We ended up receiving £106,254,100 from last season's efforts. It's a little on the low side, compared to the rest, as we were shown on live TV the joint lowest at 10 times. Burnley must be feeling a little aggrieved as well. Also interesting, City might have won virtually every game they played, but United still got more money.
Merit fees I assume are prize money. So what are Facility fee’s? Because it is there where we are losing out to the others. Brighton made more money than us in their first season...
Incidentally the equal share was down this year because so many clubs are getting parachute payments and not coming straight back up to the PL. 10 times on the tv was down from 13 last season. We're up £3.5m on last season though thanks to the better position. Burnley actually only appeared on TV 7 times all season, but as every club is guaranteed the payment for 10 that's what the PL's graphic shows.
With the Facility Fees, I divided games played with Facility Fee, to see what each club were paid per game. I was expecting these figures to be the same, but they are not. The values differ quite significantly. It works out to be a strange pyramid. Watford, Burnley, Swansea, WBA and Huddersfield get more per game than any other team, whereas Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal received the smallest figure per game. Basically, the more games you play on live TV, the smaller average you receive.
Watford will survive in the EPL if our owners show greater football acumen than some of our rivals and a million or two one way or another will not make much difference to our status, i.e. they have to get greater value for money for their purchases overall.
Looking at the merit table, between 7th and 17th, apart from Everton the difference between the higher and lower awards is effectively the cost of 1 average player; getting the recruitment right and with good value is the key to relative success. Plus the additional that Everton earned compared to the others could easily be swallowed up in fines / payments for the Silva debacle.
My only real short term concern is that I hope Gino isn't going to do a Granada & potentially cash in on us in the next few seasons & re-focus on Udinese after all their issues from last season, probably no better time to sell us in the next few seasons in terms of their potential ROI on us. The other thing that might sometimes be forgotten is you have to keep an eye on the health of the dad Giampaulo, when he gets a free transfer & moves upstairs, so to speak, Gino might well then have to refocus solely on Udinese & move back to Italy at that stage. Watford Shanghai FC anyone?
My young teen self thought the Holy Trinity of GT, SEJ, Loofer and Ross (yeah I already know) would last for ever.
When that day comes, and if they only have resources to focus on one club, it will be Udinese that gets sold. I don’t see how there could be any doubt about that.
While the income from Watford will be far greater than that of Udinese, the expenditure will also be far greater.
Isn’t that true of all big business? I’d say it’s obvious which one is more profitable and worthwhile to their portfolio.
I don't think their relationship with Udinese has much to do with how much money they can make. 32 years of ownership, and probably many years of association with them before that. That must count for something that points to an element of doubt which one they would sell.
They are businessmen. The sum they could realise for selling wfc massively outweighs the annual net profit they will earn from keeping us. I'm amazed they've not sold us already to some far east operation who wants the kudos of owning a prem club and will pay anything to get one. The risk of us getting relegated and valuation being slashed is massive for them.
Of course, circumstances can change and so can people's goals over a long period of time - but Scott Duxbury did say at the recent "at our place" event, when asked about Gino's role - "His long-term goal – as his family have owned Udinese for 27 years – is that he wants to own this club for a similar amount of time". I've always had the impression that the fiercely ambitious Gino wants to better what Pozzo snr. has achieved at Udinese. Time will tell, I suppose. https://www.watfordfc.com/club/our-place-recap-2018
While there is fantastic money in the Premier league, the Pozzo's will never sell Watford. Overheads are relatively low and so are fan's expectations. They will be able to generate a fantastic income, for their family and Udinese, through Watford...….and rightly so. While this revenue stream is in place, they will be involved. Of course, to get that reward Watford has to be a thriving club, and this is where we all benefit.
You are missing the point. The costs of players required to keep us at this level has risen in line with the revenues so we will never make great profits or net cash flow as our last accounts show. We will always be amongst the lowest net spenders so relegation will always be a risk. Selling now would maximise their return from owning the club. Keeping us for the next 10 years would prove they are not in it just for the money.
No other league would guarantee an income of well over £100m per year. It's just crazy money. There's absolutely no reason to sell while Sky are still pumping in the money. I don't disagree that the costs for players rise, but we are not operating at a top 6 level, and never will be. From 7th down is where we operate and we can easily exist at a mid-table level by adopting shrewd investment and showing good judgement. Since beig promoted, we've turned a profit on every season I believe. Selling now would only give a one hit profit, but keeping the club and retaining EPL status, would create consistent high revenue streams. When you have this financial guarantee behind you, really works when running a couple of clubs.
Business valuations are based on EBITDA multiples. The Pozzos could sell now to a Far East interest for a ridiculous profit multiple with no risk of relegation. Financially that would be the sensible thing to do but they may not be just looking to maximise their financial return.
Sell us to a far East consortium and use some of the money to buy QPR or Brentford? Even Fulham? A good churn of their money.
I believe Burnley's owners - not exactly super wealthy - are warming to the idea of selling up to Chinese/Far Eastern investors while the club is in a healthy state. Maybe it will take another year or two, but a lot of owners are envious about what the Chinese are doing at Wolves, who are a biggish club but not exactly top of the glamour stakes. You'd think all their local rivals - Villa, Albion, Birmingham - would have looked a more attractive proposition to Fosun.
Not straightforward though, how many times have we seen super wealthy owners come in and fall on their arse completely? Wolves owners have done unusually well I would say
Gino has no official connection with Udinese. An English club will have much greater financial potential than an Italian one until tv payments change significantly. Running footie clubs is what Gino does. I doubt he would sell WFC unless he could take control of a bigger outfit.
What the table shows is Everton were live on TV 19 times and little old Watford only 10. It confirms what Everton claim, they are Maaasive compared to us and virtually on a par with Liverpool who were only shown live 28 times.