Can a Championship Club be Run Profitably?

[Gone to seed]

On the back of yet another season of having our heads held under the bog water by the various nepharious forces controlling the set up at Ewood, I was thinking about the £20 million or so per annum it seems to cost to keep going. This got me wondering, are there any clubs that are set up to make a profit, at this level? Is it even possible to contemplate such a thing whilst still maintaining any kind of competitive pedigree on the pitch? If it is possible to be profitable and competitive, what does the model look like, and how far away are we from being able to deploy it?

Any ideas?

 

[RevidgeBlue]

23 minutes ago, WIR Second Coming said:

On the back of yet another season of having our heads held under the bog water by the various nepharious forces controlling the set up at Ewood, I was thinking about the £20 million or so per annum it seems to cost to keep going. This got me wondering, are there any clubs that are set up to make a profit, at this level? Is it even possible to contemplate such a thing whilst still maintaining any kind of competitive pedigree on the pitch? If it is possible to be profitable and competitive, what does the model look like, and how far away are we from being able to deploy it?

Any ideas?

 

My guess would be not if you want to be competitive at the top end of the table. However I can't see why you couldn't run competitively at a small fraction of our £20m p.a. loss and make that up with skillfully player trading and developing Academy graduates.

The amount of money we waste is eye watering. We've been paying Mulgrew and Ayala the thick end of £2m p.a. NOT to play for us!

Pears, Bennett, Evans, Trybull, Downing, Johnson etc - did we actually need any of them?

Edited May 9, 2021 by RevidgeBlue

[Sparks Rover]

All about the scouts....end of.

[RoverCanada]

Edit: sorry, I'm struggling to the tweets to show up nicely...

Latest Championship profit/loss figures from Swiss Ramble, excluding stadium sales chicanery (Covid a factor, but not so much for 2019-20 figures):

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/1389824162412310530/photo/1

Looking at operating profit/losses, ie excluding profits from player sales (the only real hope of occasionally turning an annual profit):

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/1389824196033880065/photo/2

So, nah.

(To be less flippant, the ones that roughly have broken even are the likes of Burton and Rotherham, i.e. Championship-L1 yo-yo clubs at best)

Edited May 9, 2021 by RoverCanada

[Sparks Rover]

4 minutes ago, WilpshireRover said:

I'd love to know how you come to this conclusion? 

 

Our scouting is shit, Brentfords is better....just one example.   Little shitty Brentford....

Edited May 9, 2021 by Sparks Rover

[PeteJD13]

Short answer is yes, but it would require a complete restructure of football financing with salary caps based on turnover etc 

[Sparks Rover]

4 minutes ago, WilpshireRover said:

just as an aside, "little shitty Brentford" have a player trading surplus of £94,000,000 over the past 5 years - I'm sure there are clubs far bigger and more successful than Rovers who'd love a recruitment policy as success as that.

 

Still, imagine having a worse set-up than Brentford.

So you agree.👍 

We take nobbers cast off and he goes straight into the first team.....doesn't say much about our current 23s

[Herbie6590]

22 hours ago, WIR Second Coming said:

, are there any clubs that are set up to make a profit, at this level? 

 

Yes, but they struggle to stay up, Rotherham Utd.

 

https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2019/12/rotherham-turns-profit.html?m=1

[Bigdoggsteel]

Bit of a tricky question, I think it's only sustainable for so long without being promoted. Unless you are a team like Brentford whose scouting is excellent. You would think that they could only take so many play off losses too before things fell apart. Once you get up once and get the parachute money , the pressure is off for a while. 

So, no I don't think it's possible to just be in the division every year and make money. Ultimately you need promotion 

[HowieFive0]

IAN LADYMAN: The Championship is a murky and embarrassing league that drastically needs to change | Daily Mail Online