Reading's wage bill in perspective

[Thaumagurist*]

.

[Hoop Blah]

I don't know if this was mentioned before, but I've only just seen that Birmingham apparently made an £8m profit for the six months leading up to Feb '08.

Not bad considering their transfer outlay, supposedly bigger wage bill than us, and what many thought was a bit of an extravagant transfer policy in January.

Obviously didn't ensure their safety though.

[West Stand Man]

Perhaps Birmingham have a bigger stadium, more support, more income from tickets etc. Who knows?

[Hoop Blah]

Perhaps Birmingham have a bigger stadium, more support, more income from tickets etc. Who knows?

Well I think their average attendence was 26k, as opposed to our 23.5k. Or, to put it another way, an extra 50k people through the gate over the season. That's probably an extra £1.5m to £2m extra revenue.

My point was that, despite their extra income, and their much more extravagent transfer policy and supposedly higher wages they still seemed to be able to return very healthy profits over the first 6 months of the season.

I'll wait to see the full years figures, and our comparitive figures, before I slag off the way we approached the season, but as this was a thread for putting the wage bill, and the rest of our finances in perspective, I thought pointing out the performance of one of our closest and most comparable competitors would be quite apt.

Sorry if you don't agree!

[sheshnu]

I'll wait to see the full years figures, and our comparitive figures, before I slag off the way we approached the season,

[Hoop Blah]

I'll wait to see the full years figures, and our comparitive figures, before I slag off the way we approached the season,

I think missed out the key word 'again' there

[brendywendy]

Perhaps Birmingham have a bigger stadium, more support, more income from tickets etc. Who knows?

Well I think their average attendence was 26k, as opposed to our 23.5k. Or, to put it another way, an extra 50k people through the gate over the season. That's probably an extra £1.5m to £2m extra revenue.

My point was that, despite their extra income, and their much more extravagent transfer policy and supposedly higher wages they still seemed to be able to return very healthy profits over the first 6 months of the season.

I'll wait to see the full years figures, and our comparitive figures, before I slag off the way we approached the season, but as this was a thread for putting the wage bill, and the rest of our finances in perspective, I thought pointing out the performance of one of our closest and most comparable competitors would be quite apt.

Sorry if you don't agree!

maybe they sold some players?
maybe they charge more than us to get in

we also will make a profit for last year.
not sure how whatever they did is relevant

if anything, since they went down too it just proves it may not have mattered how much we spent

[Royal Rother]

I don't know if this was mentioned before, but I've only just seen that Birmingham apparently made an £8m profit for the six months leading up to Feb '08.

Not bad considering their transfer outlay, supposedly bigger wage bill than us, and what many thought was a bit of an extravagant transfer policy in January.

Obviously didn't ensure their safety though.

As I have previously explained the way in which accounts for football clubs works is as follows:

Spend £10m on a player on a 4 year contract and that investment is treated as an Intangible Fixed Asset written off against the Profit & Loss account of the company over the period of the contract.

Therefore in the example above over a 6 month period only £1.25m of the transfer fee would have been recorded as a cost in the Profit & Loss account. So it may well be that the £8m profit reported is extremely misleading and only putting off the inevitable write offs as a result of relegation.

In the PL the clubs have sufficient income for these write offs to be absorbed with some comfort, but in the CCC, on substantially reduced income, those write offs are going to have a huge impact and B'rum will, whatever happens to them this season, make a huge loss, maybe not in terms of cash flow if they can sell lots of players, but most certainly in terms of the profit and loss account.