Reading's wage bill in perspective

[biscuitsrus]

Wouldnt the figures for the holding company include revenues and costs for the hotel and conference centre too - this would distort comparions

Are you saying sack the hotel receptionists?

[Mr Controversial]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

To me, this is nothing more than Madejski trying to maximise his return on his investment in RFC. He wants the club to get "debt free" only because he wants to ensure that any money used to buy the club goes to him and not repaying outstanding debts. I cannot bear to hear him spout on about "Readings desire for another place in the Premiership" when all the while he is unwilling to speculate his own money to get us back there and maximise even more money for himself - he has lost the will to fight on.

I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with his approach, in his position I would probably do the same thing, but i certainly wouldnt market myself as the saviour of Reading FC that would do anything to get RFC back in to the Premiership quite like he does. This highlights more than ever that Mr Madejskis appetite comes from money and not ambition for Reading FC as it once was.

Mr Madejski = Business Man, regardless of what else he wants us to think and whilst I appreciate everything he has done for this club over the last 20 years or so, it is clear that he has lost his appetite and wants out.

Mr C

[biscuitsrus]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

To me, this is nothing more than Madejski trying to maximise his return on his investment in RFC. He wants the club to get "debt free" only because he wants to ensure that any money used to buy the club goes to him and not repaying outstanding debts. I cannot bear to hear him spout on about "Readings desire for another place in the Premiership" when all the while he is unwilling to speculate his own money to get us back there and maximise even more money for himself - he has lost the will to fight on.

I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with his approach, in his position I would probably do the same thing, but i certainly wouldnt market myself as the saviour of Reading FC that would do anything to get RFC back in to the Premiership quite like he does. This highlights more than ever that Mr Madejskis appetite comes from money and not ambition for Reading FC as it once was.

Mr Madejski = Business Man, regardless of what else he wants us to think and whilst I appreciate everything he has done for this club over the last 20 years or so, it is clear that he has lost his appetite and wants out.

Mr C

His appetite seems fine, I don't think that he is losing weight.

[brendywendy]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

To me, this is nothing more than Madejski trying to maximise his return on his investment in RFC. He wants the club to get "debt free" only because he wants to ensure that any money used to buy the club goes to him and not repaying outstanding debts. I cannot bear to hear him spout on about "Readings desire for another place in the Premiership" when all the while he is unwilling to speculate his own money to get us back there and maximise even more money for himself - he has lost the will to fight on.

I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with his approach, in his position I would probably do the same thing, but i certainly wouldnt market myself as the saviour of Reading FC that would do anything to get RFC back in to the Premiership quite like he does. This highlights more than ever that Mr Madejskis appetite comes from money and not ambition for Reading FC as it once was.

Mr Madejski = Business Man, regardless of what else he wants us to think and whilst I appreciate everything he has done for this club over the last 20 years or so, it is clear that he has lost his appetite and wants out.

Mr C

there is no big queue of people wishing to pump 40 million into this club,even if it was mostly in loans, never has been

and i have never ever thought of mr mad as anything other than a businessman
if anything im surprised hes put

[Stranded]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

To me, this is nothing more than Madejski trying to maximise his return on his investment in RFC. He wants the club to get "debt free" only because he wants to ensure that any money used to buy the club goes to him and not repaying outstanding debts. I cannot bear to hear him spout on about "Readings desire for another place in the Premiership" when all the while he is unwilling to speculate his own money to get us back there and maximise even more money for himself - he has lost the will to fight on.

I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with his approach, in his position I would probably do the same thing, but i certainly wouldnt market myself as the saviour of Reading FC that would do anything to get RFC back in to the Premiership quite like he does. This highlights more than ever that Mr Madejskis appetite comes from money and not ambition for Reading FC as it once was.

Mr Madejski = Business Man, regardless of what else he wants us to think and whilst I appreciate everything he has done for this club over the last 20 years or so, it is clear that he has lost his appetite and wants out.

Mr C

Has anyone ever claimed him to be anything other than a business man, he's even said as much himself and how is main aim has always been for the club to be a self sufficient business.....

