Are closed stadiums an existential threat to Premier League clubs?

[Redplane]

Just curious if anyone has any insight into this.

Assuming other than maintenance and staffing etc we have no debt from Old Trafford - and if we re not dropping a 100 million or more on players anyway - why not pump some millions back into the local economy by taking this opportunity to do some long overdue renovations etc to the stadium?

Might be limited by means of budget allocations etc but it would probably be a great and inspirational thing to both help a struggling economy a bit while accomplishing something for the club that at this pt is probably long overdue.

 

[finneh]

Just curious if anyone has any insight into this.

Assuming other than maintenance and staffing etc we have no debt from Old Trafford - and if we re not dropping a 100 million or more on players anyway - why not pump some millions back into the local economy by taking this opportunity to do some long overdue renovations etc to the stadium?

Might be limited by means of budget allocations etc but it would probably be a great and inspirational thing to both help a struggling economy a bit while accomplishing something for the club that at this pt is probably long overdue.

I think we're already struggling to compete with City and Liverpool whilst also paying interest and dividends.

Taking into account the loss of match day revenue I can't see our ownership adding an extra cost burden into the mix.

 

[M Utd]

Just curious if anyone has any insight into this.

Assuming other than maintenance and staffing etc we have no debt from Old Trafford - and if we re not dropping a 100 million or more on players anyway - why not pump some millions back into the local economy by taking this opportunity to do some long overdue renovations etc to the stadium?

Might be limited by means of budget allocations etc but it would probably be a great and inspirational thing to both help a struggling economy a bit while accomplishing something for the club that at this pt is probably long overdue.

I don't have a source but I'm sure I read that towards the tail end of SAFs career the club inquired at developing the stadium to just short of 100,000 capacity along with other renovations. It was a similar time to lots of "no value in the market" type quotes and thought by investing in the stadium rather than the team the club would be in a strong position.
Pretty sure it didn't happen due to costs being "too high" as it was close to the railway.

If we are not investing in players we should invest in the club in other forms. If not we just pay higher dividends and never see that money again.

 

[backofthenet]

I don't have a source but I'm sure I read that towards the tail end of SAFs career the club inquired at developing the stadium to just short of 100,000 capacity along with other renovations. It was a similar time to lots of "no value in the market" type quotes and thought by investing in the stadium rather than the team the club would be in a strong position.
Pretty sure it didn't happen due to costs being "too high" as it was close to the railway.

If we are not investing in players we should invest in the club in other forms. If not we just pay higher dividends and never see that money again.

Or, because of Covid, there is no money to invest while we still have one of the largest wage bills in the world, have to pay the players and staff Champions League bonuses, have reduced TV income, have no matchday income and uncertainty over commercial income. The utter blindness of some people to accept that the financial impact on all clubs, but particularly our own is so depressing. They just think that the money should appear from somewhere. Its clear that we cannot do the business everyone wants us to do, whether that's buying lots of new players, or doing up the stadium.
I actually think a very cautious approach this year will pay dividends because I think a lot of clubs may have budgeted on the basis that fans would be allowed back in this year... something that looks very unlikely right now. I think we'd be best off trying to reduce the wage bill, and leave it at that, and seeing what next year brings. If that means a mediocre year then so be it. They'll be a lot worse off clubs than our own in those circumstances next year.

 

[RoyH1]

Don't think it's an existential threat,. Yet. The PL tv deal is too large and sweet for that. Salary dumping might become more of a thing as long as this lasts though.

Competing with the sugardaddy clubs is tough in the pandemic though.

 

[Shipperley]

Palace'll be alright for gate receipts this season because they've charged all of the season ticket holders upfront for 17 games they will never see

 

[ariveded]

PL is the top 1% of football. They actually don't need the stadium fans at all. They have a big international fanbase, TV, online subscriptions.

 

[90 + 5min]

With the UK being extremely unlikely to open stadiums til at least the Spring (assuming winter is bad) - I felt like no one was talking about the potential risk of clubs being literally unable to pay wages. So I did a little digging, and was really surprised by the results.

Firstly, I figured matchday revenue was really important to clubs - especially smaller ones - but the opposite is actually true. United actually have the highest proportion of revenue coming from matchdays, at 18%. The overall league is only 13%, with the top 6 actually making up almost 75% of the league's total figure. So smaller clubs - the ones I'd be instinctively worried about - aren't actually that impacted. From the Guardian's reporting, there are quite a few clubs that make less than 10m per year from matchday receipts!

Secondly, I looked at how close these clubs are to 'disaster'. With that small loss as above, if you take 2019 financials forward, I honestly don't see many clubs being profitable. That includes us, Liverpool and Arsenal - the 'well-run' clubs. Because shockingly 11 clubs ran at a loss last season already, and about half of the profit-makers did so because of matchday revenue.

Thirdly, we make a TON of matchday revenue. Disneyland indeed. About 110m. That's obviously not net profit - it's revenue - but still, say we halve that. That's 50m cash that simply does not exist this season/back end of last. That is a big deal.

So tl:dr: most small clubs won't be hugely impacted by Covid right now, because tv rights are the vast majority of their revenues. Big clubs will be hurt more, and likely face a cash crunch (except Arsenal who have a Scrooge McDuck vault). And we're hurt most of all. So I can totally envision the discussions at the board level about buying the most expensive player this summer being a bit heated.

Finally - if Covid continues and if the fanless 'product' is seen as less appealing than I don't want to think about what we'll do with a fall in commercial revenues. The Chevy deal is up soon. So more cheeriness - I think we're not signing anyone else not because of ineptitude, but because we can't afford it on our own. And don't make me laugh by asking the owners to 'invest' like City/Chelsea/Wolves/Villa etc.

I think I've written it before that this is only healthy. Football is becoming to big for its game that it is no problem with a little bit of setback. Premier Legaue clubs will survive. And those who don't can only blame themself because every club should have money saved for bad times. They are getting tons and tons of money and it is their own fault that wages and transfer money have increased dramaticly last 10-20 years.

 

[Fussball13251]

It definitely removes home advantage. Would we have lost had we had a packed stadium? Probably not. It helps the lesser teams somewhat.

 

[SilentWitness]

Half a season without it would be disastorous for lower league clubs. It should be manageable for the PL sides but a full season without it and some will be in a bit of bother in terms of trying to balance the books. I don't think that any will be in trouble of administration but there will be a danger of being unable to manouevre at all in the market even with a player sale and that's a worrying outlook for the power dynamics of the league.