How broke is/was your club

[treble99]

With todays news that Manchester United are the first sports team in the world to be valued at 3 billion dollars i turned my thoughts back to the dark days of the 1930's when Manchester United only just avoided relegation to division 3 by beating Millwall in the last game of the season 1933/34.
The crowds in that era were averaging about 15,000 and there was no meney in club.
The following season(1934/35) was a little better but United had been financially wounded.
So much so that as they looked at the fixture list of 1934/365 and realised that the last game was away at Plymouth they couldn't muster up the train fare.
They decided to play a fund raising game against an amateur team made up of local players from St Austell and the game would involve the entire Manchester United first team playing 2 days BEFORE the league game.
I can find no information about this game and feel sure that this rare flimsy sheet is the only one in existence and must be very valuable.
So how broke was or is your club?

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[flashhat]

3 admins in 10 years, three successive relegations and non-league football for four years says all you need to know about Luton Town. However, with the best crowds in the blue square, and often better than most LG 1 and 2 games, the problem was dodgy owners rather than lack of support.
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[martino]

Portsmouth - need I say more?

How the mighty are fallen and none of the recent owners or Managers are losing any sleep over it. I wonder if they contributed to the survival fund or kept the money they made from the Club safely in the Bank?

If they do survive, league 2 is looming large and with the squad they can cobble together perhpas it may even be a period of consolidation in the Conference.

A warning to all Clubs.

[Dorking]

Palace - 2 administrations (1999 and 2010). By some miracle we never dropped into the 3rd tier on either occasion (although it was so close both times)

Our current owners aim to run the club at a £3-5m loss each season in order to try and be competitive (that is how much they are willing to 'lose' between them each year, however they are saying that this season and next we have broken even (due to the sale of Zaha to Man Utd for a believed circa £10m - £12m)

When you followed and supported your team through Amin, you just appeciate being in existence and keeping the club name going.

[Eck]

Rangers need I say more. In the 90s we had the highest paid player in Britain we also had the biggest transfer fee between two British clubs etc. In today's business world nobody is safe,whoever thought Rangers,Woolworth's would go tits up. If banks are in trouble no one is safe.

[Blackjack]

1985 we were actualy wound up on dec 20th 1985 in the High Court iin London. If we didn't play Cardiff 6 days later we were to be kicked out of the league, but pulled it round 3 days before.

And we were close again on 2001 when an Australian business man took us over, and nearly ruined us. Unhappy days and thats while I feel sorry for fans of teams that it has happened to over the last couple of years. Its always the fans who suffer.

On the up side look at us now, proves it can be done by good housekeeping.

[Rocky]

In the summer of 1986 Boro called in the Provisional Liquidator and shortly afterwards the club was wound up and the gates to Ayresome Park were padlocked. Without the £350,000 capital required for Football League registration, a new rule, it seemed inevitable that the club would fold permanently. However Steve Gibson a member of the board at the time, brought together a consortium and with ten minutes to spare before the deadline, they completed their registration with the Football League for the 1986–87 season.

Twenty years later we played in the UEFA cup final whilst along the way we had built a new stadium, played in a FA Cup Final and three League Cup finals, winning one of them.

There is hope for every club, but you need a good chairman.

[derby1884]

March '84.
Beaten at home by Plymouth in the FAC Q/F (who score direct from a corner) then, next day, club up in the High Court, deep in debt and on the verge of being closed down.

I remember having the transistor on in the office that day dreading what I might hear on the sports headlines.

We came through with half an hour to spare - still relegated at the end of the season but at least the club were safe.

Seemed a lot more black & white back then compared to now....I don't remember any talk about administration and points deduction.....it was a case of either there would be a Derby County or there wouldn't be.
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[slightfold]

As an addition to Rocky Boro's comments on Middlesbrough's close call, they even borrowed £30K frpm the PFA to pay wages. They had been allowed to play their first home at Hartlepool because issues had not been properly resolved. This 'home' v Port Vale on 23/8/86 had to kick-off at 6.30pm as Hartlepool also had a home v Cardiff on that day, which was the usual 3 pm kick-off. I don't know whether 2 different teams have ever played homes on the same day at the same venue before or since? By another quirk of fate,they were drawn against their temporary landlords Hartlepool in the League Cup so were back there again on 2/9/86, but this time as the away team.

[pompeypete]

martino wrote:

Portsmouth - need I say more? How the mighty are fallen and none of the recent owners or Managers are losing any sleep over it. I wonder if they contributed to the survival fund or kept the money they made from the Club safely in the Bank? If they do survive, league 2 is looming large and with the squad they can cobble together perhpas it may even be a period of consolidation in the Conference. A warning to all Clubs.

Still in administration, no money, ownership/value of the ground undecided
47, yes 47 players used this season.........
Controlled by the football league re size of squad, what happened to the parachute
Payments, god only knows.
Not one person has been charged......
That why I fear for the premiership teams, with all that money, can't break even.
The debts have got to stop....but how?
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[slightfold]

Surely running a club can't be that difficult?Some would even benefit from having some experience on a whelk stall. Your income is bums on seats/turnstiles, corporate packages, advertising, sales including players and merchandising etc. The expenditure is staff, transport, general running costs, tax and transfer fees and players' wages. The problem seems to be the fees/wages which are ludicrous and irresponsible management. Delusions of grandeur. are often evident. There are also some owners who regard a club as a status plaything! You cannot continue to run any business where the income is less than the expenditure. We have seen some big names go to the wall on the high street, and vultures are circling the football grounds.

[grantham]

I'm hoping the football bubble will burst sooner rather than later. The sooner it does, the sooner players will get paid realistic wages once more and put clubs further down the pyramid on an even keel with the big boys.

I support my hometown club, so what actually happens to the big boys that overspend doesn't really bother me. But for my club to compete at the current level costs a decent amount of money already, players wages is a big out-going even at our level and we have had to get rid of the squad and management to balance the books, just 4 months after a championship season. The next 3 months will probably see more defeats than wins, but we'll end the season debt free, so I'm more than happy with that, providing we keep our Northern Premier League status
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[Senior82]

Sheffield Wednesday - financially mismanaged for most of the 90's and spent the vast majority of this century trying not to go bankrupt. Debt has now transferred to Milan Mandaric, and when he dies in a few years we'll probably go bust when his wife/kids try to reclaim the debt.

Sheffield Eagles - reached the highest heights in 1998 but the accounts were a bit shaky to say the least. The directors were offered £1.25 million to 'merge' with Huddersfield by the RFL (rugby's equivalent of the FA). They took the money and the Eagles were wiped off the league ladder. Started again at the bottom and are now probably one of the best run clubs in Rugby League, and are aiming to be back in the big time in the not too distant future.
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[houghmartin]

Thankfully Crewe have never even been close in modern times. Sensible chairman, investment in youth not inflated wages, living within our means, no delusions of grandeur.... Most rational fans see this as a great thing but we still have plenty of numpties that accuse the chairman of "lack of ambition" because we don't splash the cash. I would rather have a moderately successful stable club with a future than the crazy roulette of dodgy chairmen and untenable wage structure that would put my club at risk....
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