Should TB have waited before he expanded the capacity of the Amex?

[El Presidente]

Is it correct to say, then, that if TB had invested that money in players instead our losses under FFP would have been much higher?

'invested' is an interesting concept, I think the official accounting term is 'spunked on a couple of foreigners'.

 

[El Presidente]

Seems to me that it was absolutely the right decision to put the seats in as early as possible. Building costs are only going to go up as the economy improves, and we're future-proofing the stadium to a large extent.

Plus I'd take that £8m loss with a huge dose of salt. The Albion appear to either have a fatally flawed business plan that can't turn a profit on 30K paying customers stuffing their faces like there's no tomorrow, or - far more likely - there's some really good accountants turning what looks to us 'customers' like the cash cow generating a healthy profit into a perfectly legitimate paper loss. That's what accountants are hired to do. Maybe we've hired some REALLY good ones.

20 out of 24 clubs in the Championship make a loss. Ours is not one of the bigger ones.

 

[El Presidente]

What extra players do you think we needed to go up?

The squad we had was capable of automatic promotion (maybe a better back up keeper was the one weakness). The four points dropped by PIG & Caspers injury time bloopers ultimately cost us auto plus our inability to put away a penalty.

Catch 22 for Bloom - People on here would have been kicking up a shitefest if we had had the same ground capacity as that of our first Amex season and had reached the Play Offs.

As ALWAYS, the Major and I are in agreement.

 

[Icy Gull]

What extra players do you think we needed to go up?.

Championship quality forwards from August onwards, we'd have walked the division

 

[Blackadder]

As we can't speculate on what's happening on the staffing side of the club can I throw this out there?

Were the extra seats a gamble on us being promoted and needing the extra capacity once we were promoted.. What if TB had spent whatever it cost on players?

There is an excellent chance that we could have secured auto promotion and then put in the extra seats using the windfall that we would have received on a few players and the stadium expansion, gambling that we'd have enough to stay up. If that had failed we'd still have the new seats and the parachute payments which would surely have put us in a better position than we are in now. Not that we are in a bad place at the moment btw.

Am I talking crap? I'm not a mover and shaker in big business so it's possible that there is something glaringly flawed in the above speculation.

Thoughts?

Quite possibly. We could start another campaign. We could organise marchs to reduce the size of the ground. We could send flowers to the relevant government minister. We could release a single to the tune of Tom Hark, something like "Reduce Falmer"

We have been in the Championship for two seasons with the best gates. The ground is built now. We just have to be patient.

 

[Icy Gull]

Quite possibly. We could start another campaign. We could organise marchs to reduce the size of the ground. We could send flowers to the relevant government minister. We could release a single to the tune of Tom Hark, something like "Reduce Falmer"

We have been in the Championship for two seasons with the best gates. The ground is built now. We just have to be patient.

I am quite happy to see us remain in the Championship, it's a great league. That doesn't detract from the fact that the money spent on the expansion COULD have seen us promoted automatically. Not a moan just an observation, that most on this thread seem to disagree with. I just feel that the £120 million that we won't be getting now was attainable if TB had used the money we spent on expansion this season on the team.

 

[Brovion]

I am quite happy to see us remain in the Championship, it's a great league. That doesn't detract from the fact that the money spent on the expansion COULD have seen us promoted automatically. Not a moan just an observation, that most on this thread seem to disagree with. I just feel that the £120 million that we won't be getting now was attainable if TB had used the money we spent on expansion this season on the team.

But as has been pointed out the team WAS good enough. 'Investing' in players is like 'investing' in playing a fruit machine - it's a gamble. Players get injured (Vicente), they don't fit in (Dobbie and Harley) and your 'investment' is lost. I haven't even mentioned the dynamics of working with a larger budget inasmuch as you are more likely to pay over-the odds in both fees and wages for the players you want as you don't need to haggle.

So leaving aside the FFP implications we could have spent the money on the team and still not got promoted (which you admit is a possibility, and clubs like Leicester are the proof). In which case we'd be much worse off than we are now with a team of expensive failures and a half-finished ground. Come on, we've all seen what happens to clubs who 'invest' in the team in the hope of success.

 

[Graymac]

Hmm I can't see that waiting a year would have had a massive cost implication. Of course we could have invested the money in players and still not gone up which would have made putting the seats in this season a wise move. BUT if we'd gone up, which I really believe we would have done with an Ulloa in place and another Phillips like player earlier in the season, I can't see that the cost implication of the extra seats going in during the summer would have been any different

Whether we actually need these seats in the Championship will become clear if we're not pacesetters this season.

Icy I can see where you are coming from ,but look how much Leicester spent on players & didn't make it.
I also think we will go up as with the new financial rules coming in the clubs which are well supported will do well.
We are a well supported club with a massive catchment area. Also those extra seats certainly would have helped win the Rugby fixtures. The stadium needs more than just BHA home games.
Yes we had a good chance of going up with the team we had, but it's worth remembering Cardiff were in the play offs several times before going up.
I for one believe next season top 10 finish & if we don't go up following seaon automatic spot. As there will be no more trying to Buy instant success which rarely works .

 

[beorhthelm]

... That doesn't detract from the fact that the money spent on the expansion COULD have seen us promoted automatically.

its not a fact, and you still ignore that the playing side and stadium funding are from different budgets. just saying "spend another 5, 10 million" on players is how clubs go bust.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I'm sure that TB said very early on that he would invest in the infrastructure (ground, development centre etc), but the club then had to be self financing. This is the only sensible model to follow, not 'but if Tony had spunked a few more million to sign players that would guarantee us promotion etc etc etc'