As we know, Ron is selling "an opportunity". As we also know, the club owns very, very little. So what actually is up for sale?
In many companies, not that many years ago, goodwill was a huge benchmark of a companies worth, until it became obvious that goodwill actually meant very little. Except maybe for football clubs, where it is a huge asset. We have a solid hard-core fan base of 4-5000, with the potential to increase that to 6-7000. These are fans who will attend regardless of what division we are in. In monetary terms, assuming an average ticket price of, say, £15, a regular 5000 paying customers will provide £1.75m per season in ticket revenue. That will be bolstered by away fans, cup runs (Ha! Fat chance!) and attendances over 5000. All in all, it would probably be safe to budget for £2m ticket sales income per season.
On top of that, there is TV money, sponsorship, transfer fees, prize money (HA!), merchandise sales, matchday bar/food income and any other income the club or stadium can generate.
I don't know what these figures actually are, but added together it will equate to the income the club can expect to receive. Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that it all comes to £3m.
That's what's being sold. An opportunity to take over an established club with a £3m seasonal income stream.
Any buyer will then have to see what profit they can make out of that.
Don't worry too much about the debt; it will either be paid off or written off before any owners take it on. They will get it "clean", I'm sure.
Don't worry too much about the stadium either; there are many businesses that don't own their own premises. At the moment as I understand it we are paying about £250k per year in maintenance costs so we can get a safety certificate for RH anyway. The rent I would imagine would be in the region of £400k so it's not a million miles away.
When you look at it like this, we are actually a fairly attractive proposition; a club on it's knees, punching well below where it should be, yet still with a solid fan base and the opportunity to play in a brand new stadium.
Wrexham didn't have that, but look at the interest in them now. That's down to their high profile owners and a huge amount of cash investment that they must be confident will generate a return to make it worthwhile doing. Their owners paid under £3m for Wrexham which now, frankly, looks like a steal. They have purchased their own stadium back and it wouldn't surprise me if, within 10 years, they have built another one and sold off the old one for development. Ker-ching.
Makes it sound so easy, doesn't it?
My local club (90kms!), Toulouse F C, won the French Cup Final last night against Nantes. IIUC, this would normally qualify them to play in Europe but due to their American owners running other European clubs (one of the Milan sides), they may well be illegible. Just saying.....
