Board Aston Villa finances YE 2014

[Kingman]

I think the aim is to get wages about 60% of turnover which I assume would leave the remainder for purchases if we were to be self sufficient. Under ONeill wage rises outstripped revenue rises massively and I think was upto about 80/90% at some stages.

 

If/when we do hit the 60% wages/turnover ratio it will be no thanks to the empty heads that run the club. 

 

Thank the new Sky TV deal and the Premier league abroad selling rights for the rise in revenue! But Hey-ho Que the PR propaganda bull shit that we are self sustainable and its all down to the management and their strategic futuristic visions. 

Edited January 23, 2015 by Kingman

[bannedfromHandV]

Are we making losses cos we're shit?

Or, are we shit cos we're making losses?

There be a conundrum for ye

[VillaChris]

The only thing that interests me with these figures is the wage bill.

 

Obviously it will be down again but not sure how far. As we said at the time 85% wages/turnover in the MON era was way way too high and ultimately unsustainable. I believe at the same time Spurs were operating at about 70% and they started finishing higher than us so it can be done.

 

The crux of course is we strip wages, the squad becomes worse, we start losing more games, losing high attendances and finishing lower in the league and playing fewer cup games so revenue streams are reduced.

[Brumstopdogs]

Stripping wages doesn't necessarily have to mean the squad becomes worse.

 

It depends what the contribution was of the people being removed and who you replace them with and obviously what wage they will be on.

[romavillan]

Stripping wages doesn't necessarily have to mean the squad becomes worse.

 

It depends what the contribution was of the people being removed and who you replace them with and obviously what wage they will be on.

 

Yeah, contribution of who we needed to boot out was near zero (without factoring in sour dressing room vibes), wages for replacements max half of what these jokers were getting.

Starting to sound like a tricky job right?

[VillaChris]

Stripping wages doesn't necessarily have to mean the squad becomes worse.

 

It depends what the contribution was of the people being removed and who you replace them with and obviously what wage they will be on.

 

Well it's the way we've done it, replacing proven international standard players with plenty of cheap foreign imports and league 1 players.

[Brumstopdogs]

Yes, we certainly seemed to start off like that - although last summer we went down the more experienced route.

 

One way or another hopefully wages are now coming under control even though there are still far too many people in the squad not really playing to the standard of the wage they are getting.

[VillaChris]

Well summer 2016 will be the last of the wasters as Given and N'zogbia's contracts wlll finally end, 100k between the two of them I'd imagine.

 

At least with the players we've signed recently they're all on reasonably short contracts so we can move some of them on. For example Joe Bennett might move to Brighton full time.

 

That will be five years since the extreme cost cutting starter so it has been a long haul. As regards what state or what division we'll be in 18 months time to see if it was worth it, I wouldn't like to say.

[briny_ear]

Well summer 2016 will be the last of the wasters as Given and N'zogbia's contracts wlll finally end, 100k between the two of them I'd imagine.

 

At least with the players we've signed recently they're all on reasonably short contracts so we can move some of them on. For example Joe Bennett might move to Brighton full time.

 

That will be five years since the extreme cost cutting starter so it has been a long haul. As regards what state or what division we'll be in 18 months time to see if it was worth it, I wouldn't like to say.

Is it really fair to call Given a "waster"?

 

Please explain exactly what he does (or maybe doesn't do) to earn this title?

[The Fun Factory]

The only thing that interests me with these figures is the wage bill.

 

Obviously it will be down again but not sure how far. As we said at the time 85% wages/turnover in the MON era was way way too high and ultimately unsustainable. I believe at the same time Spurs were operating at about 70% and they started finishing higher than us so it can be done.

 

The crux of course is we strip wages, the squad becomes worse, we start losing more games, losing high attendances and finishing lower in the league and playing fewer cup games so revenue streams are reduced.

One of the problems is we are not a London side. Even cuddly lovable West Ham now have a bigger turnover than us. And they are getting a free 55,000 stadium in 2 years. Just to think less than 20 years ago they had a 25,000 stadium, but east London is now booming. Spurs have a bigger turnover than Newcastle even though St James' Park is 16,000 seats bigger than White Hart Lane. This is because they can charge loads more for ordinary tickets and hospitality. Of course when they rebuild WHL, they will be even further ahead of us and the likes of Newcastle, Sunderland and Everton.

 

The only opportunity Fox should look at this that Birmingham is a vibrant city with I think the youngest population in Europe. We have to somehow tap into this next generation of potential support. Selling more shirts in Dublin than Birmingham speaks volumes.  Being fan friendly for all different background and cultures and actually having a watchable side may be a start.

 

He has to have some ideas out of the box or Villa at best will be forever just making up the numbers watching other teams overtake us both on and off the pitch.

[VillaChris]

 

Well summer 2016 will be the last of the wasters as Given and N'zogbia's contracts wlll finally end, 100k between the two of them I'd imagine.

 

At least with the players we've signed recently they're all on reasonably short contracts so we can move some of them on. For example Joe Bennett might move to Brighton full time.

 

That will be five years since the extreme cost cutting starter so it has been a long haul. As regards what state or what division we'll be in 18 months time to see if it was worth it, I wouldn't like to say.

Is it really fair to call Given a "waster"?

 

Please explain exactly what he does (or maybe doesn't do) to earn this title?

 

 

No, error to lump him in as despite the ridiculous contract he's always been professional here.

[VillaChris]

 

The only thing that interests me with these figures is the wage bill.

 

Obviously it will be down again but not sure how far. As we said at the time 85% wages/turnover in the MON era was way way too high and ultimately unsustainable. I believe at the same time Spurs were operating at about 70% and they started finishing higher than us so it can be done.

 

The crux of course is we strip wages, the squad becomes worse, we start losing more games, losing high attendances and finishing lower in the league and playing fewer cup games so revenue streams are reduced.

One of the problems is we are not a London side. Even cuddly lovable West Ham now have a bigger turnover than us. And they are getting a free 55,000 stadium in 2 years. Just to think less than 20 years ago they had a 25,000 stadium, but east London is now booming. Spurs have a bigger turnover than Newcastle even though St James' Park is 16,000 seats bigger than White Hart Lane. This is because they can charge loads more for ordinary tickets and hospitality. Of course when they rebuild WHL, they will be even further ahead of us and the likes of Newcastle, Sunderland and Everton.

 

The only opportunity Fox should look at this that Birmingham is a vibrant city with I think the youngest population in Europe. We have to somehow tap into this next generation of potential support. Selling more shirts in Dublin than Birmingham speaks volumes.  Being fan friendly for all different background and cultures and actually having a watchable side may be a start.

 

He has to have some ideas out of the box or Villa at best will be forever just making up the numbers watching other teams overtake us both on and off the pitch.

 

 

Yeah that's a good point, Spurs have plenty of coporate clients paying money for boxes at WHL and West Ham will get an increased demand when they go to Olympic stadium.

 

One thing I've always thought....Brum is home to two major universities (and a third). Do we do enough to attract fans there as obviously in the annual September influx they'll be plenty of people who like football arriving to live in Birmingham half of the year.

 

They won't all go back to watch their teams at weekends and I reckon you'd get a decent demand if you had tickets in the 15-20 quid bracket.

 

That could be one way of attracting new fans perhaps?

[kidlewis]

bare in mind the population of london and the fact birmingham (and close surrounding areas) has what, 4 clubs in the top 2 divisions?

 

Blues

Villa

WBA

Wolves
 

I imagine if you average the population between London and top clubs and birmingham and top clubs then they get a bigger pool of potential fans. 

 

Blues going under would be a long term blessing, not just short term joy. 

 

It's a shame we can't get someone in to take us over and purchase the NEC, because again long term planning (like city are doing with their area) is a good way to get ancillary revenue in.

 

 

I don't know how we can increase revenue too easily. I mean ffs United have an official Diesel engine sponsor..... that's milking it!

[The Fun Factory]

That's the problem. We aren't a London club nor a 1 city northern provincial club. In all probability there are more regular football going supporters in Greater Birmingham who actively dislike us than like us.  At first we need to improve the product on the pitch and hopefully Mr Fox has some cunning plans to increase finances.

[kidlewis]

for a start they could improve the online shop offering for tertiary products. Some of them are integrated poorly and obviously not enough research into it. 

 

I mean just looking there now. there is a wall murials white label website, prices in euros, pretty poorly setup (obviously a quick convo with someone chancing their arm)

 

and then another white label on custom avfc car mats!

 

 

The could do a lot better and get a lot more out of it by using data feeds to pull it into one shop front. 

 

 

They should find a way to improve the service at half time to get things sold faster. They should get large® plastic bottle in rather than waiting to pour watered down rubbish. Served a lot quicker doing that. 

 

at the markup they make on each drink (about £4.50) serving 10-15% more each half time is going to pay for quite a few ticket sales staff or admin staff salaries over the course of a season. 

 

Does the trinity have a mid exec seats a bit like Arsenal? I know you can have directors box etc but what about an area where you pay a premium and have things like the program waiting for you on the seat and a pie brought to you at half time. Might only get 200 people wanting that kind of service, but I see loads of people queuing to get food only and programs. If I had the money to spend £10 on a program and a pie, i'd happily have it brought to me. Again that would only bring in about £72-100k per year. 