I don't doubt he wants out at some point, quite probably now or soon, but we will be financially secure when he does go which as a legacy is pretty damn good.

[brendywendy]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

To me, this is nothing more than Madejski trying to maximise his return on his investment in RFC. He wants the club to get "debt free" only because he wants to ensure that any money used to buy the club goes to him and not repaying outstanding debts. I cannot bear to hear him spout on about "Readings desire for another place in the Premiership" when all the while he is unwilling to speculate his own money to get us back there and maximise even more money for himself - he has lost the will to fight on.

I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with his approach, in his position I would probably do the same thing, but i certainly wouldnt market myself as the saviour of Reading FC that would do anything to get RFC back in to the Premiership quite like he does. This highlights more than ever that Mr Madejskis appetite comes from money and not ambition for Reading FC as it once was.

Mr Madejski = Business Man, regardless of what else he wants us to think and whilst I appreciate everything he has done for this club over the last 20 years or so, it is clear that he has lost his appetite and wants out.

Mr C

Has anyone ever claimed him to be anything other than a business man, he's even said as much himself and how is main aim has always been for the club to be a self sufficient business.....

I don't doubt he wants out at some point, quite probably now or soon, but we will be financially secure when he does go which as a legacy is pretty damn good.

something we have never been before

[TFF]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

To me, this is nothing more than Madejski trying to maximise his return on his investment in RFC. He wants the club to get "debt free" only because he wants to ensure that any money used to buy the club goes to him and not repaying outstanding debts. I cannot bear to hear him spout on about "Readings desire for another place in the Premiership" when all the while he is unwilling to speculate his own money to get us back there and maximise even more money for himself - he has lost the will to fight on.

I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with his approach, in his position I would probably do the same thing, but i certainly wouldnt market myself as the saviour of Reading FC that would do anything to get RFC back in to the Premiership quite like he does. This highlights more than ever that Mr Madejskis appetite comes from money and not ambition for Reading FC as it once was.

Mr Madejski = Business Man, regardless of what else he wants us to think and whilst I appreciate everything he has done for this club over the last 20 years or so, it is clear that he has lost his appetite and wants out.

Mr C

Has anyone ever claimed him to be anything other than a business man, he's even said as much himself and how is main aim has always been for the club to be a self sufficient business.....

I don't doubt he wants out at some point, quite probably now or soon, but we will be financially secure when he does go which as a legacy is pretty damn good.

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/footb ... o_cut_back

Why Royals need to cut back
By Nick Ive
30/ 5/2008

Nigel Howe has revealed that Reading have had to tighten their purse strings because of mounting bank repayments and the fact that chairman John Madejski no longer subsidises the club.

Madejski has spent around £40million on Royals since taking over the helm in December 1990.

While he is sure to recoup that and more when he sells up, the multi-millionaire boss is desperate for the club to be financially self-sufficient.

Reading netted an estimated £50million from their two years in the Premier League and will receive £11m in parachute payments for the next two seasons following relegation to the Championship.

Manager Steve Coppell spent only a fraction of his available budget on new signings, but has still been told he must sell before buying this summer.

However, Reading FC chief executive Howe revealed that the playing and coaching staff’s wage bill shot up from around £9million to £30million following promotion – and that went up again slightly last season.

Although salaries will now be slashed by around 40 per cent, Royals are still on a tight budget as they are repaying bank loans.

In an exclusive interview with the Evening Post, Howe revealed: “We have got players on enormous wages and even though wages have been cut we now only get £11m compared to £30m had we stayed up.

“There is also the cost of the training ground, refurbishment, overdrafts, loans and a new pitch cost £1m.

“In previous years we have made substantial losses and had huge overdrafts. We have to cover for those and that means we have large bank overdrafts.

“But the money certainly hasn’t been squandered. We have had to repay debts and pay capital expenditure for things like the training ground, refurbishment work and keeping things up-to-date.

“Banks always want their money back, especially from a club that gets relegated. When that happens they want it back very quickly.”

Madejski used to subsidise the club with loans, offering far better rates of interest than banks, but he stopped that several years ago with the aim of getting Reading to be financially stable on its own.

“John Madejski is not putting money in now – he hasn’t for a long time,” revealed Howe.

“He can’t go on putting money in every five minutes. He wants the club to stand on its own two feet and be self-sufficient and that’s not unreasonable.

“He has put a lot of money in over the years and he still has loans he’s owed by the club.

“He loaned the club money to build the hotel and money that has been invested in the club over a number of years, including when we moved from Elm Park and we have to balance things up.

“He is still owed money. In loans and shares he has made an investment of around £40million and that is enough for any bloke.

Restrictions

“He (Madejski) may make a profit if and when he sells, but no-one has shown any interest yet.”

Despite the tightening of the purse strings and Coppell’s restrictions in the transfer market, Howe insists Reading are in good shape to rebuild.

“We are financially stable – as much as we can be considering we have lost around 50-per-cent of our potential income,” said the chief executive.

“Despite coming down to the Championship, we are in reasonable shape to either maintain the squad or add to it.

“What we have said about selling players is right but ideally we are going to listen to the right offers and unless we get the right offer then no one is going anywhere.

“I would say we will more or less have the same squad next season.

“He won’t want to buy if no one goes – he will only want to do that if he sells players.

“If some did go that money would be re-invested into the squad. That’s what West Brom did.

“I think they sold £17million worth of players and brought in £10million players, but there is no panic to sell players and there is no pressure to sell.

“We might be able to pick up one or two players on loans and he has said the squad is too big anyway.”

[Southbank Old Boy]

howe said wages did rise slightly for last season, so will probably be at or above 30million
which is about the level of the money we wont be getting this season
so its clear to see why they feel the need to sell a few players

What you're forgetting there is that our wage bill is reportedly being slashed by 40% because of the relegation.

So the Prem money being there or not in terms of this years wages shouldn't be an issue.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

howe said wages did rise slightly for last season, so will probably be at or above 30million
which is about the level of the money we wont be getting this season
so its clear to see why they feel the need to sell a few players

What you're forgetting there is that our wage bill is reportedly being slashed by 40% because of the relegation.

So the Prem money being there or not in terms of this years wages shouldn't be an issue.

other than the fact that it accounted for nearly two-thirds of our total turnover when we were there.

And that our ticket revenues are going to drop by 50%, even if we average 18000 next season.

Looking at it slightly simplistically, if we made £40 million in the prem, and £25 million was tv money, and £15 million was tickets/merchandising/sponsorship, then next year we are looking at £11 million tv and maybe £7.5 million in other income. A 40% drop from a £30 million wage bill would still see us paying over 100% of our income on salaries.

[jonboy]

Can someone clear up something for me?
They keep telling us that JM has paid out 40m over the years and he will get that back when he sells the club.
I'm sure a post last year said he took 11m out as a part payment on the 40m, so the debt is now 28m - or have I got this completely wrong?

[jonboy]

I mean 29m! lol
maths was never a strong point!

[RoyalBlue]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

To me, this is nothing more than Madejski trying to maximise his return on his investment in RFC. He wants the club to get "debt free" only because he wants to ensure that any money used to buy the club goes to him and not repaying outstanding debts. I cannot bear to hear him spout on about "Readings desire for another place in the Premiership" when all the while he is unwilling to speculate his own money to get us back there and maximise even more money for himself - he has lost the will to fight on.

I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with his approach, in his position I would probably do the same thing, but i certainly wouldnt market myself as the saviour of Reading FC that would do anything to get RFC back in to the Premiership quite like he does. This highlights more than ever that Mr Madejskis appetite comes from money and not ambition for Reading FC as it once was.

Mr Madejski = Business Man, regardless of what else he wants us to think and whilst I appreciate everything he has done for this club over the last 20 years or so, it is clear that he has lost his appetite and wants out.

Mr C

Has anyone ever claimed him to be anything other than a business man

Quite simply, yes! Had some on here had better connections with The Vatican he would have been declared a saint some time ago!!

