| So, on the eve of the clubs CVA meeting, I decided to take a look at the figures and formulate a little "break even figure" and "5 year plan" of my own. Sadly, my 5 year plan is not going to end in European domination or Premiership football for the Swans, but it just might see a more stable football club at the end of it. During the financial year, April 1st to March 31st, we play an average of 28 league games at the Vetch. How much money does this generate??? Working on the basis that we can achieve an average crowd of 5000 and not counting the variable numbers of away fans, these are the figures I came up with……….. |
| If we multiply our income by the 28 games played we get a figure of £1,372,000. So, what about the basic expenditure then? Well, the figures released with the CVA statement say that we have a monthly wage bill of £145,000. This gives us an annual wage bill of £1,740,000. This gives us a shortfall of nearly £300,000. Adding in a good FA/Worthington cup run would maybe add another 5 games to the year but this would still leave us with a shortfall of over £100,000. Obviously these figures don't account for other sources of income coming into the club, but they also don't account for other expenses. These two figures should more or less cancel each other out so we are still left with the problem of the £100,000 loss. Let's just jump ahead 5 years for a minute or two. At last we're in the Morfa!! What would the income look like now? I'm guessing of ticket prices of £18 and £8 for the North and South stands and £15 and £6 for the East and West stands but still working with the same 5000 average attendance. Lets take a look at the figures now…………………………. |
| This will give a total income over 28 games of £2,095,800. Things are starting to look a little brighter in the Morfa sunshine!!!. But what about the wage bill? If wages rise at a rate of 3% per annum, in 5 years time, our monthly wage bill could be nearly £170,000 which will give us an annual wage bill of £2,040,000. At last, we've broken even!!!. Throw in a bit of extra income from a cup run and the club is even MAKING money!!! What about your "5 year plan" Mr Crocker? I hear you shouting. Well, the cutting of the playing squad in the summer is obviously a necessary evil if we are going to reduce the £100,000 loss we talked about earlier. Our average attendance of 3674 this season will only generate around £1,010,000 over 28 games, so the wage bill needs to be around £85,000 a month. Obviously, an increase in attendances will give us more income, but as we all know, at the moment, trying to get 5000 people into the Vetch is like trying to get blood out of a stone!!!
Of course there are a lot of other factors that could change this scenario. A large cash investment being one and success on the field being the other. But with the current financial situation at the club, our inability to dip into the transfer market effectively will mean that success on the field will be down to the players that we have left at the end of the summer.
After looking back at the figures that I've stated here, Ninth Floors "5 year plan" looks even more ludicrous than ever. Maybe the Swans won't be going anywhere until we finally get the extra income that the move to the Morfa will bring. If that's the case, it's fine by me. At the beginning of the year we nearly lost our club altogether and now the main aim must surely be financial stability?. "5 year plans" and promises of Premiership football are easy to make but nigh on impossible to deliver.
I'll settle for a secure future for the club I love and the knowledge that there will still be league football in Swansea for years to come. Football that future generations can enjoy, just like we do now. That future starts on Monday 25th March 2002 with the CVA meeting and after we've got over that hurdle, in my opinion…………………………
THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT, THE FUTURE LOOKS BLACK AND WHITE!!!!!!
Until next week…….. JACK ARMY!!! |
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