£400mn gets you Brentford..

EDGE said:
I was there when Keith Bertschin scored the winner.
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Great day, 3 pubs around the ground.
We were in one with the Brentford fans when a Sunderland coach passed by, a group ran out flicking the Vs and ‘giving it large’.
They soon quietened down and slung inside when coach after coach arrived.
I don’t they had seen so many away fans.

Boring fact: We played against Ian Holloway twice in a week.
He played for Brentford and the next Saturday Bristol Rovers
 


kildaremackem said:
brentford makes a profit the last two years...already has a modern stadium..

well brentford does make a profit but its too volatile for the taxpayer..stadium is making a bunch of money for the capital
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Get the government to buy them out and that profit can go to public services

That’s your argument elsewhere
 
Fetch Fletch said:
Like Brighton they have a huge advantage of location.
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This!

It's far easier to attract players with lower wages. Even the mags will struggle to compete for top players. I think that Guimaraes is on £200k and even now I think the mags wages to revenue is near 100%.

Whereas the attraction of living where Manchester/Liverpool players live or London teams players is far more attractive to 20 somethings multi millionaires on £10,000s a week.

There's far more amenities that rich footballers can enjoy but another attraction is also rubbing shoulders with many other rich celebs/people. Aye Newcastle has some things rich can enjoy but it's nowt like Manchester and nowhere near London.

There's even the difference in weather. That's why us, Boro and mags have usually paid a 'premium' to attract decent players. The problem is the lack of success doesn't help with revenue and even the larger crowds can't generate enough additional income by simply hoying up ticket prices given the more unaffluent North.
 
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Somtam said:
Brentford were a yoyo club for the first 40 years of my life - yoyoing between divisions 3 and 4.
I know they spent a couple of years in the first division before WWII but, they were truly small fry until recently. They've been brilliantly run, but its West London location has been crucial. I know two families of Brentford season ticket holders - one family originally from Newcastle the other from Sunderland.
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I pass their new ground a lot while I’m down there visiting my son (although QPR is nearest) it’s quite impressive it’s always lit up and is promoting itself to younger generation of fans the junior bees. 🐝 We are being left behind.
 
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YohanKebab said:
Crackers seeing clubs like Brighton, Bournemouth, Brentford and Luton miles ahead of us. Imagine saying that 10 year ago. Wey Luton aren't miles ahead but they are having a good season in the league above us. Fair play to them mind.
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I predicted it, not those clubs specifically but PL money is a great leveller. Sunderland are a mid sized club with good support, everything else about the club is mediocre at best.

If your well ran you can be a small club and thrive in the PL, Bournemouth and Brentford were just third tier clubs when I was growing up but now they're arguably bigger than Celtic, Rangers, Ajax, Benfica, Porto, etc.
 
Sporty said:
This!

It's far easier to attract players with lower wages. Even the mags will struggle to compete for top players. I think that Guimaraes is on £200k and even now I think the mags wages to revenue is near 100%.

Whereas the attraction of living where Manchester/Liverpool players live or London teams players is far more attractive to 20 somethings multi millionaires on £10,000s a week.

There's far more amenities that rich footballers can enjoy but another attraction is also rubbing shoulders with many other rich celebs/people. Aye Newcastle has some things rich can enjoy but it's nowt like Manchester and nowhere near London.

There's even the difference in weather. That's why us, Boro and mags have usually paid a 'premium' to attract decent players. The problem is the lack of success doesn't help with revenue and even the larger crowds can't generate enough additional income by simply hoying up ticket prices given the more unaffluent North.
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Wonder if Speakmans data considers this when signing southern based young lads or players from southern whilst selling on our Northern born UK players for a tidy profit. If you want continuity that brings success, you need people who want to stick around.
 
Must be an advantage. to being London based with almost half Premier teams in and close to the Capital
Arsenal. Spurs, Chelsea, Fulham , West Ham, Brentford, Luton. Palace.
Must be annoying that Liverpool and Manchester U and City always come top
 
Exapno Mapcase said:
Aye, but they are Brentford. A 17,250 capacity stadium...
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and make a profit..of £9mn in their most recent financial year..that came in a season where they have their highest ever league finish...
Bulwell said:
I predicted it, not those clubs specifically but PL money is a great leveller. Sunderland are a mid sized club with good support, everything else about the club is mediocre at best.