And I believe if you search back through the archives you will find quotes, rightly or wrongly attributed to JM himself, that suggest he did what he did because he wanted to put something back into the community. His losses/donations were stressed and although he did state that he wanted the club to become a self sufficient business, there always seemed to be a strong implication that he was putting money into the club on a philanthropic basis and as a gift/loss rather than operating on a business basis.

Now some remarkably frank words from Nigel Howe (has he had a blow to the head?!) put a question mark over just how much charity has been involved.

National, if not international, fame, hero worship and adoration from some and a return on investment to boot - now that is good business!!

[Denver Royal]

When he took took over I don't see any way he could have viewed it as strictly a business/investment/money making venture. We were in pretty dire straits at the time and football clubs in general, especially small one's in the lower divisions like we were, aren't exactly known as money-making machines. There is also no way he could have known for sure at that time that we would rise to the lofty heights that we have in the last couple years.

[Arch]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

What is it you don't get? 30m wage budget each year plus operating costs plus transfer costs. How much was our income again? If something doesn't add up it's because you don't want it to.

[Ian Royal]

Something doesnt add up here and (to me at least) there appears to be a huge black hole into which bucket loads of Premiership revenue has dissapeared.

What is it you don't get? 30m wage budget each year plus operating costs plus transfer costs. How much was our income again? If something doesn't add up it's because you don't want it to.

Remember Arch, ~£28m + ~£30m TV revenue = £100m, while ~£25m + ~£29m wage costs = £3.50

Where on Earth has all that £99,999,996.50 gone!

How anyone can argue that Madejski hasn't put tons back into the Reading community through his various ventures and the football club is blind and delusional. Just because whilst doing it he has tried to be as sensible and businesslike as possible does not mean he hasn't done it.

Anyone who thinks the sums don't add up I suggest you contact the FA and the Serious Fraud Squad. I'm sure they'd have something to say if there was anything dodgy going on.


Madejski can quite easily have been a businessman being businesslike all along and still saved us from oblivion and taken us to the heights of top half 1st tier. I know this is possible, because it has been done and I had the great pleasure of watching large amounts of it.

[Royal Rother]

Madejski is quite obviously a complete oxf*rd for rescuing the club, supporting it financially for more than a decade, establishing a solid infrastructure from which it can continue to build, and for seeing the result of his investments and vision take us to the Premier League because actually he was only ever in it for his own personal gain and everything he has ever said was actually complete bollocks.

The man is a complete and utter oxf*rd and I wish he'd never got involved as I was more than happy at Elm Park hovering around the Brentfords, Bournemouths and Rochdales of this world.

[PieEater]

There is definitely a change of spin from Howe. Previous quotes have said things about his Madj: "I'm tired of writing £1m cheques"; " Getting to the prem this season was a £6m gamble"; and something about paying £1m for Lita.

Now Howe is saying his Madj has not supported the club financially for some time.

To me it sounds like all the cash his Madj has given the club recently was actually a loan and is just getting paid back. So it's just the difference between him underwriting losses as opposed to just paying them.

[Royalee]

Madejski is quite obviously a complete oxf*rd for rescuing the club, supporting it financially for more than a decade, establishing a solid infrastructure from which it can continue to build, and for seeing the result of his investments and vision take us to the Premier League because actually he was only ever in it for his own personal gain and everything he has ever said was actually complete bollocks.

The man is a complete and utter oxf*rd and I wish he'd never got involved as I was more than happy at Elm Park hovering around the Brentfords, Bournemouths and Rochdales of this world.

Well said.

HNA proves yet again why our fans don't deserve a Premier League club.

Save our Steve! Save our Steve! He's never made any disastrous decisions and he's quiet which means he must be a genius!

Booo, it's all Madejski's fault! Piss off Shorey you useless unloyal bastard!

Dickheads.

[PEARCEY]

Leaving aside the arguments about our chairmain...but what happens when he sells up? Does the ground still stay named The Madejski or would it be re-named?

[Ian Royal]

Depends on the conditions of sale.

I for one would like the name to stay. He's done a hell of a lot for us and deserves his memorial and I don't like the idea of renaming stadia anyway.