Review of the 2008 accounts

[Bluedell 5,329]

Excellent analysis BD.

 

I didn't see any mention of TV monies from the SPL\Setanta are they hidden in there or did i look over the top of them?

Broadcasting income is up from �£5.0m to �£5.4m, which covers both domestic and European income.

 

However income for the CL group stages and UEFA Cup from the quarter finals onwards are negotiated centrally and are excluded for here as they will be contained in Commercial income.

 

There therefore weren't that many European games included in Broadcasting income.

[Bluedell 5,329]

Agreed, I regularly recount what Bain told top sponsors and advertisers at a club function a year or so ago, that we have to play CL group football in 3 out of every 5 seasons just to break even. No transfers taken into account, just club running costs.

These accounts seem to suggest that we need to do it every year. 2006 and 2008 show small profits which come nowhere near meeting the loss in non-CL seasons eg 2007. bain's comments don't seem to stack up against the evidence, although perhaps he was looking at budggets that have been subsequently superseded by the large and expensive player purchases.

 

 

Can anyone tell me that had we been in charge of our own merchandise, given our run to the UEFA final, that we would not have made a profit of over �£3M last season? In the weekend before Manchester, our one and only Rangers shop, at the ground, was selling ONE scabby looking t-shirt with a picture of the COM stadium on it, whilst outside the queue was long and deep with bears buying various t-shirts, scarves and flags off the vendors on Edmiston Drive.

It's incorrect to look at just a figure of �£3m. You also need to take account of the �£18m that we got upfront (�£1.45m per year after expenses plus the interest savings on that sum (arguably +�£600K), so you really should be asking if we would have made over �£5m.

 

It's impossible to say, but I would say that the financial benefits of the JJB deal in other years would outweigh any potential gain that we may have received last season.

[Bluedell 5,329]

Its strange that bonus payments were so high for the UEFA Cup when we all know that its the CL which brings in the real money.

Agreed, although there are obviously some financial benefits, plus a whole lot of glory from a UEFA cup run, but it seems apparent that the bonuses were too high.

[gisabeer 409]

getting knocked out of europe has cost us very dear. Our chairman and manager too a big gamble by not strengthening the squad before the CL qualifiers and its come back to bite them big time.

 

very very bad management from top too bottom. They took a major risk when we could ill afford the consequences, on and off the park.

 

winning the league is an absolute must this season. That is for sure.

[ascender 352]

So one of Bain's first targets he was set when he came in was to get the wage budget under control and he did that ahead of time. After that infamous period of downsizing, we were no longer prepared to pay big money wages and things looked a lot more prudent. Are we now starting to creep back the other way, possibly because of the sheer size of our squad now?

 

If we don't get to the CL groups next season, we could be properly in the brown stuff and looking at another fire sale? I guess the only thing that's changed this time is that we have more sellable assets in terms of younger players with potential who will actually be worth something instead of us having to buy out contracts left, right & centre.

 

I don't see how long term we have much to look forward to under the current leadership and while playing in the SPL tbh. We seem to be putting all our eggs in one basket each season, which is qualifying for the CL. But to say its a shaky strategy seems to be an understatement.

[UCF2008 0]

Agreed, although there are obviously some financial benefits, plus a whole lot of glory from a UEFA cup run, but it seems apparent that the bonuses were too high.

 

I suppose it depends on how the bonuses were spread out over the games. Was it the UEFA cup run alone or did the CL games also figure into the equation? Also if the bonuses were indeed irregularly high by the time we reached the UEFA semi's can you actually blame anyone?

 

In a financial sense it may or may not have been worth it, but if we had won it then I don't think there would be any complaints. It's a little bit reckless ...almost as bad as throwing away �£5m on laudrup when we were chasing 10-in-a-row, but we're talking about getting to a european final here ffs.

[Bluedell 5,329]

I suppose it depends on how the bonuses were spread out over the games. Was it the UEFA cup run alone or did the CL games also figure into the equation? Also if the bonuses were indeed irregularly high by the time we reached the UEFA semi's can you actually blame anyone?

 

In a financial sense it may or may not have been worth it, but if we had won it then I don't think there would be any complaints. It's a little bit reckless ...almost as bad as throwing away �£5m on laudrup when we were chasing 10-in-a-row, but we're talking about getting to a european final here ffs.

Whether the bonuses were too high is obviously a judgemental call.

 

I don't have the detailed breakdown of how much the bonuses were for any specific stage, but if you think that for a round in Europe the gate money is only going to pay players' wages then it suggests that they were too high.

 

Did they need to be as high as they were? My feeling is that they didn't and that they could have been negotiated at a lower level.

[Frankie 8,148]

There's no doubt about it - the bonus money was far too high.

[bmck 117]

ridiculously good analysis if a little worrying. i wish the press would do more things of this sort so that the average fan would be better informed.

[Tannochsidebear 2,306]

These accounts seem to suggest that we need to do it every year. 2006 and 2008 show small profits which come nowhere near meeting the loss in non-CL seasons eg 2007. bain's comments don't seem to stack up against the evidence, although perhaps he was looking at budggets that have been subsequently superseded by the large and expensive player purchases.

 

It's incorrect to look at just a figure of �£3m. You also need to take account of the �£18m that we got upfront (�£1.45m per year after expenses plus the interest savings on that sum (arguably +�£600K), so you really should be asking if we would have made over �£5m.

 

It's impossible to say, but I would say that the financial benefits of the JJB deal in other years would outweigh any potential gain that we may have received last season.

 

I think at the time those comments were made our wage bill was significantly lower (as was squad size) than it is now. Of course AMcL and PLG were allowed a core of experienced earners and had to make up the squad with kids, not now with Walter's super-sized squad of �£2M players. I agree that it would appear that we need CL every year to balance the books, or to significantly reduce the wage bill again.

 

I accept your point about the upfront payment from JJB that I had forgotten about, but not the amount as there was a large chunk of that used to close the shops, pay off staff and leases etc, so not all of it was profit, and then divided by the 10 years it amounts to not an awful lot, IMO. I will need to take a look back to the Nick Peel years accounts when our merchandising income and profits were second in the UK only to Man Utd to see a comparable level to now.

There is no point in comparing the season before JJB to after it as it was clear we were downsizing for a couple of years to set up this deal as palatable, when the only real reason for it was the large up front payment to reduce debt as DM had promised to be "debt-free within 12 months" (another lie!)