If we reach the Championship...

There is a saying that goes 'be careful what you wish for, lest it comes true', or something like that.

Reason I mention this is because I've just be reading about Preston North End (do they really still refer to themselves as North End?) who published their accounts this week - which shows a massive loss.

As I do, I dug around a little bit to see why and found this from Craig Hemmings who 'inherited' the club from his dad who died recently.

This is what he said in September - just a few months ago -

"The way that central media monies are paid creates massive challenges for those of us in the Championship trying to compete. It costs about £24 million pounds each year to keep us going. Towards this we receive approximately £2.3m from season tickets and a further £7.3m in total from the EFL and Premier League. After other income streams, that leaves my family with an annual shortfall of around £12m which we have to put into the club each season."

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Preston accounts for 2021/22.
Club made a £20m loss on revenue of £13.8m.
Losses were used to reduce taxes of other group companies so post tax loss £16.8m [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Kieran Maguire (@KieranMaguire) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Since the year end the owners have put in a further £5m [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Kieran Maguire (@KieranMaguire) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Of course all clubs are financially that much different from each other (crowds, stadium costs, we have an hotel, etc, etc) but the money from the EFL will be the same and players have a value of how much they are worth in wages no matter what club they sign for - so financially it will be a challenge for FV to balance the books in a self-sustainable way if we do get promoted!

As a fan, of course I want to see us in the next division up but I do wonder what the true financial strength of FV is and is it robust enough to keep us solvent?

Just look what's happen to Wigan this season for instance...!

(And they went up as champions and with a supposedly wealthy Arab owner!).

Makes you think doesn't it?

Well it did me.

Preston North End make loss of £16.8m for 2021-22, up from £15.4m the previous year

Preston North End made a loss after tax of £16.8m for the year 2021-22, up from a £15.4m loss from the previous financial year.

The increase was due to payments to an ex manager as well as players at the end of their contracts, the club said.

In addition, the club owed compensation to Plymouth Argyle after recruiting manager Ryan Lowe in December 2021.

Club owner Trevor Hemmings also died during the 2021-22 season, with son Craig Hemmings taking over as chairman.

"The season 2021-22 was a difficult one for a number of reasons," Hemmings said.

"It was the first full season back with crowds into Deepdale following all of the Covid-19 restrictions, and, as was felt across the whole of the football pyramid, we experienced the nervousness of some fans returning to stadiums.

"In the first half of the season we changed managers, as results on the pitch were just not good enough. And most significantly, it was the season we lost our owner, my father, Trevor Hemmings CVO. We all at the club hope to further his legacy."

During the 2021-22 financial year, the club's owners invested £14.9m into the Lilywhites "to cover the annual cash shortfall in running the club."

Turnover rose during the year to £13.8m, up 16% from £11.9m the previous year, with 7,557 season tickets sold in the first full year of crowds after coronavirus restrictions ended.

"Since the year end, some good progress has been made by the club in reducing the annual cash deficit to the owners," club director Peter Ridsdale said.

"With the aid of incredible fan engagement and support, we had one of the best ever season ticket campaigns, with close to 12,000 season tickets being sold to fans of PNE. The most sold for over 60 years."

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Not sure we have the finances to compete in the Championship at the moment, we would need very rich owners to take over and fund it. Trouble is a club can't be seen to not be ambitious and try and get promoted as fans wouldn't be happy.

Norpig wrote:Not sure we have the finances to compete in the Championship at the moment, we would need very rich owners to take over and fund it. Trouble is a club can't be seen to not be ambitious and try and get promoted as fans wouldn't be happy.

To be honest we don't even know who owns FV, let alone know what money FV has - so maybe we could financially be ok in the Championship...

...although the little we do know suggest's that FV certainly isn't flushed with money, otherwise they could simply pay of the PBP loan to the club of £6m and save themselves a further £2m in interest charges that PBP would waive, just in order to get their £6m back!

Who are the owners of FV.

In companies (and FV is a company) the owners are those who own the shares in it.

Note therefore that the 'Directors' are not necessarily the 'owners' of the company as such.

