Exeter City - How much will it cost to be a sustainable League One Club?

[Doug3101]

About 800k is a loan. A while back it was changed to a donation. We were told it was so we could use more money for playing budget to fit in with the maximum 55% of turnover financial fair play rules, but I can't say I ever believed that.

The money now gifted to the club from the trust would be classed as income for FFP purposes if it was still a loan.
The £800K loan has not been called in as it is there as a deterrent to any 'predators' who would try and take over the club and have a degree of ill will about them. Having to service a debt of that amount should see off people of that nature.
Personally I don't see the point of the club paying it back atm, the trust is there to help the club stand on it's own two feet and all the money the trust gets ultimately goes to help the club. The trust would be in a situation of calling in a loan and then being duty bound to give it back thus leaving the club cash rich and open to a takeover.

 

[richard_portland]

The money now gifted to the club from the trust would be classed as income for FFP purposes if it was still a loan.
The £800K loan has not been called in as it is there as a deterrent to any 'predators' who would try and take over the club and have a degree of ill will about them. Having to service a debt of that amount should see off people of that nature.
Personally I don't see the point of the club paying it back atm, the trust is there to help the club stand on it's own two feet and all the money the trust gets ultimately goes to help the club. The trust would be in a situation of calling in a loan and then being duty bound to give it back thus leaving the club cash rich and open to a takeover.

Yeah I understand that but we always seemed to turnover between 3 and 3.5m per season and were told our base budget was approx 1m. No where near 55% of our turnover even if you subtract the trust monies and don't use it as income. I believe we at the moment are budgeting around 1.5m which i imagine is still not that close to 55% of our turnover.

I agree that there isn't a need to pay it back but think it should be a loan once again . It probably won't happen but if someone wanted to take us over they would need to pay in enough to cover that loan.

 

[Fareham Grecian]

Re: Exeter City - How much will it cost to be a sustaimable League One Club?

Pete, it's been well documented that the club has very little debt once you discount the money that is owed to the Supporters Trust...Sustainability is a different question, and you would need to set the parameters of what you aim to achieve to answer that question..

The sole parameter is sustainability. We have aimed to achieve sustainability and we have achieved that.

 

[Bittners a Legend]

There are enough examples of successful (or nearly successful) clubs in League One and League Two over the previous few years to demonstrate that money alone is not a determining factor at the bottom of the professional leagues. It doesn't mean you should expect success but it is achievable without throwing a lot of money at it.

As has already been indicated anyway, there is nothing sustainable about working up big losses anyway.