allani

Yep - the battle for CL places is going to get more competitive too. I think there will be 7 or 8 teams who will think that they can finish in the top 5 next season (with varying degrees of confidence) and another couple who might think that if they have a special season they might be in the hunt. It makes it important that we don't bake CL qualification into our forecasts but it is also going to mean that the so called "Big 6" will have to start thinking a bit more carefully. It looks like Chelsea are going to miss out on Europe altogether for a second season in a row. Man Utd are closer to missing out on Europe altogether than they are a CL spot. Whilst the impact of European prize money / TV money is a much smaller percentage of their total revenues - it's not insignificant.

I think you missed out significant new sponsorship deals landing. We're miles behind the big boys on this at the moment. It will be interesting to see how quickly we can get out of our current **** front ofshirt deal with an even more **** company. I would be surprised if it doesn't happen this summer. But either way I think we'll also see quite a few partnerships / deals announced.

I'm guessing that they're two sizes to big too so they keep falling down...

My concern is that when he uses his physicality - he's invariably doing it in a blatantly illegal way and conceding too many stupid free-kicks in silly places. (TBF Mings can occassionally do this too - by getting more interested in winning a physical battle, he then either gets himself carded or pulled out of position and giving away a silly chance - although he was doing this less last season.) I thought that defenders in Spain / Italy were better at hiding their dirty tricks but I think Carlos has been fortunate a couple of times this season not to see red for stupid infringements where we were under no pressure at all and put us in a whole heap of trouble.

I think it also explains why the deal with Atairos (and by implication Comcast) was in the terms of a share of the ownership of the club (through VSports) rather than a commercial / consultancy fee. NSWE aren't short of cash so it didn't feel like they needed extra financial support. So therefore there has to be a reason why they gave away a share of the club and why Atairos/Comcast would lay down a good chunk of cash rather than just hand over a large invoice for their work and expertise.

I think Everton already tried that tactic....

Also the more that teams like Newcastle, us, Brighton, West Ham, etc get into Europe ahead of the likes of Spurs, Utd, Chelsea, etc - the more their revenues are impacted too. Yes it will be a smaller percentage of their revenue the first season they miss out on Europe, but it will become more of an issue the second and third seasons.

And without becoming boring on this - Atairos and Comcast have access to a whole heap of companies that could easily afford and easily justify a substantial increase in our sponsorship numbers almost without the added benefits of CL or Europa League football. They are experts in this field in the US and have plenty of contracts already in place that they could use to say that Company A spends $50m on sponsoring a team in a US sports market of 350m people - so it's absolutely market rate for them to spend the same (or more) to break into the European market and wider global TV market. They provide us with such a huge opportunity to discuss potential partnerships, sponsorships, etc that we didn't have before (even with NSWE's connections). It's also likely that these arrangements will be less susceptible to pressures if we miss out on Europe in any given season. Atairos / Comcast have a vested interest in increasing the value of the club as much as possible so the odd dip in viewing numbers becomes less important in future negotiations.

It depends how much the value of the club was increasing at the same time. They'll be more interested in the overall value of their investment than fluctuations in P&L year or year.

I think it shows how bad we have been at generating revenue in the past. Obviously it is easier when you are doing well on the pitch - but I do think that Heck and Atairos will find ways of generating revenue (or more revenue) that we've either not done in the past or even not even considered in the past.

I think it's worse when Kamara isn't playing. When he is - if teams stick two men on Doug then we just pass the ball to Kamara and he can do a similar job (maybe not quite as incisive with his passing). Unfortunately, McGinn / Tielemans / Ramsey aren't ideally suited to that role and are much more effective higher up. Leaving McGinn or Ramsey free 10 yards outside our own box is not that risky. It's the challenge we have with maintaining an effective balance given the players we have. I think we definitely need to recruit in this area (especially with Kamara out for a while) so that we have options that don't involve taking players out of the roles in which they thrive and which then impact on the effectiveness of others.

Not all billionaires are reliable (see Everton for a great example) but I agee with you. There's absolutely nothing to suggest that NSWE are idiots and Atairos / Comcast have an extensive track record of building successful sports businesses.

3 billionaire owners - Atairos are valued at over $6.5b.

They (and NSWE) will also have known exactly the value that they can bring to the club. This is almost certainly why they've effectively become minority owners. They'll make more out of growing the value of the club then they would make out of consultancy fees. They literally own some of the biggest companies connecting to sport around the world.

The beauty of this is that it won't be Atairos or Comcast but it will almost certainly be one of the brands they own (or have very strong business links to). For example, Comcast own Sky - so that would be one very obvious brand that could easily justify a major sponsorship deal.

100% - these guys are massive in all of the areas where we can improve our revenues and improve / streamline our business processes.

Also let's not forget that Atairos has something like $6.5b of equity and Comcast were valued at around $275b in 2022. These guys have serious money available. It is safe to say that they'll have looked very closely at our accounts before taking a minority ownership through VSports. There are plenty of ways that they can find some extra revenue to help protect and grow their investment.

The club have already said that the accounting period is to bring the accounting year in line with existing contracts. I suspect that means that Adidas will now fall into this year's accounts and will be a considerable increase on the revenue from Castore.

The value of the club has risen from £40m to around £500m (based on the Atairos deal). They've made a huge paper profit on their investment and the club's assets more than cover any accounting losses. I think that if anything the statement supports previous claims that we will not have to sell any major players this summer to meet our FFP commitments. If sales happen it will be to fund incoming transfers.

Their business reach extends well beyond just the TV side but all with similar connections with sports marketing. So there could be more than just as TV deal. And it will be hard to argue that it is not "justified" because they are all part of their core business and they'll have a whole heap of US based equivalent deals that they can use as a basis when breaking into the European market.

Hopefully Comcast become our more legitimate equivalent.

The danger is if you base your entire budgetary plan on reaching the CL that if you don't make it then it's a pretty massive hole to fill. Like you say it's not so much the prize money it is all the added "extras" that might disappear or be harder to renegotiate. That's why if you treat it as a bonus it can give you a massive boost and allow you to spend additional money wisely. But if you become reliant on it to make ends meet then it can very quickly become an issue. There's a difference between aiming to finish as high as possible and making it an absolute financial necessity so that if you miss it your only choice is to sell players and possibly not being able to replace them.

GA+ doesn't need to be about fans spending more to watch Villa than before. It can just be about changing where they spend their money. I'm sure there's a fair few people who stop for a drink and maybe a bite to eat before the game and possibly another drink on the way home. Getting them to spend that money at Villa Park (or Villa owned establishments) rather than elsewhere - improves the club's revenues and wouldn't necessarily increase the amount that those fans spend on the day. I suspect adding different types of packages available will ultimately be the solution but it will take some time to have the facilities in place to allow that to happen.

I've been saying this for ages. The Sky 6 have basically been able to budget on being in Europe every season AND then going a long way in Europe each season. I suspect that Chelsea probably budget on getting to the quarters or semi-finals of the CL. They look like they will probably miss out on all European competition again this season. The more that clubs like us, Newcastle, West Ham and Brighton can keep disrupting that - the more it means the Sky 6 have to be a bit more careful about their budget process. The trick is to be able to spend enough to compete on the pitch but be smart (tight) enough to regard European revenue as a bonus and not something that you are reliant on - so that you can absorb missing out on it better.

Spuds have no European competition income this season. Chelsea are looking like they'll miss out for the second season in a row. They've probably both budgeted to be in either the CL or (at worst) the Europa League. If Chelsea miss out next season and have any commercial deal waiting to be renewed, they will be hard pushed to justify increasing their asking price and will be more likely to either stay the same or even take a small drop.