Championship query for those in the know....

[uspompeyfan]

What is our current payroll and how does it rate in League 1...and what is the current average for a mid table Championship side - so we have an idea on cost for next year.

Secondly, TV revenue is surely greater than Lge 1....so what are the financial benefits of promotion...given that its been a few years since we thought of such heady heights.

Once we have established the above....what is the current budget that the owners have put in place for a 'long range plan' that was discussed (did they expect us to be looking at the Championship so early?)

With the TW almost upon us, I know we have people with solid facts that can add to our 'wish list' of ideas for what we need verses what we can expect.

[Pompey Penguin]

These are always estimates at best as we don't have figures for all players and teams. and even when we do there is a lot of background fiddling going on with things like image rights and performance bonuses. I have often wished that we had something in the UK like Cot's baseball salaries where every player's salary is listed.

Anyway, AFAIK, our payroll last season was about £3M, which was about mid-table or slightly higher, suggesting that we did well to finish 8th, but not a long way outside what was expected. Every statement from the club gives the impression that this year's payroll will be slightly higher, but not greatly so; probably in the range of play-off-contending teams. It should be noted that you need to look at median payrolls as the means in L1 are horribly skewed by a couple of relatively big spenders each year (Wigan/Blackburn & Sunderland/Barnsley for example); usually those teams just relegated from the Championship.

Payrolls in the Championship are a lot higher, probably heading up towards £50M. When Burton were in the Championship, it was said that they did well to last two seasons on a payroll of under £10M. The normally accepted salary for a "Championship player" (whatever that means) is about £1M / year. Some players will get more, especially on teams recently relegated from the PL and stuck with dead wood. Many players will get less, such as young players, squad players and players on L1 contracts for promoted teams. So, for a squad of 25 to be reasonably OK-ish (bottom half, but not destined for near certain relegation), then you probably have to be looking at £15-20M on an on-going basis, although we could get away with less for a season or two with a fair wind and given that our key players are on lower contracts at present.

Hope this helps. However, I stress that it is in large part just speculation and educated guessing.

[New Forester]

Do we really want to be part of this world?

https://www.insidermedia.com/insider/na ... -than-200m

I have very mixed feelings about our future direction. Of course I’d love to see us win promotion. But would we want the owner to follow a prudent financial strategy that would see us back down soon? Or expect him to take a massive hit to keep us up? I suspect in the foreseeable future that we are a club that will either be pressing for promotion from League 1 or fighting relegation from the Championship. I guess either situation will give us plenty of excitement.

[Jack_Tinn]

I seem to remember that when Toranto were talking about buying Pompey they were reporting that the average playing budget for league 2 was something like £2.5m and League One was £3.5m but the average playing budget for the Championship was nearly £30M.

They were arguing therefore that the club could stay in fan ownership and Pompey could basically hold its own in Leagues 1 and 2 and be successful but that if Pompey ever got to the Championship under fan control that would be when the wheels would come off. I recall this being explained by Eisner's son (eric?) and he was saying that the new owners would maintain the playing budget for league 1 as if the fans were still in charge (i.e. no large influx of cash (for last season and this)) but that if, when, the club got back to the Championship is when substantial investment in the playing squad would be required to maintain and then be successful at that level.

These numbers, or more importantly the steep escalation of the budget once you get to the Championship, seems to bear some google research

[The Cincinnati Kid]

According to my googlyintertwitteryweb research, you get 6.8 mill per year for just being in the Championship, which is a mix of TV contract monies and prem handouts.....(every club gets the same amount regardless of table position) Prem relegation cushion money not included...... and TV loot is apx 120k per broadcast home game, 10k if you are the visitor from league and Caribou Cup games.

[Jack_Tinn]

According to my googlyintertwitteryweb research, you get 6.8 mill per year for just being in the Championship, which is a mix of TV contract monies and prem handouts.....(every club gets the same amount regardless of table position) Prem relegation cushion money not included...... and TV loot is apx 120k per broadcast home game, 10k if you are the visitor from league and Caribou Cup games.

which is not enough to cover the playing budget.....

If 18,000 people turned up for every game and paid on average £25.00 then this would bring income to Pompey of circa £450,000 per home game. 19 hone games is £8.5m. An estimate of gross income for Pompey in the championship therefore would be £15m.

[Milton End]

This thread is making me nervous: something about counting chickens springs to mind...........

[The Cincinnati Kid]

Also noted was most all championship clubs spent more than they earned but Brighton and Wolves were very close to actual revenue and they got promoted to the prem.
Also don't forget the multitude of other income....shirts / pies / parking / sponsors / FA cup etc etc

If you look at the teams in that league I think you can say half have an income advantage and we have a step on the other half.

[Pompey Penguin]

I know the following is simplistic, but as a rough guess...

Take the Kid's TV & PL donations figure and add on our present wage bill and we get about £11M. Put the price of every ticket up by an average of £5 gives us another £2.5M. A bit of an increase in sponsorship money, etc., and we are not far off £15M. This would put us solidly in the bottom half of the Championship, but should give us a good chance of avoiding relegation with careful management.

However, it would put a lot of pressure on our player development and recruitment systems to provide us with a steady stream of cheap players to make up the back half of the squad and enable money to be spent on the first team "stars". It wouldn't take many big name/money signings to fail for us to be in real trouble. So, just like half the Championship really.

[uspompeyfan]

I have to say a big thank you to all who have contributed on this thread. This season I have struggled to stay as involved as normal and these were very valid queries based on what we knew of the owners' comments and the likelihood of heady payroll if we got promotion.

[Purbrook Chimes]

Blackburn have just announced that they lost £15M last year in League 1 so their salaries must be significantly more than ours