Sheffield Wednesday fan column: The figures that suggest the chairman is wrong to dismiss importance of supporters' financial input

There have been some interesting financial figures about the Championship out this week.
Dejphon ChansiriDejphon Chansiri
Dejphon Chansiri

Kieran Maguire, a lecturer in football finance at University of Liverpool, runs a great Twitter account called Price of Football that informs fans of the cost of being a football supporter and the financial status of our clubs.

While we were discussing yet another Sheffield Derby being moved to a week night and South Yorkshire Police issuing a statement that explained their preference for the Steel City Derby to never be played at a weekend, there have also been discussions about the impact of TV on club finances.

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Sheffield Wednesday's broadcast income from Sky is one of the lowest in the league at 30 per cent of our total income.

Only Derby County and Leeds United are lower.

This in many ways is good because it means we aren't reliant on TV money in the same way some clubs are.

Our opponents at the weekend, Hull City, are overly reliant with 81% of their total income coming from broadcast money.

In comparison to television income the majority of clubs don't rely on matchday revenue so the issue of moving a match is irrelevant to them.

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Only nine per cent of Hull City's total income relies on fans turning up to participate, we on the other hand are the opposite end of that table.

Forty one per cent of our total income, according to the Price of Football account, is generated from matchday income. The next highest is Millwall at 36.3 per cent of their total income.

The caveat of these figures is that they are the latest ones from 2016/17 when fans weren't being bored to death during the reign of Jos Luhukay and the attendances were higher.

The point of these statistics is that during the Fans' Forum in December, chairman Dejphon Chansiri intimated that in relative terms supporter's contributions were a drop in the ocean. This it seems is not the case.

It will affect our income if matches are moved because of FA Cup ties and Sky's TV schedule. The Chairman financially needs us as much as we need him

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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