> No, sorry, but the only FACT with Johnson & Kilkenny, is that due to them > being free agents at the end of the season, they were able to get much better > deals elsewhere due to lack of transfer fee.
Well, there's that. But let's take an educated guess at the financial situation/s. Firstly, what would a reasonable chairman base their budgets on? I would say matchday revenue and guaranteed TV money. Plus merchandise, I suppose. But prize money, cup runs - you wouldn't base your budget on those, because if they didn't happen you'd be screwed. Imagine budgeting for Champions League football and then not getting it... So, Everton - to whom we lost Jermaine Beckford on a free transfer - will pick up £30m in TV rights plus a minimum £20m per season in ticket sales (based on their average attendance of 33,407 so far this season, at the lowest possible adult ticket price of £31) Norwich City - to whom we lost Bradley Johnson and to whom we look like losing Jonny Howson - will similarly receive £30m in TV rights, and at least £15m in ticket sales (average attendance 26,516, cheapest ticket £30). Bristol City - who took Neil Kilkenny from us - will get £2.6m in TV money, and can expect no less than £6m in tickets sales over the season (13,232 x £25). Leeds United, like Bristol, will get £2.6m from the Football League for the collective TV deal. But with an average attendance of 23,733, at a cheapest possible ticket price of £20, would be budgeting on taking over £9m in ticket sales. So the financial reality is, we can't expect to compete with Premier League teams when we allow our players' contracts to run down. On the other hand, we are a club that has been in trouble before with players earning a lot of money when revenue goes down; signing up any of the above of Premier League-level contracts would be brilliant if we knew we were going up, but if we failed to do so and were lumbered with the costs anyway, well, we'd be returning those goldfish to the rental store. What I don't accept is that we couldn't offer Kilkenny at least as good a deal as Bristol were willing to offer him. Surely Beckford was our top earner - and he'd left the previous season. Yes, there's the signing on fee that would be a nice little payday for him and his agent, but if we can't match that then surely we're only going to have to pay it for a replacement (if not an actual fee), but with added disruption to the squad? I mean, I don't know. We'd all hate for Leeds to start overspending again. But it irks me that Norwich are now a bigger club than Leeds. And surely there's enough money in the club to say to Howson, "You're the club captain, a fan of the club, we'll match whatever offer anyone makes"? And why wasn't this done when he was made captain last season? Still, at least we've got Becchio tied to the club for the next couple of years... Ed. _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate
