Brentford lost £15m last year. How much is the price of promotion and a new stadium?
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Although there is no real surprise in the content of the analysis the very fact that it is set out so succinctly makes it abundantly clear to everyone the sheer magnitude of the commitment and undertaking by Matthew Benham. What is also very evident is that without promotion every year there will be sale(s) of players to make up some or all of the operating loss and why the conveyor belt of emerging you talent and the structure to identify that talent is so critical for the sustainability of Brentford.
There is no doubt that Benham has a strategy (worked out statistically) so that he knows just what risks he is facing, and that the statistical model is regularly updated. Judge was a sure $8m – $10m sale until the Ipswich game, so now this possible change of circumstances would have been fed into the model and (possibly) revised to some degree.
One thing for sure, it is not about the size of spending power but the efficient use of that spending power. This is where Benham is ahead of the pack and it is a combination of this and the massive financial commitment of the man himself that he will continue to build the team (both on and off the pitch) and reach the promised land of Premier League football within the 3 year time scale stated by Rasmus Ankerson earlier this season.
I sometimes think we underestimate how close to the top we are because we are so often too quick to be critical……..but without Benham there would be no Brentford.
Great article which show how difficult it is to run a football club especially a small one in championship. Let’s hope to not end up like Bolton and MK Dons with nice new stadium and now in league one!
This is an interesting and thought provoking piece, well done for putting it out there. Whilst some legitimate questions are fair, no sane person in possession of the information could suggest that MB is doing anything other than ensuring the survival and securing the future of BFC. For that we can only be truly thn
My feeling (feel free to correct me) is that 2014 / 2015 produced a particularly extreme set of financials, it was the year following promotion, and of course to some extent we “went for it”. I’m curious to know how incoming transfer monies are fed into the accounts, for example where do we find the proceeds from the sale of Adam Forshaw which occurred during the period? Clearly there will be significant incoming transfer monies when the 2015 / 2016 results are seen. Maybe Burnley can also ensure a nice little windfall for us if they can ensure promotion in the next week or so.
We can debate the rights and wrongs of this, but the fact remains that football is unlike any other business, in that many clubs only continue to operate at the behest of a very generous owner. It is a reach to even call football a business, as most commercial enterprises would be liquidated if they produced similar accounts. Some high profile clubs have delivered on plans to fund losses through to reaching a break even position, and it seems reasonable that MB has a similar plan for BFC. This includes smart recruitment, progress on the pitch and the move to LR.
Who is to say that MB will always be our sole owner and benefactor? The “possibility” of BFC playing top level football and being located in the West London area is an attractive one. And one of the things that I admire most about MB, is that he really sees the true potential in BFC, returning the club to its pre war place at the top table, no more “little old Brentford” with this man, his ambitions go beyond ours and he’s been right on most things so far.
Finally and randomly i’m struck by the challenges facing pretty much all League 1 clubs trying to make the step up. Clearly it has been very challenging for us, so what about the prospects for Burton Albion, Walsall etc in next year’s championship? Maybe the vultures will circle around these clubs in the way they have around us during the transfer windows?
Anyways it’s all good, next stop Hull, UTB….
Cheers Rebel Bee. Some good points there. As for vultures … its natural that teams will always try and pluck away the better players of ‘so called’ smaller teams. Funny but I’m sure we will be seen as ‘vultures’ in the years to come.
Sorry for the unfinished line in my 1st paragraph – truly thankful was what I wanted to say.
BRILLIANT PIECE OF JOURNALISM all the answers to all the questions us fans ponder about week after week thanks so much for all the hard work time and effort from all those involved in this remarkable constructive well written piece UP THE BEES !!!!!
Thanks Terry for reading and listening .. and taking time to comment. UTB
As a mentioned when you guys posted the pod cast last week, very insightful. One thing not mentioned in the breakdown of the finances are sponsorship deals. Is that because we are in effect sponsored by Matchbook who are MBs own company or is this included under one of the other parent headings?
There is probably scant mention of sponsorship income because for Brentford it would be very little at the moment. The reason for the Matchbook sponsorship is probably because that is the best available and another instance of funding Brentford by Benham.
The reality is that there is very little sponsorship income for any football club unless they are in the Premier League – and even then the lions share of sponsorship income would go to the handful of ‘top’ clubs expected to compete in Europe each year. The worldwide TV audience of the EPL is the catalyst for sponsorship income and it is only when Global Brands link themselves to one of the few elite clubs that sponsorship income really starts to have an impact. Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea etc would earn so much more in sponsorship income than, say Bournemouth, Stoke City and Swansea.
The first step for Brentford is to attain EPL status and gain income from the TV deal. Then Brentford would need to consistently be competing in Europe, developing a fan base in Asia, Africa, South America and increasingly important North America, then the Global Brands will begin to spend some serious sponsorship dollars. Brentford/Benham have a big mountain to climb before sponsorship income is significant.
At the present time Brentford would still be regarded as a ‘high risk’ sponsorship because last year few organisations believed Brentford would achieve as they did and this year the expectation was that Brentford would be mid table or struggle.
I would suggest that when Matchbook is not the shirt sponsor for Brentford it would be a signal that at long last there would be the start of recognition that Brentford really can be partnered by a national and/or global brand and all reference to ‘little old’ in front of Brentford can be consigned to history.