 

Essentially as a club with **** all money to spend we need to try some left field ideas for the few people happy to pay for a different or better service. 

 

i'd probably do a survey to a sample of villa ST holders and non ST holders and ask random new service questions like above and see the response. Then test the best ones. 

 

 

Also (and I am not an ST holder so don't know), they should be able to get great discounts and partnership deals with local restaurants and retail outlets in the City/Midlands. Again this could offer a great incentive to either retain ST holders or get more value out of it. 

 

 

I know my examples above are small fry. but £200k here and there over a season can add up. Especially when  you take into account there's obviously savings we can make at the club as well. 

Edited January 25, 2015 by kidlewis

[The_Lions_Roar]

Stripping wages doesn't necessarily have to mean the squad becomes worse.

It depends what the contribution was of the people being removed and who you replace them with and obviously what wage they will be on.

Sounds complicated.

Let's just stock to net spend to judge the squad that had been built.

[The_Lions_Roar]

Stripping wages doesn't necessarily have to mean the squad becomes worse.

It depends what the contribution was of the people being removed and who you replace them with and obviously what wage they will be on.

Sounds complicated.

Let's just stick to net spend to judge the squad that had been built.

[supernova26]

Wouldn't take much notice of the Money League. Practically all the Premier League is in the top 30 due to the new Sky TV Deal. The money we get from Sky is about 80% of our total revenue. Our Matchday revenue and more especially our commercial revenue (lol) are relative peanuts. I think we are about 9th from the Premier League teams below Spurs and Everton. 

 

If we got relegated we'd have to loan all our big players out, or sell them below market value. 

Edited January 25, 2015 by supernova26

[kidlewis]

So with few signings over the recent couple of years of mega value amortisation will be lower and also losing this summer about £10m off the wage bill Bent, Zog etc jog on.... (and aren't we still paying for Ireland, or has he full on gone?)

 

Take into account DeLoitte says our turnover was circa £112m up from £83.7m previous year, that's showing a difference of about nearly £40m come the summer. 

 

That I don't think quite makes us self sufficient does it? if we posted losses last time of £51m. 

 

So Maybe Tom Fox is there to make up that £10m difference? or try to?

[Don_Simon]

 

 

The only thing that interests me with these figures is the wage bill.

 

Obviously it will be down again but not sure how far. As we said at the time 85% wages/turnover in the MON era was way way too high and ultimately unsustainable. I believe at the same time Spurs were operating at about 70% and they started finishing higher than us so it can be done.

 

The crux of course is we strip wages, the squad becomes worse, we start losing more games, losing high attendances and finishing lower in the league and playing fewer cup games so revenue streams are reduced.

One of the problems is we are not a London side. Even cuddly lovable West Ham now have a bigger turnover than us. And they are getting a free 55,000 stadium in 2 years. Just to think less than 20 years ago they had a 25,000 stadium, but east London is now booming. Spurs have a bigger turnover than Newcastle even though St James' Park is 16,000 seats bigger than White Hart Lane. This is because they can charge loads more for ordinary tickets and hospitality. Of course when they rebuild WHL, they will be even further ahead of us and the likes of Newcastle, Sunderland and Everton.

 

The only opportunity Fox should look at this that Birmingham is a vibrant city with I think the youngest population in Europe. We have to somehow tap into this next generation of potential support. Selling more shirts in Dublin than Birmingham speaks volumes.  Being fan friendly for all different background and cultures and actually having a watchable side may be a start.

 

He has to have some ideas out of the box or Villa at best will be forever just making up the numbers watching other teams overtake us both on and off the pitch.

 

 

Yeah that's a good point, Spurs have plenty of coporate clients paying money for boxes at WHL and West Ham will get an increased demand when they go to Olympic stadium.

 

One thing I've always thought....Brum is home to two major universities (and a third). Do we do enough to attract fans there as obviously in the annual September influx they'll be plenty of people who like football arriving to live in Birmingham half of the year.

 

They won't all go back to watch their teams at weekends and I reckon you'd get a decent demand if you had tickets in the 15-20 quid bracket.

 

That could be one way of attracting new fans perhaps?

 

 

I work at one of said Universities, and the resounding answer is no, Villa dont do anywhere near enough. The number of overseas students is into the thousands, we should absolutely be tapping into this resource.

 

I also used to work at a College in Hall Green, (South Birmingham). A very large percentage of ethnic origin students, and again, zero effort by Villa to tap into the local communities.