Yes the "investor" bit always makes me laugh. It's like soccer at the top level is literally awash with money (imagine paying over £100 million for ONE player, all the surrounding fees, and paying his wage of £150K a WEEK). But the big clubs are all technically about a billion times more insolvent than the Bulls ever were! NOBODY CARES! It's not a concern for them as they all have minted foreigners able and willing to sink in sums that would embarrass Croesus, with no aim nor hope of ever getting it back.
I know banks and financiers have been bitten by incarnations of Bulls in the past, but still I would be surprised if we could have negative numbers at the levels Bullseye mentioned unless whoever holds the accounts has got some solid guarantees. (Those levels are in fact not a lot at all for a pro sports club, and a pee in the ocean compared with some other sports).
In the lower leagues you can bumble along and pretty much balance the books, if you are prudent and work very hard at sundry efforts and local income streams, but it ain't gonna get you playing in the Champions League any time soon.
Of course, many teams who have limitations, and their fans, KNOW their limitations, and know their place, and are very happy with that, and their dreams. I was, when I was a Park Avenue fan as a young kid, before they got booted from the League. And that is most teams. They dream, but a good season for them is not promotion. And thank the lord for those clubs, who are the backbone of the game. It's like the difference between the semi-pro clubs, and the amateur game, where you also have thriving local clubs that have done it for many decades or longer, and get their fix from doing well in their own league, and just occasionally a good Cup draw. Like I remember Kevin Hector at Avenue, and playing the then giant Fulham in the Cup.
You can't escape the fact that to go up, all the more so to stay up, is always going to be a very expensive business for someone. I think for example only Leeds, who have worked hard to make themselves financially sound, were operating in surplus and even there I would be interested to see their accounts for the current period.
So if someone is prepared to underwrite what we are spending, then I'm bloody delighted, and great, long may it continue. I don't see it in the slightest as any detriment, or a bad thing. I'm all for it. Every club should have one. If I ever win the Euromillions the Bulls will have one. (Can someone get me a ticket?) Without some substantial outside finance we will have little hope of SL and almost zero hope of staying in SL, and that's the simple truth.
