The championship

[OX14]

After the 7-0 thrashing Luton received earlier at Brentford. It got me thinking are we actually ready to go up and compete in that league. Obviously we can improve the squad but unless we have a healthy budget we could struggle like they are which might have more of a negative affect to the club than staying in league 1 and progressing more in the cups. I personally think we need to sort the stadium issue out first before we move up the football pyramid.

 

[Paul Cannell]

I could live with promotion.

 

[Leysboy]

Let’s keep our feet firmly on the ground. No need to get ahead of ourselves, yes we are playing good football, and enjoying a long unbeaten run. I would love nothing more than to get promoted, but it’s a long season, and I’m sure there are many twists and turns before May. Let’s just support the team and get behind the manager and coaching staff, and see what happens. Great time to be a Yellow!

 

[tonyw]

Anyone who thinks we're going to get into the Championship and then immediately rocket up that league and challenge for promotion to the Premier League is likely a bit delusional. I think you're right in saying that we need to sort out the stadium before we can compete on an even footing with 90% of the current Championship clubs. We would almost certainly end up in a similar situation as Luton are in now.

But would that really be a bad thing? Yes, they got thrashed today - but they're still outside the bottom three. They're in a relegation scrap, sure - but they're by no means doomed. And they're getting regular crowds of 10k as they get to face off against a host of big, traditional clubs.

After where we've been for the past twenty years, it frankly sounds like a lot of fun to me.....

 

[OX14]

Anyone who thinks we're going to get into the Championship and then immediately rocket up that league and challenge for promotion to the Premier League is likely a bit delusional. I think you're right in saying that we need to sort out the stadium before we can compete on an even footing with 90% of the current Championship clubs. We would almost certainly end up in a similar situation as Luton are in now.

But would that really be a bad thing? Yes, they got thrashed today - but they're still outside the bottom three. They're in a relegation scrap, sure - but they're by no means doomed. And they're getting regular crowds of 10k as they get to face off against a host of big, traditional clubs.

After where we've been for the past twenty years, it frankly sounds like a lot of fun to me.....

I agree it would be nice to face alot of the clubs in that league and attendances will increase slightly. Im just worried about the financial side for the club. Wasn't the reason Eeals sold the club was because he couldn't afford to run us in the championship. Maybe Tiger and the board can who knows. Just think we would be in a better position to be able to sustain the league status if we sort the stadium issue out first and all the extra revenue from events, food etc will help towards this.

 

[tonyw]

I agree it would be nice to face alot of the clubs in that league and attendances will increase slightly. Im just worried about the financial side for the club. Wasn't the reason Eeals sold the club was because he couldn't afford to run us in the championship. Maybe Tiger and the board can who knows. Just think we would be in a better position to be able to sustain the league status if we sort the stadium issue out first and all the extra revenue from events, food etc will help towards this.

You don't have to massively increase you wage bill just because you get into the Championship. I don't believe Burton did, and they lasted a couple of years.

You get a few million more in TV money and Premier League solidarity payments, so a small increase in the wage bill is sustainable.

As long as we were sensible, and didn't try to compete on an even financial footing with the average Championship teams, we'd been fine financially.

 

[OX14]

You don't have to massively increase you wage bill just because you get into the Championship. I don't believe Burton did, and they lasted a couple of years.

You get a few million more in TV money and Premier League solidarity payments, so a small increase in the wage bill is sustainable.

As long as we were sensible, and didn't try to compete on an even financial footing with the average Championship teams, we'd been fine financially.

Yes Burton is a good example of how to go about it. Didn't realise tv money went up alot more in the championship though or the Premier league solidarity payments so aslong as we are sensible we will be fine.

I wouldn't go crazy in January like some of are fans are wanting to get promotion. I would be happy with a play off spot and hopefully some good news from the board regarding the stadium issue.

 

[Paul Cannell]

Anyone who thinks we're going to get into the Championship and then immediately rocket up that league and challenge for promotion to the Premier League is likely a bit delusional.........

After where we've been for the past twenty years, it frankly sounds like a lot of fun to me.....

Both seem ok to me.

 

[MarkG]

You don't have to massively increase you wage bill just because you get into the Championship. I don't believe Burton did, and they lasted a couple of years.

You get a few million more in TV money and Premier League solidarity payments, so a small increase in the wage bill is sustainable.

As long as we were sensible, and didn't try to compete on an even financial footing with the average Championship teams, we'd been fine financially.

