Chester FC Finances 26/27

To: MD

I have summarised the minutes of your meetings with Max and Brooke in one place. This is what you wanted, I think? Please let me know if I have misunderstood. (I added some external sources to show what our accountant supporters are saying!)

Joe

National League Discussions

• [1] Inital discussion session. Those present: MD, Brooke, MB
  • Playing budget of 19k p/w
  • 800k in R. Brown money (MD points out this is actually 770k as some is already spent)
    • 50K for planning/architect for the training grounds
    • 450k for solar, 75k back in grants
      • Solar out of Raffi money, saves 2k p/w in electricity
    • 20k to the women’s team
    • Transfer funds for player salaries must be entirely cordoned off
• [2] Exit Trials discussion
  • Squad as-is, with John/Sandra/Max costs 14,625
  • Budget is 22k
  • 7.3k to get more players
  • Transfer funds are around 400k 
• First game against Grimsby, budget of 22k, squad costs just slightly over 20k
• [3] Discussions held about generating income from match day, sponsorships, merch, etc.
• [4] Sold Sam Topps, got James Wise ‘for cheap’, signed Sticky. New wages: 21.1k p/w
• Declared to be second-lowest in tier 5, after Wealdstone
• [5] In October, discussion about the revenue generation schemes
  • Chester, two artificial pitches – some rental income
  • Another in Hoole or Vicar’s Cross
  • One in Ellesmere Port
  • Each pitch is ~ 500k to setup and install, generates 150-200k p/a in revenue (call it basically 2k p/w net per pitch, after expenses/repayments)
• [6] Discussion of the league with the Stars
  • “Our budget is ⅓ of the guys at the top” (so top teams are roughly 66-70k p/w player budget)
• [7] Spent all of the Raffi money + to get CF in January, completely maxed out
• Used the FA Cup run to pay for Chipper’s useless loan

Analysis from James Pond (Included for Context)

• Max had 22k p/w even to work with. He went over the redline by effectively fencing off all of his remaining ~ 300-400k in Raffi money to pay for CF’s transfer fee (effectively 205k), and cordon of CF’s salary, because he was at the redline already
• MD was super conservative, the solar panels hadn’t fully activated, the team bus hadn’t been purchased, season tickets had gone up only a little, and they were not selling out the stadium until later in the season, and even then, not always
• Salary budget of 1.144m p/a
• Total all-in budget of around 2.54m. MD allowed a 45% turnover to wages ratio which was the conservative “as low as it gets” number for clubs in the NLN/NL/etc. that survive like this without a rich benefactor – that’s total revenue, total expenses, because there’s certainly no profit

League Two

• Initial meeting with MD, BS, MB to plan budget for League Two
  • 1.14m in TV money all-in (800k plus solidarity) – “new EFL TV deal is quite good, and solidarity payments are up”
  • Target turnover of 3.5m: sell out stadium, food and drink, commercial revenues
    • No TV money, no player sales, no cup runs
  • Wage to turnover of 45%, the budget is 30.3k p/w
  • Wrexham was on 113k p/w
  • Accrington on 35k p/w
  • Light & Heat went way down – solar panels winning
  • “We’ll save some money season after next when we move out of BoshCard”
  • From the 1.14m, 150k was for pre-sold season tickets for the first training pitch, 40k for Wibbers = 950k left + 54k for selling Steve and Wisey
    • 150k for dental clinic
      • 450k was the cost of travel/trips/hotels/etc.
    • Sealbiscuit – 300k cost, but financed
      • Used by men on Saturday, women on Sunday. Weeknights men or youth teams as needed.
      • Paying 30k per year + interest, saving 20k in coach rental fees, making 10k in sponsorship = break even
    • So actually only 30k fenced off, leaving 270k of the 300k
    • 50k to the women
    • Some to Dean
    • Some to Brig for equipment and stuff
    • Education, money for Inga/Joe/etc., website, socials, data, sports psych,
    • Bumpers Bank buildings
  • 150k for Carl and Aff, total cost for Hoole being more than 200k
  • Pitch rental at Bumpers projected around 3k p/w
  • Documentary base rate was around 500k in revenue (FL3, FL2)
    • “Please get me one dental clinic, one Dopemobile, one sports psychologist, toilets, cabins, another mobile kitchen. Hire Sophie on a permanent basis and pay the documentary crew for the hours they’ve already put in. Investigate the other things I talked about but hold fire on those until we see what we get from the Exit Trials.”
  • Max thinks he can get more from a military charity “Brig rebate” (Mentions 208k)
  • Almost 200k over budget
    • Includes everything: Wibbers (40k), billboard, Sealbiscuit, charging stations, fence, dentist, Hoole
    • Can use Chesterness for this – Season One of Chesterness pays for Alex, Elin, Sophie, and 200k left over
    • 200k in unexpected grants – that means one building upgraded
    • Choice was the gym – “get me a super gym”
  • Big transfer room day
    • 28.62k out of 30k
    • Foq coming in Jan on 2k p/w, at a cost of 500k out (not due until summer), with a 1.5 release clause
    • Dazza is a loan-with-obligation-to-buy for 250k, due in summer
    • Roddy Jones is 25k this coming summer, 25k when he turns 18
  • Brooke is working on increasing catering
  • Jamie Brotherhood is 10k next summer
    • Dazza, Foquita, Roddy, Jamie = 785k due in summer 2026
    • 5m in bond sales
    • The pitch at Bumpers was rammed and bringing in a solid 2,000 per week
      • Could have been more except it was in heavy use from Chester squads
    • Hoole is bringing in 2.3k p/w
    • Starting Jan 1, budget went to 34.3k p/w

January Transfer Talk

• Freeing up 3.79k p/w for players
• Half the cup prize; Incoming transfer for Simon Black, Ben, Eddie, Sharky; purchase fee for Bark = 529k
• 1.1m from Man U away (ticket sales + TV), minus approx 100k for misc costs
• 1.63m net in “available money” from all these sources
  • 400k out to Reading for Duggers (wages 3k)
  • 200k out for Swanny (wages 2k)
  • Alfie and Adam from Man U (wages 700 each)
  • MD: “wage budget of 38.09k” because of MD’s demented thrifty “18 months ring-fence”
  • Anything over budget = 3.79 x 18 months = 300k from the transfer kitty
  • So 600k in transfer fees, 300k in “ring fence”, 70k for Kit, 600k for shower block leaves 64k
  • Ellesmere Port pitch = Henri’s syndicate, cost is 360 => use the 60k leftover for it, borrow 300 from Henri’s mum, pay back 320 as soon as the TV money comes in from League One
  • Sales of women’s fit shirts are way way up
    • Start making some money off Grindhog
    • Target: Boost retail sales to 1m p/a

March 9 budget talk with MD

• 5k p/w to Max in League One
• 7 or 8 away games in a row (potential cashflow issue at the start of the season)
• “We will have the lowest budget in League One but there isn’t a manager in that league who isn’t looking at us and thinking ‘oh shit’.”

External Analysis

That guy on Bluesky who pores over our accounts did a tweet thread. Might be fun to include this here!

• Max had 30k p/w to start, which got bumped to 34.3k in Jan with Hoole and Bumpers money. He went over by 3.79k p/w for six months, which was 98,540 (call it 100k).
  • The rest of the money ring-fenced for going over gets absorbed into next year’s salary budget, so Max regains 197,080 (call it 200k) in his transfer kitty from this
• Total salary was 1.56m p/a
• Actual total revenue was significantly higher than 3.5m – Chesterness docu got rolled in (200+k), army grant money (200k), transfer fees got rolled in, Bumpers+Hoole came online, Grindhog started making money, cup runs, etc. – so in the end, even with Max dumping most of it into infrastructure, we have to expect that total revenue flow for league games, cup games, etc., etc., etc. was actually in the order of 5.0m+, ignoring the one-time windfall of Man U
• So Max’s actual legit percentage of revenue spent on player wages was 780k + 988k = 1.768m; around 35% of total revenue. Everything else left after the original expenses Brooke and MD budgeted for got rolled into transfer fees and infrastructure. 
• The really key thing here: Brooke and MD said the budget was 3.5m, with a player budget of 1.56. So they expected that they could keep costs to just under 2.0m for everything non-player-related: that’s coaches, physios, Johnny Planter, costs of running hospitality, travel, hotels, backroom staff, everything
• Outstanding Stuff for summer after League Two
  • Regain 200k from the transfer kitty ring-fence
  • Pay Henri’s mother back 320k
  • Pay 785k in transfer fees for Dazza, Roddy, Jamie, Foquita
  • Gain 1.5m in transfer fees for Foquita’s release clause
  • Gain ??? in transfer fees for anyone being sold (not Henri, Lee H; potentially some other players?)
  • Outstanding “buy Addo” money should probably be set aside for “if that ESC doesn’t get used”, or January
• So if Max uses all of Foquita’s money to clear the decks, he would have
  • 1,500k – 320k – 785k + 200k = 595k in the “transfer kitty”, before the start of League One and the new solidarity/TV money and EVERYTHING
• Plus in League One, three pitches will be online, earning (let’s say) 6.2k p/w – Bumpers was supposed to be 3k p/w even after the team reserved it, and Hoole has been online for a year now, with Ellesmere coming online for the summer
• The docu should go up to the next tier, so instead of 125k per hour it should be 150k or 175k per hour – it’s a second season, it’s popular – so another 8 episodes would be up to 700k instead of 500k
• Note on the bond: 5m borrowed, 8% interest paid per year no principal. So 400k per year, 5 years, then 5m balloon payment due at the end.
  • Also note there was some discussion about the hospitality suites, so revenue should climb there
  • McNally was all-standing 1200, new stand is 4000 => total of 8200 for the Deva
  • McNally was bringing in 500k for all league games; new stand is 1.6m => 1.1m per year in ticket revenue alone
    • Referred to as “an extra 20k per week”
    • Prices won’t be jacked up

League One Projection

OK, let’s talk about League One. This is going to be fun. Let’s assume 3% inflation. 

Last year, Brooke and MD budgeted for, and managed to keep, costs for running the club and everything except players+Max/Sandra/Brig to just under 2.0m. They brought in revenues in excess of 6m. Max dumped a bunch on transfer fees – he’s paid off everything using Foquita’s revenue – except Gabbygol from Tranmere – so the club starts the season with approximately -200k in the transfer kitty, and no outstanding debts except the 5m bond, which will be paid for by the extra revenue from the new McNally (with money leftover).

Costs

Costs are going up – they’re hosting more people per game, more hospitality costs to run (but more revenues!), more water for the bathrooms. Travel and hotel stays mostly the same – it’s the same country, same travel, same everything there. So that portion of the bill, which was around 500k including coaches (400k without) goes up by 16% + inflation, so 478k now. 

Costs of staff needs to go way up: more coaches, more paid staff, Brooke gets a pay rise, MD gets paid for the first time, there’s an accountant to help Joe, etc., etc., etc.. Let’s just wave our hands vigorously and say that’s 700k. That’s 14 full-time 50k salaries. Just picked a number.

All “run the club” expenses go up by inflation + 20% for “bigger stadium, bigger staff, bigger insurance bill). So that 2.0m which was 400k travel, 1.6m “stuff” becomes 478k travel, 1.9776m … or, rounded up, call it 2.5m. Up by 500k. 

So, call total expenses that are not players as 3.2m, up +1.2m from last year. 

Revenue

Ticket prices have to go up by inflation and more. 

Grindhog revenue and commercial is up. Everything is up up up. 

And the new McNally is paying the interest (400k) on the bond with 700k in extra projected revenue.

The entire club budget last season, ignoring the League Two TV+solidarity money, was originally 3.5m. We’re going to add the new ticket sales to that (+700k), and then we’re going to handwave and declare that Brooke sold sponsorships, more merch, more everything so the grand total for gate, custom, merch, commercial is on the order of 6.0m. This is a super handwave, but not excessive – it’s saying all of Brooke’s work, the expanded number of beers sold, pies sold, Grindhog starting to return profit sharing to Chester, the hospitality, the commercial revenue, everything amounts to a grand total of 1.9m for the coming year.

This should really be conservative – sponsorship alone should bring in half of this. And it has to be balanced against our big assumption above that costs are up 1.2m! If costs are up 1.2m, revenues need to be up even more. 

Note: this ignores cup runs, makes limited assumptions about extra revenues. This is JUST the league and sponsorships and the general “MD is happy with it” level of projections. 

OK, so what do we have to play with?

• 6.0m in regular league revenue and merch and “stuff”
• No cup revenue counted
• No documentary counted
  • Probably 700k from The Relentlessness, of which some can be infrastructure as the women are in the Deva now! Training on that infrastructure!
• No pitch revenue counted – 6.2k p/w, or 322k p/a
• No TV revenue counted
  • BIG BIG note here: the Sky deal was 935m, basically. But there’s a new (as of 2025 starting) 147m deal for international streaming to North America/etc. So this is a bit of inflation
  • As of 2023, it was:
    • League One solidarity is 788k; League Two was 520k
    • EFL revenue share is 950k to League One; 640k to League Two
    • This was the 1.16 last season; now it’s 1.738m
  • Let’s 2026 inflate this, share a tiny bit of that international revenue, and handwave this up to a nice even 1.8m

So Mr Conservative MD is going to look at this, and tell Max that he can have

• 6.0m in regular revenue – 3.2m in costs = 2.8m in player salaries = 53.8k p/w
• 1.8m in TV/solidarity money
• 6.2k p/w from the pitches
• A starting transfer kitty of -200k
• [some kind of revenue share from the cup games – every home game will net more ticket sales]
• [some kind of revenue share from the documentary money, Max and Ruth decide]

So a sane MD budget chat is: Max, you can have 53.8k + 6.2k p/w base, full control over the 1.6m, a starting kitty of 0k, and also have control over 700k from The Relentlessness plus the cups are totally up in the air and all that revenue will be figured out, because we have no idea how deep in the cups you’ll end up going.

What does this turn into? A starting base of (I swear I didn’t design it to work out this nicely) 60.0k p/w, plus 2.3m in “Max go cray cray” money that can be divvied up however Max wants. Transfers, salaries, infrastructure you name it. NOTE: if Max uses 1.0m of this 2.3m, he gets a starting base of 80k p/w. for the entire season.  I think MD can calm down and stop ring-fencing two entire years of salary for this kind of thing – just pay for the year, even if something goes horribly wrong, we’re relegated to League Two only, and we can survive there.

And depending on the cup depth and revenue there, significantly more resources can be unlocked in January again.