It’s simple maths; the wage bill till June 2009 was £15.6m, When you consider that the only guaranteed income is from 23 league games, the average gate being 14000. Each seat needed to cost £48.50 just to cover the wage bill. I know the club get money from other sources but you shouldn’t rely on cup runs etc to pay the wage bill. Reading these posts the wage bill has been trimmed to £10m that still means each ticket should cost £31. I also read in these posts that the average wage in this division is £3k a week. If that’s the case then with a squad of 24, the players wage bill would be £3.75m, at current ticket prices, there would be a surplus of £3m to pay the other wages. What’s the answer? If you increase ticket prices you get smaller gates, if you try and reduce players wages, you don’t attract quality players. It’s not just a Watford problem, with the way the game has gone, most clubs will be struggling to keep afloat. The board cannot be relied on the provide constant cash injections, as recent affairs show. What I find difficult understanding is, if you run a business and it requires funds to work. If you provide the funds and the business flourishes you get the rewards, if the business fails you lose your money. With football, directors come along inject cash, if the club doesn’t make a profit they want their money back, whether the club has the funds or not. Is Watford Football Club a business or something else? Here’s something you might find interesting, I saw my first match aged 9, we played Coventry City it was the last season we played in Royal Blue and white, the visitors won 3-0. I paid 6d(2.5p)in the boys to stand. Men paid 1/-(5p). the national average wage was £5 per week. The national average wage is now £500per week, the average ticket price is now £21.
mmmm...another doom an' gloom post...just join on the rest! We are secure untill june /july and the Mighty Lord ( not the one nailed to a cross!) has said he will support the club until it will "stand on its own two feet"....quote on bbc site me thinks... Please give up on the doom and gloom...including Sir Paddy......We'll be ok...not rich but not dead and more importantly, not minus 10 valuable points!.....support Malky and the Squad... to be honest , the make up (not boots ..DUH) of the board doesn't matter..the boys on the pitch are in a great position to do good things for our club...much better than pizza wars with a lettuce....ps...can some of u lovely peeps pop into L'Artista (next to O'Neils) and say hello and eat musselsss....miss 'em ...and god the bestest Calzone in........)
I got major food poisoning from eating a calzone and lartista once. Was pooping through an eye of a needle for a week
JP - i am once again fall of optimism for WFC now that the two veggies are not running the club into the ground with their self centred and own interest decision making - It has been as good a xmas than any. Unlike the masses who loved the bruvs becasue of their actions agianst GS etc, I saw far more sinister intentions and raised many questions - It wasn't doom and gloom, it was being aware that they were not the right people to be running the club - I don't think I was too far wrong! The orns will be fine from here on in - though I do think we will be closer to bottom 3 than top 6, but we have a 12 point cushion from the first half of the season and need less than a point a game from here on in, to stay up. The squad is thin but gutsy but we need to find a goalscorer otherwise we will need to rely on low scores for points meaning our defence has to be at its best all the time. Now Lump is off for a year I wonder if there will be funds to continue HH loan? The next month will be a measure of the depth of the clubs financial plight - if only players leaving and none coming in - it will be a tough second half of the season on the pitch. Bristol City 1 Watford 3 U ornssssssssssssssssssssssssssss TRFO!:]]:sign15:
Not sure you really understand the finances in football (not gonna lie i'm not exactly an expert). Tickets is definatley not 'our only guaranteed income', fans ticket money is only a small part of our income. There is more money to be had from sponsers and T.V than there is ticket money.
You're right Orns, I don't understand football finance, does anyone? What I was trying to say was, we are living beyond our means. The salad boys company, was loaning the club £1m every 2 months, at 3.5%above base rate. EJ's loans were all interest free, I think!!!!
You make some valid points, although don`t forget the shareholding Directors (in common with all of our shareholders) have seen the value of their holdings plummet. According to the accounts (at June 2009) we are spending 68% of revenue on wages, which equates to £15.69 million (against £17.7 million in the previous year). This should reduce once the contracts of expensive players who have left filters through. The club had net assets of £4 million, and in the last years accounts actually lost more on players written down values (£4.3 million) than they earned in transfers ( £3.7 million). Our future profitability will rely on quality scouting, keen negotiating, and youth development. These are the skills we need our owners to encourage.
