Snoopy wrote:
If the beakeven figure is crowds of 10,000 and DH is only paying the losses for one season as he is retiring, there has to be more to this. AK wont take on a loss making enterprise at the Hive as he is very tight with money and isnt a RL fan either.
One of the biggest myths in RL that 10k crowds are breakeven. breakeven is determined by income and outgoings not size of crowd. A sustainable club needs to control outgoings and maximise income. To be sustainable and maximise the chance of success on the park then the player wages part of outgoings needs to be at or close to maximum salary cap.
How income is generated does not really matter, as long as it is generated, but to illustrate this point consider the Huddersfield Giants. Last season they were 10th of 14 in crowd numbers but 7th of 14 in match day income. A couple of reasons for that, one being only actually counting fans who were in the ground rather than (free) tickets issued, another being having decent corporate facilities.
In terms of long term viability, both Huddersfield Giants and Huddersfield Town will benefit from the leisure and retail development to be built on the land around the stadium, land indirectly owned by the clubs through the stadium company. Ken Davy is creating a legacy for sport in Huddersfield, the club are currently subsidised but are well run and have a solid ongoing business plan that will be enhanced by but is not dependant on 10k crowds. David Hughes should really have insisted upon putting some form of legacy in place whilst shelling out a Kings ransom over the last few years.
It seems unlikely renting the Hive will do that for London, but the key is not necessaily 10k crowds but sustainable revenue streams. I seems likely outgoings are greater in London, but I would also strongly suspect income generated per spectator in London is higher than most other SL clubs.
I repeat 10k crowds = breakeven is a myth.
