Operating losses announced

[Stig]

6 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Yeah I was glad I actually had a look into it because I was completely wrong in how material the jump was.

I suppose when you’re coming down from the prem, the difference between the Champ and L1 seems pretty immaterial when compared to Prem to Champ - but then when you’re looking upwards and are starting from a £20m revenue base, it’s massive (sounds like the difference might have changed last year from your post so maybe I wasn’t always wrong).

Yeah the deal that started at the beginning of last season, with 5 championship matches and 5 league 1&2 (combined) matches on TV every weekend, increased TV revenue by 50%, but it skewed it much more towards the championship with something like a £7m difference in base TV level alone, and more per match shown, from memory. Can't find the exact amounts but this talks about the deal as a whole and added financial incentive to beat Oxford....

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/23566308.bolton-wanderers-ceo-neil-hart-fear-factor-tv-deal/

 

[masi 51]

Seems this latest investment by the Swiss has taken them to be now the majority shareholders. In effect they now own the club and not Football Ventures. Will be interesting to see if Sharon stays in charge or returns to business outside of football

 

[ianofcleveleys]

One comment that caught my eye from the CEO was us needing to bring more other revenues in (events etc) as we'd 'come away from that a bit'. To be fair to Hart, who was certainly a bit Marmite while here, we did seem to have a push on other revenue streams in those first few seasons after the Covid one.

A significant factor in increased football revenue if we went up would be from bigger away followings, albeit the Sky Sports + can decimate them in midweek. 

Not sure we'd see, in financial terms at least, a huge drop off in support revenue if we dont make it, given there's around 14-15k STs already locked in. It'll be drop off in casuals that might be noticeable I suppose, with that basic 19-20k gate being more like 17-18?

[masi 51]

Yes we tend to have concerts a couple of times one summer then nothing for three or four years then a couple again and cycle and repeat.

Snooker and darts are well attended but do not bring in major money. Would love to see a major boxing show. 

[Tombwfc]

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

I'd rather we loan a few we can give back if they're shite rather pay millions for wankers like Randall and be chucking 4 year contracts about om players with fuck all resale value.

The summer window was far from atrocious. We had to overhaul the entire squad, bed them in, and make some form of assault on the autos with a brand new set of lads and way of playing.

There's only Forss and probably Apter that have been major letdowns. TSL maybe. We've not even started on the back line yet.

 

 

It's one for the end of the season really - would be daft to write anyone off totally when even our shittest signing could still have a DeFreitas, Bobic, Wilbraham, Matt Clarke moment.

But in terms of squad building, we've signed four keepers and the best one is just about average.

Gale, Simons and Taylor represent £1m and 11 years of contracts and have been more out than in. SS has already given up on Taylor. Erhahon at £750k (& 4 years) looks like good business for Lincoln.

So that leaves Dalby (4 years) - can't really fault the goals he's tapped in recently but if he's our starting striker next year it's because we're still in L1.

If we're now spending slightly less on our bang average players I guess that's some kind of progress. But finding value for money has been a problem since the earlier Evatt days and still is under the current lot. 

[jmjhb]

4 hours ago, Stig said:

Yeah the deal that started at the beginning of last season, with 5 championship matches and 5 league 1&2 (combined) matches on TV every weekend, increased TV revenue by 50%, but it skewed it much more towards the championship with something like a £7m difference in base TV level alone, and more per match shown, from memory. Can't find the exact amounts but this talks about the deal as a whole and added financial incentive to beat Oxford....

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/23566308.bolton-wanderers-ceo-neil-hart-fear-factor-tv-deal/

 

Yeah there's a huge upside on revenue and commercial opportunities when you go up.

People going on about wages but that is for players and the ~350 staff combined. Obviously we have a much bigger operation than say Stevenage or Burton.