Ok look up what burton’s wage bill was in the championship. I’ll give you a clue it was about £14M. If I remember correctly. And that was to get relegated.

Now how are we going to be sensible and compete ?

 

[Whingit]

Some player's wages might substantially increase were we to get promoted anyway. You'd hope investment would be found.

 

[OxfordBoy]

We’d likely be bottom 3 attendance wise, and you’d imagine our budget would be a similar level, it’s doable but it’d be bloody hard to stay up imo

 

[OX14]

Some player's wages might substantially increase were we to get promoted anyway. You'd hope investment would be found.

Problem is if we go up and we recruit new players on higher wages than currently. What happens if we are relegated. I'm guessing the wages would be the same for the length of their contract.

 

[holdsteady]

Better to have the pleasure of promotion and and a season after (however hard) in the championship than doing an Oldham and spending 20 years mid table in league one before getting relegated to league two.

 

[tonyw]

Ok look up what burton’s wage bill was in the championship. I’ll give you a clue it was about £14M. If I remember correctly. And that was to get relegated.

Now how are we going to be sensible and compete ?

OK, I did look it up - they made a 500k profit on revenues of £13m

CLUB POSTS PROFIT FOR 2017/18 FINANCIAL YEAR

BURTON Albion recorded a pre-tax profit of £500,316 to the year ending May 31, 2018.

www.burtonalbionfc.co.uk

No significant transfers out that season (other than JM!) so their wage bill can't have been anywhere near £14M.

Again, not saying we would be anywhere near a competitive budget in the Championship, but there's no reason we couldn't be run sensibly and have a shot at staying up.

 

[brassmonkey]

Thinkni read that Sheff utd got promoted from the champ without increasing their wage budget significantly from league 1.

Leicester won the prem on a fraction of the wage budget if the normal contenders.

With the right manager we could be succesful in the champ with a low end budget.

 

[MarkG]

OK, I did look it up - they made a 500k profit on revenues of £13m

CLUB POSTS PROFIT FOR 2017/18 FINANCIAL YEAR

BURTON Albion recorded a pre-tax profit of £500,316 to the year ending May 31, 2018.

www.burtonalbionfc.co.uk

No significant transfers out that season (other than JM!) so their wage bill can't have been anywhere near £14M.

Again, not saying we would be anywhere near a competitive budget in the Championship, but there's no reason we couldn't be run sensibly and have a shot at staying up.

I’ll check when back from Walsall and in front of a pc. Maybe not 14 but I’m fairly sure it was at least twice our wage bill.

 

[bazzer9461]

Problem is if we go up and we recruit new players on higher wages than currently. What happens if we are relegated. I'm guessing the wages would be the same for the length of their contract.

It depends on how their contract is could be 3k per week in the championship but get relegated you stay on 3k because of parachute payments but if we’re not promoted your wage could go down to 1.5k a week

 

[Belgium Yellow]

Surely the most important point to take home from this thread is...

LET'S ALL LAUGH AT LUTON,
LET'S ALL LAUGH AT LUTON
HA, HA, HA HA...

 

[tonyw]

I’ll check when back from Walsall and in front of a pc. Maybe not 14 but I’m fairly sure it was at least twice our wage bill.

Here's another one that suggests Burton were operating a wage bill of around 10m:


Now that's still obviously a lot higher than we're currently at (maybe double?). But TV money and solidarity payments bring in about an extra 6-7m when you're in the Championship, plus we might expect a bump in match day income that brings in another ~1m.

So we could sustainably run in the Championship with a wage bill that's that high.

Of course, the problem is that the average Championship wage bill is around 25m.

Which brings me back to my original point - you can operate in the Championship without putting the club's future in jeopardy. This would likely mean accepting a relegation battle from the outset.....but, I think that could still be fun given the size and profile of club we'd be able to pit ourselves against......

 

[werthersoriginal]

After the 7-0 thrashing Luton received earlier at Brentford. It got me thinking are we actually ready to go up and compete in that league. Obviously we can improve the squad but unless we have a healthy budget we could struggle like they are which might have more of a negative affect to the club than staying in league 1 and progressing more in the cups. I personally think we need to sort the stadium issue out first before we move up the football pyramid.

Well we won’t turn down promotion. It will be tough but Luton could still stay up. We may have to accept bouncing between the leagues a bit before we’re ready to compete in the championship. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves!