Crawley Town/Lower League Finances

Quoted from trickeymickey

Having read the postings above I decided to pick one of these sites and see what they said.  I randomly came up with "Salary Sport".  I dont know how accurate they are and have rounded up the figures for the players wage bills which are in £millions.

I guess Donny, Gillingham and Wimbledon would be propped up abit due to parachute payments with relegation from League One, although I've not checked how much it is to be honest. Crewe as well, and I'm surprised if their salary is that low.

Quoted from Mappers

Pretty much what I think .

I think a reasonable expectation is bottom 3rd of league 1 at best without big outside investment . Reaching even that would be good going imo .

Stockport,Mansfield , Wrexham and MK Dons go up FGR go down with 4 minnows down from league 1 and a small nl club with Chesterfield would make the landscape easier on paper at least next season  - providing we stay up.

Based upon where we are there’s no way league one can be deceived as a “reasonable expectation”.

I’m not sure how that’s justifiable.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Based upon where we are there’s no way league one can be deceived as a “reasonable expectation”.

I’m not sure how that’s justifiable.

The grim reality is that it’s becoming less and less possible to ‘punch above your weight’. It costs a lot of money to even stand still.

Barrow are just below us in the salary table (shown above).  They could get automatic promotion this season.  They also play good football so are clearly managed well on limited resources.

I agree though with other posters that we would struggle to survive in Div 1 without new funding over a sustained period.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Based upon where we are there’s no way league one can be deceived as a “reasonable expectation”.

I’m not sure how that’s justifiable.

Burton, Cheltenham ,Wycombe , Stevenage , Exeter and Cambridge .


Barrow  Crewe and Harrogate are giving it a good go this season on limited resource to get out of league 2 .

It's not easy but far from impossible .

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Barrow are just below us in the salary table (shown above).  They could get automatic promotion this season.  They also play good football so are clearly managed well on limited resources.

The problem is though is it's easy to pluck counterexamples but in general money buys success and lack of it buys struggling. It's possible to buck the trend but I suspect even dabbling with promotion is only going to happen occasionally. Normally by February it's all over. Any half decent player we have is normally flogged within a season. We have no chance to develop a settled squad.

The professional game has grown. There are 5 professional leagues now and many full time clubs lower down. We're still playing at a good level it's just the game is more popular and the interest has mushroomed. Depressing as recalibration is l think its the reality we face.

Quoted from Mappers

Burton, Cheltenham ,Wycombe , Stevenage , Exeter and Cambridge .


Barrow  Crewe and Harrogate are giving it a good go this season on limited resource to get out of league 2 .

It's not easy but far from impossible .

Like I say based upon where we are now.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Like I say based upon where we are now.

Well based on where we are now I'm more worried about going to Tamworth next season so get your point

Quoted from Mappers

Colchester , Crawley and Leyton Orient all posting big big losses in the last couple of weeks .

Just to try and compete or get out of league 2

I don't mind so much if someone puts the money in as a hobby or whatever and won't let the club go when they have finished , it's more the Crawley/Scunthorpe scenario when the club/and, or stadium is leveraged against loads of debt which will leave the club eventually in a mess or worse .

That's why although on the pitch it's bad atm I struggle to be too harsh on Stockwood & Pettit as they are at least trying their best to run the club the right way . Unfortunately the right way does not always mean success .

For now.  Maybe we are ahead of the curve.

Things often look very bleak and people think we will never re capture past glories, but it most certainly can be done.

When we used to beat Luton on a regular basis as recently as our non league days they must have felt similarly that their fortunes would never change. I do remember their fans being rather arrogant and wanted/needed/expected things to improve because rightly they thought their club better than non-league. Look at them now!

I think often the first step is the hardest so probably with not as much money as some but more shrewdness we can take that first step and then things might start to look different.

Back to reality though - we simply have to survive this season.