (unless you’re an Ipswich fan). Old fashioned provincial stadium, once beat Bayern Munich, bit of a yo-yo existence, owner gets a bit lively after a few red wines, nothing brash or flash about them. Their financials are broadly the same, live within their means, sensible transfer policy, most matches sold out at home. Norwich were relegated at the end of 2015/16, but were among the bookies favourites to be promoted back to the Premier League the following season. Their board appeared to back the manager Alex Neill in the transfer market, and they spent £19.9 million in the transfer market signing Alex Pritchard (pantomime…