interesting snippet re. big money takeover in L1

"My team, Tranmere are up for sale - what chance is there of a multi-millionaire entering football at League One level?"
David Ogden

Gary Jacob: The nature and stature of the club is more important than the level they are at for many investors. Some of them may consider buying a lower-league club with the hope of promotion to be a better bet than buying into the Premier League, because of the outlay, risks etc.

Investors will look at many factors, for example fan base, average attendance, stadium capacity, whether the club owns the ground and any additional land that could be developed, the debt, the cash flow and so on.

Southampton, despite their many problems, were attractive to some investors because of their new ground, their potential fan base and heritage. The same applied to Wolves several years ago and Sheffield Wednesday.

Tranmere lost around ?1.1m in the financial year to June 2008, but that was reduced by the ?700,000 that they recouped in transfer income. Their debt is not very large, about ?5m, but attendances are not great at about 6,500 and they are predicted to fall farther this season, making them less a less attractive proposition.

Posted By: shoddy, Aug 4, 12:40:20