Long term sustainability

Thought we where billionaires

 

No. Our owners are billionaires.

 

No, never. A couple of our co-owners are, but that’s their personal wealth

 

That's how they stay millionaires, by holding on to their wealth.

 

Surely they want us to climb the table and up the leagues! Even if it is purely from a business point of view. Selling assets is ok as long as they invest it in to something better. Surely it’s about improving

 

Spent enough at nice

 

Or they have a business plan that is based on player trading? Buy enough clubs across Europe and have a a network which allows player development across a number of clubs at different levels. Success is not promotion for any individual club but a profit on player development.

 

Thing I don't get is over the past 2 seasons we have had
John stones sell on
Mawson transfer fee
Bree and Conor fees
Winnall fee
500k for hecky
Sold Bradshaw signed Woodrow for less
Mawson sell on
Kayden Jackson sell on
Made profits on Pearson and kransmuller.
And we still have to sell more players to be sustainable.

 

Some leg pulling going on somewhere.

 

The club was sold after many of those and I would suspect the sale transaction involved clearing tangible assets, i.e. the bank balance. We don't know this for sure, but personally I can't begrudge the prior owner doing this and it's not an uncommon practice. The club is a club, it's not a vehicle for wealthy people to throw away their millions and billions.

We don't know most of the purchase fees or most of the sales fees. And it's conveniently omitted when we've signed players on significant amounts. We also got rid of players down the years, some of which fees were paid for. There are costs for loans and there are often pay offs for players to get rid or pay up their contract.

We know our turnover was significantly hit by relegation. And I suspect if we stayed in this division with the current squad next season, we would breach FCMP, despite the contractual salary reductions. (I said a good while ago that for a player to accept a wage reduction in a contract, there would most likely be a sale clause in there to offset that loss of income).

Our season ticket prices are low, and not sure if this is still the case, but I recall it being mentioned a few seasons back that our free and child season tickets are very significant, so even multiplying overall ST holders up, you don't get the full T/O figure.

At the end of the day, we're a small club, in a backwater community that is pretty unattractive unless you a) get paid way more than your worth and what others would pay you, b) have made your money and are a Barnsley lad/fan and want to give something back (rare, and seemingly impossible with our current model), c) are hungry, young and think you can use the club as a stepping stone.

With a and b out of the realm of scope, c is our sole option. What we didn't do previously was to optimise/structure contracts to enable a better sale fee at disposal, and to utilise the sales proceeds to improve.

If this ownership can manage that, we've at least made some progress.

 

We are not, they are..

 

Aye you don't make money giving it away. Venture capitalism does have some perks.

 

In the context of the 92 league clubs we are not small: colchester, carlise, burton etc are small clubs. We are an average size club.
It's the premier years and the impact that has had on wages, transfer fees and club incomes that has made disparities more acute.

 

We're small. Just the way it is.

 

I think by the end of the window we'll have a good idea about the owners ambitions for the short term at least.
Hopefully they are not just set on making profits on players & have a goal to see us as an established championship club, like we used to be before administration. The level of support has been outstanding this season home & away, but it will definitely wain if we stagnate in this division

Rumours have it Chien Lee's interest has waned, since he realised there is little hope of getting planning for a super casino in Barnsley.
I don't know how that impacts on the other directors & the policy of the club, if indeed such reports are true.

 

I know it's rumour but I smelt a rat as soon as they took over.

 

We aren't, they are. Why do people keep confusing the two?

 

To be fair we not small in this league we don't do free kids season tickets and we are the 4th best supported club in the league and Bradford season tickets are dirt cheap. We are bigger than posh who seem to get better money for their players. We are not so small we need to sell our best players each window to survive.

 

I'm extremely curious as to what the owners want with the club. There have been phrases like long term bandied by them, not going crazy, not deterred by us being relegated meaning the "project" will be delayed.

For such super wealthy people to be willing to invest in such a cheap acquisition in a fairly limiting small northern town... I don't think the primary goal is the club. but potentially, that is the hub to other aspects that are much more lucrative. Time will tell I guess.

 

No we are average.
But average get's you nowhere anymore unless you have someone prepared to put a part (significant part) of their personal fortune in.