The Directors are in theory the 'appointee's' of the owners of the shares 'employed' to keep an eye on the running of the club by the paid staff employed to do so with the Chief Executive/Managing Director (or what other title they are given) being the 'head' of all the staff employed to run the company.

Of course you can be the owner, hold all the shares and not be a Director - Eddie Davies did such (towards the latter years of his ownership) with Gartside being the Chair of the Directors (and also be the company MD at the same time), or own all the shares (well about 95% of them all anyway) and be the sole Director and MD as Ken Anderson did!

Anyway back to FV.

What we know is that the last time they had to tell us (the public) who owned the shares, we were told it was Sharon, James and Luckock (plus the government's bit - about 9% ownership).

What we found out from the audited accounts though was that Sharon was controlling shares of at least one other person as a proxy.

We simply don't know who that other person is - and it looks as though legally they/Sharon do not need to declare it either - as their shares are declared under Sharon's holdings.

Not only that but during the year since, further 'new' shares have been issued with some/all(?) being bought by a 'Swiss Consortium'?

Who are they you might well ask - we simply don't know!

All we do know is that the shares seemed to have been bought through a company set up and controlled by Luckock.

All a bit mysterious don't you think - especially when Sharon seems to portray herself as someone open and somewhat saintly.  

I must stress though that nothing illegal has gone on with anything I've said above and I've no reason to be doubtful or suspicious of their actions or their motives - but I'm just flagging up that there are a great many unknowns about FV and who are 'hidden' behind Sharon, James and Luckock being the only three people's names who we actually know.

I want us to get promoted this season if we can - I suspect FV do too.

I'm sure they will have some plans in place if and when we do - so onwards and upwards and all that!

All we can really do is just to sit back and enjoy the ride I guess - that's what I'll be doing anyway.

Sluffy, if you use the phrase "onwards and upwards" one more time I will be seething.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Sluffy, if you use the phrase "onwards and upwards" one more time I will be seething.

I'm sorry, I wouldn't want you to seethe.

(Don't think I've ever used 'seethe' before - in fact I had to look it up to see if it is a proper word. We always say seething don't we?).

Anyway onwards and have a nice day!

All true points here Sluffy.
But the sane problem persists again if we reach the premiership. That would be the eventual goal should we be able to solidify in the championship.
I think our club is one of boom and bust.
We have a good enough fan base to do ok in the lower reaches of the prem. But if you hang around the lower end too long, sooner or later you'll get relegated. At this point the prem wages and transfers you have been paying out come back to bite and this leaves you at risk of falling a bit further before rebuilding again.
And so it goes on.
That's why we see our fair share of promotions and relegations and play off matches. It just goes round and round and if it didn't it would be pointless.
I think I would hate to be someone like Everton.
If I was an Everton fan I would hang never had the white hot years or equivalent, I would have never experienced relegations or promotions. It would be boring...

So, how would everyone feel about staying in League One for the foreseeable future?  Towards the top, maybe reaching playoffs regularly, but not getting promotion. 

With the sort of crowds we’re getting could, we be what Sharon had been talking about - sustainable!

Or would the crowds melt away if we never quite got there, making the finances tough again?

I think making it to the play offs keeps it interesting, it's a good semi final at least, each time we do. Traffic would be a nightmare if we went up

BarrygoestoBolton wrote:So, how would everyone feel about staying in League One for the foreseeable future?  Towards the top, maybe reaching playoffs regularly, but not getting promotion. 

With the sort of crowds we’re getting could, we be what Sharon had been talking about - sustainable!

Or would the crowds melt away if we never quite got there, making the finances tough again?

Isn't that what happed in the latter end of our Premier League days or is my memory playing tricks on me?

I seem to remember we had full houses for season after season, then they started to tail off after it became apparent that being three consecutive seasons in the top eight was about as good as it was ever going to get for the likes of us.

I think fans want to enjoy the ride and that involves the ups and downs, rather than just standing still so to speak.

Anyway we don't really have much of a say, the owner is the one that pays the piper and if they have the money to spend we generally move up and if they don't - we generally move down - and occasionally nearly sink.

I do hope we go up and manage to establish ourselves at that level again but as always, football is all about the money.

 We won’t make the Championship.