One in Seven fans won’t be renewing their season tickets

We’re all a bit hard pressed these days - each time we turn the ignition keys we face spending the equivalent of the GDP of a small African nation, and a loaf of bread now costs the same as a two bed semi in Bradford. While the Premier League’s finest are rubbing our noses in it by spending like it’s going out of fashion, it appears that the clubs themselves are about to become the latest victims of the nationwide belt tightening. According to Scott Mowbray of Virgin Money, nearly one in seven fans are refusing to renew their season tickets this year.

The worst affected club are West Ham, as 25 per cent of their faithful will now spend Saturday afternoons standing around in Jane Norman at Lakeside while the missus tries on dresses she won’t buy. This defection may be due to the fact that certain factions of Hammers fans are dissatisfied with Curbs and his boring brand of football, or it could be that the average ticket price is around £780

Annual Deloitte report reveals fiscal health of the Prem

Yesterday, the number crunchers at Deloitte released their annual report regarding the games’ finances in the 2006/07 season. The reams of data tell us that Premier League wages have now topped the £1billion mark, with each Premiership side dishing out an average of £48.5m to their staff (with Watford’s £17.7m at the bottom of the scale, and Chelsea’s staggering £132m at the top).

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While revenues have never been higher (The Premier League brought in €2273million in 2006/07, almost twice as much as the closest financial competitor, The Bundesliga), many clubs are spending far more than they are generating. Of all the teams in the top two flights, Derby’s situation was most troubling, as their wages/turnover ratio stood at 125 per cent. That means for every £100million that came into the club (and that’s just turnover, not profit), they were spending £125million on keeping the team in place. Of course, this figure is skewed by the performance-related bonuses given to Rams players for winning promotion, but it represents part of a trend that Deloitte partner Dan Jones believes will ‘lead to a continuing flow of insolvency cases’.

The financial housekeeping in Derbyshire leads a lot to be desired, but bank mangers in north London are considerably less aggravated. The famed wage structure at Arsenal puts them in a healthy third place in the league of wages/ turnover ratios (with 50 per cent), but based on this criteria, Spurs’ 42 per makes their structure the most economically sustainable in the top two flights.

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