[jmjhb]

3 hours ago, masi 51 said:

Seems this latest investment by the Swiss has taken them to be now the majority shareholders. In effect they now own the club and not Football Ventures. Will be interesting to see if Sharon stays in charge or returns to business outside of football

 

Sharon will most likely remain the 'figurehead' of the board

[jmjhb]

3 hours ago, ianofcleveleys said:

One comment that caught my eye from the CEO was us needing to bring more other revenues in (events etc) as we'd 'come away from that a bit'. To be fair to Hart, who was certainly a bit Marmite while here, we did seem to have a push on other revenue streams in those first few seasons after the Covid one.

A significant factor in increased football revenue if we went up would be from bigger away followings, albeit the Sky Sports + can decimate them in midweek. 

Not sure we'd see, in financial terms at least, a huge drop off in support revenue if we dont make it, given there's around 14-15k STs already locked in. It'll be drop off in casuals that might be noticeable I suppose, with that basic 19-20k gate being more like 17-18?

It was the Pink concert, basically. Need more of those

[Rival Son]

7 hours ago, only1swanny said:

Yet to see from McAtee and hope he comes good for us. 

Almost two complete seasons and “still to see”. Exactly. Sell in the summer.

Others have him in their teams for tomorrow!!!

[gonzo]

4 hours ago, Tombwfc said:

 

It's one for the end of the season really - would be daft to write anyone off totally when even our shittest signing could still have a DeFreitas, Bobic, Wilbraham, Matt Clarke moment.

But in terms of squad building, we've signed four keepers and the best one is just about average.

Gale, Simons and Taylor represent £1m and 11 years of contracts and have been more out than in. SS has already given up on Taylor. Erhahon at £750k (& 4 years) looks like good business for Lincoln.

So that leaves Dalby (4 years) - can't really fault the goals he's tapped in recently but if he's our starting striker next year it's because we're still in L1.

If we're now spending slightly less on our bang average players I guess that's some kind of progress. But finding value for money has been a problem since the earlier Evatt days and still is under the current lot. 

Aye there's not a lot to disagree with there.

[FrancisFogarty]

In my humble opinion we've had  too any bang average players for years and been stuck with them. Too many in and not enough out. IE and now SS have tinkered like fuck and bugger all has changed. We still don't know what our best team is.  The top brass of the day have not had the confidence in them to give them half a dozen games to gel.

[frank_spencer]

Honestly best 11 is hard to call.

It all depends what formation you go with 

CBT and ACD are arguably our best players but I feel we're better when playing in a 532 where they wouldn't fit in.

That's where Schumacher earns his money.

[gonzo]

2 hours ago, FrancisFogarty said:

In my humble opinion we've had  too any bang average players for years and been stuck with them. Too many in and not enough out. IE and now SS have tinkered like fuck and bugger all has changed. We still don't know what our best team is.  The top brass of the day have not had the confidence in them to give them half a dozen games to gel.

I'll bet you 50p you can't name 3 Lincoln City players. 

The manager has spent all season trying find answers, build a decent run of form and adapt to each opposition.

Chuck in injuries and players out of form it's impossible to play the same 11 every week.

He'd had have been castigated for keep the same team and system after that run at Xmas and every fuckers form had fell off a cliff.

[Whitesince63]

21 minutes ago, gonzo said:

I'll bet you 50p you can't name 3 Lincoln City players. 

The manager has spent all season trying find answers, build a decent run of form and adapt to each opposition.

Chuck in injuries and players out of form it's impossible to play the same 11 every week.

He'd had have been castigated for keep the same team and system after that run at Xmas and every fuckers form had fell off a cliff.

What difference does it make whether you can name Lincoln’s players or not, few of them are widely known but you can’t argue that Skubala has kept a broadly same starting team in most games and certainly has stuck to a style that the players not only understand but can all play. We haven’t done any of that having not just a different team every week but a constantly changing system and then another 5 changes during the game. About the only constant Schueys had is inverted wingers which for me has been a massive mistake. Our players don’t know their position nor who they’re playing next to game to game so how on earth can they get any kind of consistency? We may yet scramble through to promotion but either way I hope Schuey brings a more consistent feel to the team next season.

[ZiggyStardust]

16 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

What difference does it make whether you can name Lincoln’s players or not, few of them are widely known but you can’t argue that Skubala has kept a broadly same starting team in most games and certainly has stuck to a style that the players not only understand but can all play. We haven’t done any of that having not just a different team every week but a constantly changing system and then another 5 changes during the game. About the only constant Schueys had is inverted wingers which for me has been a massive mistake. Our players don’t know their position nor who they’re playing next to game to game so how on earth can they get any kind of consistency? We may yet scramble through to promotion but either way I hope Schuey brings a more consistent feel to the team next season.

How we have avoided relegation, god only knows.

[Dimron]

2 hours ago, gonzo said:

I'll bet you 50p you can't name 3 Lincoln City players. 

The manager has spent all season trying find answers, build a decent run of form and adapt to each opposition.

Chuck in injuries and players out of form it's impossible to play the same 11 every week.

He'd had have been castigated for keep the same team and system after that run at Xmas and every fuckers form had fell off a cliff.

Skubala was quoted in my local press (I live near Lincoln) a month or so ago that he was in the enviable position where the team virtually picks itself, he almost leaves the senior players to it and gets the credits.

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

25 minutes ago, Dimron said:

Skubala was quoted in my local press (I live near Lincoln) a month or so ago that he was in the enviable position where the team virtually picks itself, he almost leaves the senior players to it and gets the credits.

That might well be a consequence of it being his third season in charge

It's much easier to pick a settled team when the manager's had six transfer windows to build one

[Whitesince63]

2 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

That might well be a consequence of it being his third season in charge

It's much easier to pick a settled team when the manager's had six transfer windows to build one

Except that he lost what were perceived to be a bunch of their best players last summer, including Erhahon to ourselves. Despite the changes he obviously made the right signings to transform the team this year but I suspect it’s his consistency of selection and system this season that’s the real reason they’ve done so well. I’m not sure the number of windows means a lot since Evatt had enough and still failed. That said I do hope that Schuey will be able to bring in the players he needs this summer to fit his system which he’s not really been able to do so far with so many under contract. I’d just like to see a bit more settled side next season and less unforced changes.

[gonzo]

3 hours ago, Whitesince63 said:

What difference does it make whether you can name Lincoln’s players or not, few of them are widely known but you can’t argue that Skubala has kept a broadly same starting team in most games and certainly has stuck to a style that the players not only understand but can all play. We haven’t done any of that having not just a different team every week but a constantly changing system and then another 5 changes during the game. About the only constant Schueys had is inverted wingers which for me has been a massive mistake. Our players don’t know their position nor who they’re playing next to game to game so how on earth can they get any kind of consistency? We may yet scramble through to promotion but either way I hope Schuey brings a more consistent feel to the team next season.

Their circumstances have lead to this that's the point.

You were in the same gang calling Evatt a stubborn fucker.

What's this rigid team and formation he should've kept this season then?

 

[kobeer]

On 02/04/2026 at 09:26, masi 51 said:

Seems this latest investment by the Swiss has taken them to be now the majority shareholders. In effect they now own the club and not Football Ventures. Will be interesting to see if Sharon stays in charge or returns to business outside of football

 

Football Ventures is simply the name of the company created by Sharon and others to buy the assets of BWFC from the administrator. It was not an existing company looking to buy a football club. The Swiss are now the biggest shareholder of Football Ventures which still owns the club. As reported elsewhere the Swiss are a group of colleagues including the brother of Nick Luckock. Nothing to suggest the Swiss are looking to take control it's just they have more money than they know what to do with!

[gonzo]

And they aren't even Swiss.

Their accountants are based in Switzerland. 

Just like Uncle Eddie wasn't a Manx

[jmjhb]

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

And they aren't even Swiss.

Their accountants are based in Switzerland. 

Just like Uncle Eddie wasn't a Manx

Some of them are Swiss

Think of it as a large bunch of millionaires (as opposed to a Saudi billionaire) investing

[gonzo]

Blackpool FC losses up and turnover down for League One club https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/blackpool-fc-losses-up-and-turnover-down-for-league-one-club-6573503

 

Blackpool lose £4.3m

 

[W.cramp]

West brom looking at a possible points deduction this season which will drop them into the bottom 3.