You and I have been discussing football finances here since 2004. In our early years Celtic lost several million pounds each year, CQN’s call was ‘we must breakeven over any business cycle’, an incredibly controversial view in those times of indulgent bling.
By 2004 Celtic hadn’t added a player who held down a sustained first team place for three years (since John Hartson in 2001). We also lost a talisman that summer. The pressure was on to spend, from the stands and the dug-out, but Brian Quinn, our chairman, had concerns about running at a permanent loss. In the face of considerable criticism from the bling-brigade he stood firm.
Celtic won three of the next four league titles while reaching new territory in the Champions League as others continued to spent beyond their means and exploit unconventional taxation policies, which ultimately saw them liquidated, but while the end game was predictable, most didn’t predict it. This resulted in strife at our club.
Finance was a focus of CQN in the early years when we produced granular analysis of accounts and budgetary forecasting. As we became less of a basket-case the time spent debating money reduced.
We can all talk about strikers and defending, policing and political influences, good corporate governance and the SFA, but if you scratch below the surface of those with many years of CQN behind them, I suspect you’ll find people who can’t resist a football club’s cost and revenue breakdown spreadsheet….
The document which appeared on the internet yesterday on a former football club [let’s call them ExCo] was a joy. To me, anyway. It provided many small details which add up to one or two enormous conclusions.
ExCo forecast current year spend for 2011-12 on cleaning costs to be £380k, electricity at £455k, insurance at £374k, postage and carriage at £146k, IT at £261k, professional fees at £613k and telephone costs at £149k. Stewarding was £593k, policing, £343k, match day ambulance, £89k. They spent £160k on finance salaries and £176 on press office salaries while ticket operation salaries cost £268k. The list is exhaustive, 10 pages of costs detailed.
Operating costs, before items like our old friend, amortisation, and tax (don’t laugh), were predicted to come in just shy of £37m, but the key message in all of this detail, is that if you want to operate a football club which can accommodate circa 40,000 spectators you need an infrastructure which costs around £20m.
The police, building maintenance, insurances, grass seed and everything else has to be budgeted for before you can look at player wages, not to mention transfer fees. £268k might sound like a lot to pay for ticket office staff but if you need to issue tens of thousands of tickets you need fulfilment staff. All those assets: enormous properties, thousands of fans, blanket media attention, can feel like liabilities to the guy with the responsibility to pay for them.
On reading this the overwhelming memory I had was of former Rangers director, Paul Murray, who a year ago told the world that Newco Rangers would not be viable, and he was hoping a Newco would have SPL football back then. New clubs cannot qualify in European competition until after they have completed three years trading (a minimum of four years without Europe).
With no European revenue for four years, Newco would be unable to pay all those ‘fixed’ costs and put a competitive team on the field. A big club can’t survive trapped in a small league with no European revenue.
This is reality. Scotland has one healthy large club and has a dozen or more potentially healthy small ones, but nothing will ever be the same again.
Thanks to everyone who has bought Willie Wallace autobiography. Orders in from Belfast, Blackpool, Bonnybridge, Burntisland and Blackrock. If you order now you will receive a copy signed by the man himself….
Email me if you have an article for CQN Magazine inside of you waiting to get out; celticquicknews@gmail.com.
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Beautiful hot evening in Denver. Fat Tyre going down well.
No doubt some typically trashy American food soon.
Loving the Charlotte Fakeover revelations!
Celtic_First, 00:51
Very kind of you sir, appreciated
Fortunes Favour Mibbes
Spicey guinness?? Mmmm. I have been introduced to a way of drinking cold beer (apparently comes from Mexico) with lemon and chile, from a salted glass. I will think about it for a while before trying it with Guinness.
Red wine is good and cheap here. I haven’t yet met any other bhoys & ghirls but will make the effort before the start of next season.
A Ceiler Gonof Rust @ 00.54,
great version..,hadn’t heard before (2,538,000 beat me to it)
made my night though,cheers.
Pedro,
Really enjoyed that Clearlight thing – though it might have been because it was reminiscent of -or flashbacks as you young uns call them :)) – of playing Burnout on the PS2.
Chilly in Chile,who would have thought it :)))
•-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-•
:)) Well if it’s red wine, it must be room temperature, none of that chilled nonsense they insist on serving us back here in the hun wasteland :))
I’m saying no more on the wine issue as C1st is about, and like a bad schoolboy, I’ve skipped past some of his in depth posts on the subject. :))
paulsatim is neil lennon, 00:37
I haven’t seen everything so I don’t know. But a lot of people do
Just in from James King and the Lone Wolves.
Does that qualify me as a howler?
If not, why not?
FFM,
Young un, nae wonder I like you a loatah.
Nothing comes close to competing for the bragging rights after going through the whole of the Mario Kart races, when the decider is on Rainbow Road….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-IwsCwpVs
That really does seperate the men frae the boys.
OG,
Compliments from me too, for what it’s worth.
It’s not easy pleasing the Celtic Support as you know. No complaints there, it’s a necessary balance against the evils of hunnery and capitalist meeja malfunction.
But your updates/ advisals mean a lot to many of us I think.
southside
01:12 on 18 May, 2013
Just in from James King and the Lone Wolves.
