[JonB]

Just seen this tweet from football finance expert Kieran Maguire....Colchester losses up to over £40m, completely reliant on the owner covering it.

Quote

Kieran Maguire @KieranMaguire · 6h
Colchester United lost £3.7 million in 23/24 which takes total losses over the years to a drop your bacon total of £42.2 million. Club manages to pay the bills due to a loan from owner of almost £37 million. Audit report notes there’s a material uncertainty over the club’s ability to continue as a going concern

[Westbars Spireite]

Wouldn't be so bad if they'd achieved anything.

[JonB]

Westbars Spireite, on 04 April 2025 - 12:29 PM, said:

Wouldn't be so bad if they'd achieved anything.

And played on something that resembled a grass football pitch....not entirely sure what they've spent £40m+ on!

This post has been edited by JonB: 04 April 2025 - 12:31 PM

[60s 70s Spireite]

JonB, on 04 April 2025 - 12:31 PM, said:

And played on something that resembled a grass football pitch....not entirely sure what they've spent £40m+ on!

Probably like most clubs- chasing the dream

[gordon_brittas]

Doesn’t sound great. Even during there brief Championship run they struggled to fill the old Layer Road ground on some occasions. Never been a well supported club.

[spireitetoo]

Have Reading found new buyers yet?
Their owner has been disqualified and they were given till the end of the month I think? Or face expulsion from the league

This post has been edited by spireitetoo: 04 April 2025 - 03:05 PM

[Exharboroughspireite]

I find it really sad when local clubs suffer badly. As we know too well, they are the lifeblood of the local community. It’s horrible to see mismanagement being allowed to such an extent.

[Benno Spire]

spireitetoo, on 04 April 2025 - 03:05 PM, said:

Have Reading found new buyers yet?
Their owner has been disqualified and they were given till the end of the month I think? Or face expulsion from the league

I read they have a 2 week extension, but its not looking good.

[warfey is a spireite]

Id love a two week extension Ian.

PPS any those any good on list.

[Osborne again]

It's not good to see clubs on a downward spiral, especially being that we escaped extinction by the skin of our teeth.
I fear for Wrexham when Disney and their Hollywood sugar daddies get bored, it could only take one poor season and they'll be off to pastures new.

[The Earl of Chesterfield]

Video on YouTube asking why crowds are so small (Colchester bigger catchment than Tairn and many other better supported outfits, for what it's worth).

A combination of local apathy and the ground being so isolated the apparent answer.

Recent reports a takeover fell through, too.

Guess they can only hope their owner continues to be sympathetic...

[Holmesc1]

40 millions seems barmy debt for a league two club. On another note would be comical of this mcguires club whoever that is got into bad debt

[Wooden Spoon]

The Earl of Chesterfield, on 05 April 2025 - 11:46 AM, said:

Video on YouTube asking why crowds are so small (Colchester bigger catchment than Tairn and many other better supported outfits, for what it's worth).

A combination of local apathy and the ground being so isolated the apparent answer.

Recent reports a takeover fell through, too.

Guess they can only hope their owner continues to be sympathetic...

A big problem for Colchester is a huge number of people who live their haves moved out from London because housing is cheap.


So many many “locals” would support spurs West Ham arsenal etc.


Colchester have always been a poorly supported club. They reached the championship a few years back and still didn’t fill the home end at layer road.


The owner also put in a serious amount of money into the academy hoping to provide a line of youth players who’d make the first team and be sold - that was how he planned to make the club sustainable

[Holmesc1]

Wooden Spoon, on 05 April 2025 - 04:26 PM, said:

A big problem for Colchester is a huge number of people who live their haves moved out from London because housing is cheap.


So many many “locals” would support spurs West Ham arsenal etc.


Colchester have always been a poorly supported club. They reached the championship a few years back and still didn’t fill the home end at layer road.


The owner also put in a serious amount of money into the academy hoping to provide a line of youth players who’d make the first team and be sold - that was how he planned to make the club sustainable

Im suprised there old ground never fell foul of championship ground grading

[spireitetoo]

Add Wednesday to the list, on calender news at mo, apparently losing around 2 million a month atm.. 😱

That's not going to end well for many there, they've already been late getting paid..

[60s 70s Spireite]

spireitetoo, on 07 April 2025 - 05:24 PM, said:

Add Wednesday to the list, on calender news at mo, apparently losing around 2 million a month atm.. 😱

That's not going to end well for many there, they've already been late getting paid..

That’s just about the average for a Championship club. Last summer it was reported the average loss I was £400k per week for the Championship.

[Burgerman]

60s 70s Spireite, on 08 April 2025 - 02:08 PM, said:

That’s just about the average for a Championship club. Last summer it was reported the average loss I was £400k per week for the Championship.

Clubs need to stop paying stupid wages.

[HaslandBlue58]

60s 70s Spireite, on 08 April 2025 - 02:08 PM, said:

That's just about the average for a Championship club. Last summer it was reported the average loss I was £400k per week for the Championship.

So the average Championship loss was the same per week as De Bruyne's reported weekly pay (as per BBC Sport pages) £400K?Some how there must be a stop to this unjustified insanity surely?Why,when the idea of a business is to turn a profit,is it acceptable for football to be run this way?

[JonB]

Clubs chasing the Premier League windfall with many trying to compete against clubs living off parachute payments.

Quickly turning into a 6/8 clubs who go up, come straight back down as the gap to the Prem clubs is widening and then sit in the top few positions again as they are paying way more in wages and fees than the others who are trying to find the finances to compete.

[Johnnyspireite7]

HaslandBlue58, on 08 April 2025 - 02:20 PM, said:

So the average Championship loss was the same per week as De Bruyne's reported weekly pay (as per BBC Sport pages) £400K?Some how there must be a stop to this unjustified insanity surely?Why,when the idea of a business is to turn a profit,is it acceptable for football to be run this way?

Because unless they go into management a Professional Footballer's career is rather short compared to us mere mortals who have to work from (lowest age realistic) 18 to 65+ and usually most players have retired when they get towards the 38-40 YO bracket with not many having anything to go forward into.