If your well ran you can be a small club and thrive in the PL, Bournemouth and Brentford were just third tier clubs when I was growing up but now they're arguably bigger than Celtic, Rangers, Ajax, Benfica, Porto, etc.
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certaionly clubs like brentford can outbid clubs like benifca and celtic for players...as a result of TV money...and if they stay in the top flight long enough and arent idiots that could change how they are perceived long term
 
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Always gives me a giggle remembering Kildare say the reason he spells everything wrong and puts random letters everywhere is because he’s busy and in a rush :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Exapno Mapcase said:
Profit...profit..profit. I'm a football fan not a business fan. I see how finances are needed but it's not what football is to me.
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yes but to the person who might buy the club..which is what this thread is about...the profit bit matters.,
the only way that impacts a football fan is..profitable clubs..the fans have more poer,..because the owner may not be needing to out cash in..so will want to keep the fans making him rich, on side..whereas a club where the owner funding exceeds the ST money..the owner may ignore the fans,,and in fact usually does
 
kildaremackem said:
and make a profit..of £9mn in their most recent financial year..that came in a season where they have their highest ever league finish...
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kildaremackem said:
yes but to the person who might buy the club..which is what this thread is about...the profit bit matters.,
the only way that impacts a football fan is..profitable clubs..the fans have more poer,..because the owner may not be needing to out cash in..so will want to keep the fans making him rich, on side..whereas a club where the owner funding exceeds the ST money..the owner may ignore the fans,,and in fact usually does
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You reckon the fans have more power and they will make the owner rich and if their match day revenue doesn't exceed funding the owner will ignore them? What a load of tosh as the likes of Brentford match day revenue is a small piece of the financial cog. In 21/22 before their profit after tax was £25.7m and their match day was £10.4m and in 22/23 is was £11.25m as they stuck £5 on most of their match day ticket prices below which is from 2021 so now an adult CAT A DUGOUT is £65 etc.

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I presume they also hoyed up the STs slightly and a quick rough calculation of how much each fan was worth (£11.25 match day divided by 17k fans) is around £660 total for the season. From an average 41k fans, we got £8.9m the last time we were in the PL, probably due to our generous and high availability concessions meaning a far less average ticket price. Even with current prices we'd be looking at possibly £15m, maybe a bit more. Brentford also have a membership club and that was 9,000 in 2021 so will be over 10,000 easy now given what they've done recently. The mags have just gone down this route as it's another way to get money out of fans when demand exceeds supply but I don't think we'll need to do owt like that just yet.

You've said a few times now that SAFC need to increase ticket prices to compete etc which I don't think they do. Realistically even doubling our ticket prices probably wouldn't probably generate say £15m more so exactly what would that buy these days? Doubling is a bit extreme as it would price many 1,000s out of the game so we wouldn't get 40k average either and not the extra £15m. Every higher placing in the PL is worth over £2.5m I think so instead of 17th, we finish 11th then that's that price increase covered. The same would happen with significant increases and reducing concession availability and what could SAFC realistically how much more gate revenue could the squeeze out of fans as I would think £10m if I had to guess. The daft thing is, the way the club is run at the moment with the like of merchandise then they could also increase that revenue as there's fans will to pay for things but more often than not, it's not available (low stocks on new shirts), limited other branded stuff that looks cheap or has ironed on badges or it's just tat that few will buy.

We've done all the hoy big money at players last time we were in the PL and that extra £10-15m on top of the £170m we had to waste would have also been wasted in some way. Look at Everton and Forest. The Premier League is shite now as even hoying big money at everything doesn't mean success. Look at Chelsea, even more millions wasted but they've already got a global brand so can afford to take a hit of not getting into Europe, same with Man Utd's recent lack of success.

It seems we are now at the other end of the spectrum and doing everything on the cheap instead without taking risk. The profit for Brentford hasn't come from the fans, it's come from Brentford being financially sensible. Brentford's wages to revenue ratio was just 48% given they've just hit the big money in the last few years and it looks like they're not going daft buying and paying players big money chasing success.

I've said this a few times before, only 1 club got into the Champions League from 2004/05 to around 2021 and that was when Leicester won the PL (helped by the other 6 having shite seasons). However, they then paid the price chasing success and ended up with summit like 105% of WTR yet they still got relegated hoying all their money at players.

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Football at the top of the PL is fucked and the also ran clubs fans shouldn't have to pay higher and higher ticket prices just to feed the greed monster. Clubs should stop hoying £10,000s to players trying to play catch up but sadly the big 6 (and other European clubs) hoy £100,000s at players as they can afford to, whereas most of the other clubs can't. The wage bill alone of the big 6 is usually bigger than most other clubs revenues as you can see in the image above. The knock on effect of this is that they drive up the prices of the remaining players not in the eye of the top paying clubs and even more so of the PL plodders.

The revenue gap to the big 6 is ridiculous now and no amount of ticket price increases at the SOL is going to even close part of that gap. I think in the graphic above, it's only due to Arsenal's lack of Champions League that it was a little smaller recently. It's probably the reason why they're so desperate for the ESL as the big money will follow, it would be even bigger than PL money in fact, and they can all get a piece of the pie rather than 2 clubs missing out each season. The sooner the ESL is formed and they fuck off the better as they could reset the English league and make it more competitive and exciting as it once was.

:rant over as the post is already stupidly long yet I could say more as I hate what football has become!:
 

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