Seal you can't invest turnover? You can only invest profit?
Here's how it works:-
1) Club makes money (from 3 keys sources - Media, Commercial, Matchday)
2) Club spends / invests money (costs, admin, salaries,
transfer fees etc etc)
3) Club has profit / loss based on 1) - 2)
Matchday is 30% of revenue, and therefore significantly impacts the signings a club can make and the profit / loss they operate at.
Fu** me, I hope you don't run a business.
Right - I don't know why I'm bothering with this, as you're clearly clueless, but..... the context of this discussion is the DIFFERENCE between the two clubs/businesses - NOT the businesses as a whole.
You CANNOT invest the Turnover difference, only the difference in profit, unless you want to be plunged into debt.
For Example:
If Reading deliver a turnover of £1million per match.
And West Ham deliver a turnover of £2 million per match (see how I'm keeping this simple for you?)
West Ham do not have £1million more per game to INVEST (in players, or Capital purchases etc) than Reading, because in order to deliver that extra £1m they will have COSTS (stewarding, policing, ticket distribution, matchday staff, etc etc etc) that Reading don't have.
THEREFORE:
WHU can't invest £1million extra per game, without being put into further debt.
They CAN invest the additional profit (for arguments sake, £250k when it all comes out in the wash).
Investment = Players, training facilities, capital purchases.
Cost = Non-avoidable costs - Stewarding, Policing, Property costs etc.
This is not difficult stuff to understand, it really isn't - however, if you want to go out and invest the whole of the turnover of your business, without paying your cost of sale first, I'd be interested to see your accountants reaction.
As previously stated, the difference that 7000 seats make, is negligible in the big picture - It's worth having, but is not the difference between spending £17m on a pony tailed twat, and not doing so.
The difference in this case, and the answer to the original question, is that WHU are prepared to bet their financial future, and have manouvered themselves into a position whereby if they get relegated, they are for the knackers yard. We on the other hand, refuse (rightly) to cower to the demands of overpaid prima donnas, meaning that whilst there's a higher chance we'll be relegated - if it does happen, we're not going to go bust in the process.
You would think that WHU would learn from the Pompey situation, and try cutting their cloth accordingly.