Does that qualify me as a howler?
If not, why not?
__________________________________________
Yer in. ;))
VAN MORRISON – THE GREAT DECEPTION
Sobriety is not good for this soul…
pedro @ 01:12
:))))
That was actually too fast and too graphically enhanced for me.
I much prefer a relaxing game of :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDrRnJOCKZc
Fortunes Favour Mibbes, 01:14
Always appreciated, thank you
southside @ 01:12
If you post after midnight, you’re lumbered with the same label as the rest of us, whether you like it or not :))
Robinbhoy
Ill fat tyre ye..
Im sober on your instructions. .
zimmerman, I’m just reading back the blog and the comments you’ve posted from FF, fascinating. Unfortunately I cant get on FF so I have to make do with its retarded cousin. rm.
Anyway, it looks like the penny is startingto drop and reality is beginning to come home to der hun.
However the one thing that both sites have in common is the sinister element. The post where one nutter asks “Does anyone know where Craig Whytes father lives?” is quite chilling and creates images of huns the length and breadth of the country retreating to their tool sheds with their Thomas Salter chemistry sets ala the Kilwinning Assassins.
Hopefully there is more and more and more to come out to drive these nut cases round the bend, down the tubes and out into the cesspit where they belong.
CW, who would have thought it. Our very own google eyed hero.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HyPCe73fdw
HH Hunskelper General.
Night bhoys..
Tired. Com..
zimmerman
01:15 on 18 May, 2013
Amazing, thanks for this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFHXhwbQRBc
The Real Charlotte, (1894),
a novel by Somerville and Ross.
Charlotte is a plain-looking Protestant of 40 making her way up the social scale in the West Cork village of Lismoyle. The principal victim of her ambition is her pretty young cousin Francie Fitzpatrick, whom Charlotte cheats out of her inheritance.
O.G. Rafferty, I hope you’re sitting in your smoking jacket in a fine leather chair, large brandy in hand and a right fine Cuban on slow burn.
Ha hhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah and thanks for your responses on Tuesday.
Hail Hail.
OG,
Glad if it helps. The old Cassandra story always rings true, as do all the lessons from the past. You only need to look across the Clyde where “Shoot the messenger” and hubris are the big themes of Glasgow’s current “tragedy” :))))) It’s brilliant :)))
It can NOT be a co-incidence, that Alexander “Greek” Thomson was involved in the architecture of this city :)))
A Ceiler Gonof Rust
you said it bro,
p.s…feck it.let’s have some of this,
Celtic 6 – 2 Rangers
blantyretim 01:16 Sobriety is not good for this soul…
……………………….
Bollox,
Dramming is good for the soul but not so kind on the liver:-)
Shall I tell you about my life, they say I’m a man of the world……………
Blantyretim
You know it makes sense ;-0) not long to go now!
BT, I retract the “bollox” content from my last post. Totally misread your words:-)
I’ve a dram for you BTW.
ACGR @ 01:19
That was summit that stood out for me. Someone asking for that, and then someone replying that they knew, and that he was “no [hun]”.
There’s nothing being done to stop the development of poison and aggression in the hun meeja >:((…..unless the death of their club is something I’m overlooking :)))
Fortunes Favour Mibbes
01:17 on 18 May, 2013
You retro gaming nutter, is there a pong clan? I wanna join it. Or be born into it, unreal that pong was conceived as I was entering this Crazy World.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coFmRGhZLg8
Hush hush sweet Charlotte.
Blame that Chilean wine. It’s still early here :/
Pedro @ 01:27
It was NEVER called Pong amigo. It was TV Tennis.
It would have been a part of family Christmas if it would work reliably.
But it didn’t.
Hence the release of Sonic the TVHog 15 years later……
A Ceiler Gonof Rust
01:24 on 18 May, 2013
The Human Body can withstand a lot of punishment, a LOT, so dram on, dram on you’ll never fall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJQuftPwi2I
Fortunes Favour Mibbes, 01:23
From construction to destruction.
A Ceiler Gonof Rust, 01:22
A Jamesons will suffice.
Bolly’s on ice though
I’m not up to date this week. Been busy (for a change!)
Is Charlotte really Craigy then, right enough?
I look forward to a small libation.
A wee night in the company if Alan and Pat signing lovely tunes only to be ruined by drunks. God I sound like an ex smoker..o )
Acgr
I hear its worth the wait.
Robinbhoy we know it makes sense
Excellent night at CSA 65th rally in the Kerrydale suite
John Hartson charity the main focus of the evening and the gaffer didn’t disappoint with a fine speech in honour of our bhoy from the valleys and his charity
Never seen a footballer reduced to tears in a speech at the rally especially a footballer with the reputation of BBJ, but tonight he showed how much a Celtic man he is, spoke from the heart about himself and Celtic there was no mistaking the emotion in the voice, the Andy Walkers could learn from BBJ
Joe O’Rourke on behalf of the CSA praised our host Paul67 and CQN for its contribution to the Celtic charity ethos, fine words for Paul67 and CQN all well merited
Great Celtic night with a terrific bunch of CQN’ers, congratulations to Kriss Commons the CSA player of the year