Lincoln City Accounts

£5m wage bill!

[url]https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/status/1486669210189246466?t=SEKPksUbQt2z9tswRmqRJA&s=19[/url]

Is anyone shocked by that? What’s the average in League 1?

Quoted from aldi_01

Is anyone shocked by that? What’s the average in League 1?

98% of their income is spent on wages which isn't sustainable but when you look at the teams in that league at the moment such as Ipswich, Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan, Charlton, Portsmouth.

3 from Barnsley, Derby, Peterborough, Reading, Cardiff and maybe a couple of others look set to join most of those teams next season so I would imagine that a "competitive budget" at that level is a huge step up from League 2.

Football club accounts always make me smile. Wages are always a ridiculous percentage of the turnover, no matter how much money is coming in. I think there is nominally some sort of wage cap as well that they have to comply with.

As many have said before, the test will come after the bubble on the pitch has burst.

Credit to Lincoln, they sold out all available season tickets last summer and continue to get gates that are pretty close to home capacity.  But that's on the back of 5 years of continued improvement:

16/17 - Promotion from Conference
17/18 - League Two Play-Offs
18/19 - League Two Winners
19/20 - League One mid-table
20/21 - League One Play-Offs

The season before they won the Conference they averaged less than 2,500 a game.  In fact you have to go back as far as their last season in League Two before relegation (10/11) before they got an average over 2,500.    

That's 6,000 extra tickets they've sold each week as a result of their success.  Really basic maths but lets say average ticket is £15 which brings in around £90,000 extra for each game.  Over the year that's £2.25million.  But that's also 6,000 fans, or £2.25 million a year, that has only ever known success and/or improvement.

Without significant improvement this will be the first year for those 6,000 where the club hasn't improved.  How will they react to that?  Lincoln are only 4 points above the relegation places, how many ticket sales will they lose with a relegation?

It's not a criticism of their approach, far from it.  I think they've got a model that has clearly worked well for them and I can only look on enviously at their position.  I do just wonder how sustained it is.  Those financial figures definitely aren't sustainable.  A struggling side isn't going to have as many sellable assets and can they rely on share issues forever?  

Lincoln, running at a loss heading back to FBL division 4!

Quoted from diehardmariner

As many have said before, the test will come after the bubble on the pitch has burst.

Credit to Lincoln, they sold out all available season tickets last summer and continue to get gates that are pretty close to home capacity.  But that's on the back of 5 years of continued improvement:

16/17 - Promotion from Conference
17/18 - League Two Play-Offs
18/19 - League Two Winners
19/20 - League One mid-table
20/21 - League One Play-Offs

The season before they won the Conference they averaged less than 2,500 a game.  In fact you have to go back as far as their last season in League Two before relegation (10/11) before they got an average over 2,500.    

That's 6,000 extra tickets they've sold each week as a result of their success.  Really basic maths but lets say average ticket is £15 which brings in around £90,000 extra for each game.  Over the year that's £2.25million.  But that's also 6,000 fans, or £2.25 million a year, that has only ever known success and/or improvement.

Without significant improvement this will be the first year for those 6,000 where the club hasn't improved.  How will they react to that?  Lincoln are only 4 points above the relegation places, how many ticket sales will they lose with a relegation?

It's not a criticism of their approach, far from it.  I think they've got a model that has clearly worked well for them and I can only look on enviously at their position.  I do just wonder how sustained it is.  Those financial figures definitely aren't sustainable.  A struggling side isn't going to have as many sellable assets and can they rely on share issues forever?  

They had a fantastic run in the FA Cup too which not only earned them some great revenue but the backing from the City. People got behind them and as we've seen ourselves this season, if there's a positive catalyst then people will try to support it. The real trick is maintaining that positivity month on month, year on year. Like you've said though, if that bubble has burst and they've plateaued it will be interesting to see what the next 5 years has in store for them.  

Pretty impressive in the circumstances.
£5.1 m turnover covering a season when there where no spectators and no mat day commercial revenue.
There ownership model of having a large number of local business owners  and businesses as investors has produced around £10m share capital to fund the club and much larger commercial revenue then our model of one or two controlling owners .

They have investors from both South Africa and more recently the USA and the former Coventry and USA international Landon Donovan has a role at the club but not quite sure what it is. The manager has spoken on reducing their wage bill and maybe that why they haven’t had the same quality loan signings this season.

There seems no disillusionment in the fan base that I’ve detected and their home crowds don’t look like falling significantly in the near future. Guy whose Chairman seems a smart cookie and keeps attracting new investment so unfortunately their bubble isn’t going to burst just yet so enduring them taking the urine will have to be suffered for quite some time I fear.

The figure of £1.4m looks far worse than it actually is … it doesn’t include £900k of investment from the USA and £500k (allegedly) from the sale of Tayo Edun to Blackburn.

Gates have held up remarkably well considering we’ve only won 3 home games in 13. The incomings during the January window namely Marquis (Portsmouth) Whittaker & Cullen (Swansea) have fitted in well, plus our 4 first choice Central Defenders have been injured (Walsh, Jackson, Eyoma & Montsma) as is club captain and pivotal player Bridcutt. Ben House (Eastleigh) and Charley Kendall (Eastbourne) are interesting permanents too.

A mid-table finish will be more than acceptable this term, but the future is definitely still very bright, as beating Sunderland 3-1 at the Stadium of Light shows.

Will be interesting to see the financial state of the rest of this division when their accounts are released.