An Interesting Read

[Nathan]

A great read, very interesting indeed. We are lucky to have Bloom and the backing of the other directors.

There must be dozens of other clubs in league one and two that are truly f**ked.

 

[Hoopz]

Excellent read!! Thank you for posting that one up! Reminder of the plight we are still in until we finally make our break to Falmer!!

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

A great read, very interesting indeed. We are lucky to have Bloom and the backing of the other directors.

There must be dozens of other clubs in league one and two that are truly f**ked.

And in the Prem and The Championship I would think.

In the next couple of years we could see a lot of clubs either go to the wall or end up in Administration. We are incredibly lucky to have TB - esp given his attitude which appears to be to lift the debt burden off the club, get us into a stadium where we becone profitable and allow that to drive the club forward.

Cheers Tony.

 

[Turkey]

Where do you get all these financial details from??

 

[stu7878]

So are we still signing kevin phillips?

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Where do you get all these financial details from??

Probably from the annual return/report that Ltd companies have to submit to Companies House.

 

[Sign of the Times]

Where do you get all these financial details from??

Alex Dawson is absolutely correct. Whenever I analyse a club's financials, I always use the actual accounts, as sometimes the figures quoted by the media are misleading, if not downright wrong.

Sometimes clubs provide their accounts on the website, but in this case I had to obtain them from Companies House. Not the most scintillating read, but they do contain a wealth of information.

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Where do you get all these financial details from??

I can get the summary with my Penna Outplacement account.

30 Jun 2009 Previous Year 2 Yrs Ago 3 Yrs Ago 4 Yrs Ago
Turnover £4.1m £4.1m £4.2m £5.3m £5.5m
UK Turnover £4.1m £4.1m £4.2m £5.3m £5.5m
Operating Profit £-4.7m £-3.2m £-2.7m £-2.7m £-1.2m
Profit Margin -112 21 -1 NA NA
Stock & W.I.P £0.1m £0.1m £0.2m £0.1m £0.2m
Short Term Loans & Overdrafts £0.4m £7.2m £12.9m £10.4m £7.7m
Tangible Assets £0.2m £6.3m £0.6m £1.0m £0.3m
Credit Score 16 NA NA NA NA
Cash £0.2m £0.8m £0.0m £0.0m £0.0m
Creditor days 49 91 67 34 54
debtors days 9 43 43 NA NA

That credit score is classed as - "Caution - credit at your peril"

Let's have a look at others for comparison whilst I am at it.
Crystal Palace

30 Jun 2008 Previous Year 2 Yrs Ago 3 Yrs Ago 4 Yrs Ago
Turnover £12.0m £18.1m £20.3m £33.7m £9.8m
UK Turnover £12.0m £18.1m £20.3m £33.7m £9.8m
Operating Profit £-8.9m £-4.5m £-2.2m £5.9m £-10.4m
Profit Margin -60 -13 -86 15 -1
Stock & W.I.P £0.2m £0.2m £0.2m £0.2m £0.1m
Short Term Loans & Overdrafts £9.0m £6.6m £1.8m £8.8m £9.4m
Hire Purch. & Leas. (short t.) NA NA £0.2m NA NA
Hire Purchase & Leas. (long t.) NA NA £0.5m NA NA
Tangible Assets £3.2m £3.4m £1.8m £1.7m £1.9m
Credit Score NA -18 -18 NA NA
Cash £0.1m £0.2m £0.1m £0.1m £0.0m
Creditor days 92 89 87 43 126
debtors days 24 57 82 8 20


Shrewsbury Town

30 Jun 2009 Previous Year 2 Yrs Ago 3 Yrs Ago 4 Yrs Ago
Turnover £4.2m £4.3m £2.4m £2.3m £1.6m
UK Turnover £4.2m £4.3m £2.4m £2.3m £1.6m
Cost of Sales £4.0m £3.8m £2.0m £1.9m £1.8m
Operating Profit £-0.4m £-0.1m £0.0m £0.3m £-0.3m
Profit Margin -8 NA 21 -1 -1
Land & Building NA NA NA NA £1.1m
Plant & Vehicles NA NA NA NA £0.1m
Stock & W.I.P £0.1m £0.1m £0.0m £0.0m £0.0m
Short Term Loans & Overdrafts NA £0.0m £0.0m £0.8m £0.2m
Tangible Assets £14.5m £14.7m £14.3m £4.2m £1.2m
Credit Score 78 100 65 40 40
Cash £1.6m £2.0m £1.5m £0.1m £0.0m
Creditor days 31 32 31 15 26
debtors days 21 4 4 99 10

So we have the same turnover as Shrewsbury according to this!

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

That was excellent. Thank-you very much. Fascinating to understand more clearly our previous and on-going financial issues.

There is the old adage that to make a small fortune from football you need to start with a large one - but what would need to happen for the investors in the club to actually make money from it ?

Latterly I have sometimes felt there to be a whispering campaign about Knight (Dick - not his nephew Leon) questioning his true motivation. What would need to happen for serious money to be made from the Albion ?

 

[The Great Cornholio]

That was excellent. Thank-you very much. Fascinating to understand more clearly our previous and on-going financial issues.

There is the old adage that to make a small fortune from football you need to start with a large one - but what would need to happen for the investors in the club to actually make money from it ?

Latterly I have sometimes felt there to be a whispering campaign about Knight (Dick - not his nephew Leon) questioning his true motivation. What would need to happen for serious money to be made from the Albion ?

Assets of some kind. Shows how ludicrous any "whispering campaign" is as there were no assets to strip. None. Zero. Nada. Unless you count the shop and the Portacabins. The only real assests the club has had since the sale of the Goldstone have been the players and you can't asset strip those unless you sell them and trouser the money.

 

[Mendoza]

That is the longest article I have ever read about The Albion. Brilliant read, so much information and well written. Covers a massive time span in quite a lot of detail too.

Great work

 

[Sign of the Times]

That was excellent. Thank-you very much. Fascinating to understand more clearly our previous and on-going financial issues.

There is the old adage that to make a small fortune from football you need to start with a large one - but what would need to happen for the investors in the club to actually make money from it ?

Latterly I have sometimes felt there to be a whispering campaign about Knight (Dick - not his nephew Leon) questioning his true motivation. What would need to happen for serious money to be made from the Albion ?

3 stage plan for the Albion to make money:

1. Get bigger stadium to increase gate receipts.

Normally, this would be offset by large interest payments on loan used to fund construction, but this is not the case with Falmer, as Bloom's loans are interest-free.

2. Use modern stadium and better profile to increase commercial income.

Local sponsors have been very valuable, but you need national (or even global) companies to make serious money here. As an example, Standard Chartered pay Liverpool £20m a year for shirt sponsorship. I appreciate that's not really a fair comparison, but you take the point.

3. Get promoted to secure more TV money.

The TV money available in the Premier League is on an altogether different level to the Football League. If we take Blackpool as an example, they will earn a minimum of £88m from their promotion: around £40m central distribution this year (even if they come last) plus 4 years of parachute payments if relegated (£16m in years 1 and 2, £8m in years 3 and 4).

This is why clubs are tempted to over-extend themselves to give themselves the best chance of promotion, but it's a double-edged sword.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

That is the longest article I have ever read about The Albion. Brilliant read, so much information and well written. Covers a massive time span in quite a lot of detail too.

Great work

Yes - probably the most informative and concise post about the Albion as a business that I've ever seen on NSC; one that every fan should read and familiarise themselves with imo.

Interesting comparison with Shrewsbury from TGC as well.

 

[BLOCK F]

Very informative,thanks a lot.Should be compulsory reading for every Brighton fan.

 

[Screaming J]

Should be compulsory reading for every Brighton fan.

Exactly - "know your history" as the Everton catchphrase goes.

I don't think this story can ever be repeated too often, lest we forget!

I was interested in the comparisons with the Shrews and Palarse but does anyone know - in general - whether we are better or worse off financially than the average Div 1 side? The figures make frightening reading and in most arenas other than football would probably mean the bailiffs. But if everyone else is in the same (or a worse) boat then that gives you some sort of comparator.

I do hope things like this mean that:-

1) people will stop and think before giving Dick Knight such a hard time; and

2) have some realism over what we can achieve in the near future.

At least we HAVE a future now; and if the faith hadn't been kept a few years ago that might not have been true.

 

[Gwylan]

Great blog this. The article on Barcelona made fascinating reading too

 

[Easy 10]

£17m in debt (excluding the stadium), and we're currently spending 115% of our annual turnover on wages.

I would hope that anyone on that thread last week calling for TB to go out and splash a million quid on one player has just had a fairly sobering reality check.

Thankfully this debt is being serviced, but it doesn't half bring home just how screwed we'd be without TB and the other Directors, and how unsustainable the club would be if we'd NOT been granted planning permission for the Amex.

*shudder*

 

[Billy in Bristol]

With the January Transfer window coming up though it wise to temper those expectations, and hopefully get the reality check in!

Also, clocked this by reading something about Barcelona!

Oh lordy, we so needed that stadium.