£120 Million pot of gold (minimum)

WANDERERS can stay on course for a minimum £120million windfall if they beat Blackpool to qualify for the play-offs this weekend.

A massive hike in broadcast revenue, which comes into effect next season, makes promotion from the Championship to the Premier League this time around the most lucrative in professional sporting history.

Three points on Saturday lunchtime should be enough to book a two-legged semi-final against Watford, Hull City or Brighton. Those games – most likely to be played between Thursday, May 9 and Monday, May 13, would then provide an opportunity to take part in a Wembley showpiece on May 27.

Although chairman Phil Gartside stated last month that the pressure was off Dougie Freedman to ensure a return to the top flight, few would argue that the proximity and sheer size of the reward on offer make the next 90 minutes of football one of the most important in the club’s history.

Adam Bull, a senior consultant for financial consultants Deloitte, outlined the considerable sums at stake for clubs going into this weekend to stay on the promotion path.

“The three Championship clubs which are promoted this season can expect a revenue increase of more than £60m in 2013-14,” he said.


“The vast majority of this uplift, approximately £55m, will be from broadcast income as the Premier League enters the first year of its greatly enhanced three-year TV deals.
“Based on existing distribution methods, even if a club is relegated after one season in the Premier League, it will be entitled to parachute payments over the following four seasons of around £60m.”

When Wanderers were promoted to the top flight back in 2001, their play-off win over Preston North End was considered to be worth £30m.

In just 12 years, the continued popularity and expansion of the brand have quadrupled that figure, if factored in with the parachute payments.

Wanderers posted a loss of £22.1m last November, taking the club’s overall debt to £136.5m and that owed to owner Eddie Davies’s Moonshift Investments Ltd to £125m.

Davies restructured that debt last year to include a 10-year recall clause but moves have nevertheless been made to reduce spending, whilst keeping hold of top players such as Mark Davies and Chung-Yong Lee last summer.

It was thought that relegation last season could cost the club upwards of £30m – and the true extent of that shortfall will be reflected in this year’s financial figures - but an immediate return to the top flight would considerably soften that blow.

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No pressure then?
The scale of this "enhanced deal" will go some way towards furthering the divide between the "haves" and "have nots" - as if the struggle to get back to the top table isn't tough enough already.
We need a miracle over the next few weeks.

I'd like to see us reduce the debt if we got promoted. Not invest much in players even if it means relegation, be a yoyo team for a few years, get the club into a stable position then work on the basis of breaking even. I just hope if we do go up that the fans don't get on Dougies back if results aren't great, I see him as the man for the long term.

I feel like a lot of fans now expect us to go up.

bit over confident tbh.

Dinae Moe Humm wrote:I'd like to see us reduce the debt if we got promoted. Not invest much in players even if it means relegation

We will never pay this debt off.

Everything that's wrong with English football in one thread.

You're lucky to have Eddie Davies, it could be a lot worse.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Dinae Moe Humm wrote:I'd like to see us reduce the debt if we got promoted. Not invest much in players even if it means relegation

We will never pay this debt off.

Quite correct... so a reorganization of debts to Eddie will have to take place with him or his heirs at some point. On the off-chance that we get promoted and get into the Champions League (stop laughing), we might be able to reduce a portion of the debt. So realistically, Natasha is unfortunately quite correct.

We could definitely pay this debt off, though it may take a few years. Increase in TV Revenues are set to increase by 30-40m, assuming the same wage bill as the previous financial year (though we know it will be lower) gives a loss of 20-25. Add the increase in tv revenues to that figure and you get a profit which can then be used to start paying down the debt.

Whether the money goes on the pitch or to pay off debt, it would be a great problem to have.
We're still a way off having to worry about that though.

Its not our debt anyway, its Eddie's .

Even If we did get promoted via the playoffs and came straight back down, it would be a welcome boost for the club financially. It would be shite for us fans though.

Great scenes at Hull, I bet they have a great party this afternoon/evening.