wire-quin wrote:

I get the feeling Fev have thrown everything at this and may suffer as a club when Leigh see them off.

I tend to agree. Not withstanding they are clearly well run it is a small club in a game not awash with central funding. Their current squad is impressive and it’s difficult to see how it is sustainable but clearly they’ve got something going on so who knows.

BigTime wrote:

I tend to agree. Not withstanding they are clearly well run it is a small club in a game not awash with central funding. Their current squad is impressive and it’s difficult to see how it is sustainable but clearly they’ve got something going on so who knows.

It probably is sustainable (if we can keep the average crowds as they are now), here are my thoughts:
- The Fev adult ticket price at games is £20, £22 if you buy it on the day. However there are concessions, kids, season ticket holders, hangers on, etc. so let’s assume an average ticket price of £15. After which there is other purchases on the day beer (£4 a pint), chips, sweets, coffee, etc. so let’s assume that the extra revenue is an average of £5 a head, just over a pint per person, that makes it £20 per person.
- Fev are averaging @3,500 per game so that is £70,000 per game. With a minimum of 13 home games before playoff n cup game revenue. That gives Fev a revenue stream of £910,000 (less costs).
- Add in Sponsorship @£400,000 plus revenue from RFL @£120,000 takes us to about a turnover of @£1,430,000
- Gledhill recons our wage bill is about that £1.2 million mark.

So at a guess we are more or less breaking even, but this does not allow for investment in the infrastructure.

I guess this is the advantage of owning your ground.

FevGrinder wrote:

I guess this is the advantage of owning your ground.

Yep, makes quite a difference not only with the reduced outlay but the ability to generate match day revenue.

FevGrinder wrote:

It probably is sustainable (if we can keep the average crowds as they are now), here are my thoughts:
- The Fev adult ticket price at games is £20, £22 if you buy it on the day. However there are concessions, kids, season ticket holders, hangers on, etc. so let’s assume an average ticket price of £15. After which there is other purchases on the day beer (£4 a pint), chips, sweets, coffee, etc. so let’s assume that the extra revenue is an average of £5 a head, just over a pint per person, that makes it £20 per person.
- Fev are averaging @3,500 per game so that is £70,000 per game. With a minimum of 13 home games before playoff n cup game revenue. That gives Fev a revenue stream of £910,000 (less costs).
- Add in Sponsorship @£400,000 plus revenue from RFL @£120,000 takes us to about a turnover of @£1,430,000
- Gledhill recons our wage bill is about that £1.2 million mark.

So at a guess we are more or less breaking even, but this does not allow for investment in the infrastructure.

I guess this is the advantage of owning your ground.

Three and a half thou is a decent gate. Good to see local community buying into it. The days when pints were £4 in London are sadly long, long gone. I wonder what take up would be like if Broncos went down that route.

Think it's a bit like comparing apples with pears. Teams like Fev almost have a bit of a captive audience that just doesn't exist in London.

Deadcowboys1 wrote:

Think it's a bit like comparing apples with pears. Teams like Fev almost have a bit of a captive audience that just doesn't exist in London.

Yep, but we have a much bigger potential audience. If we were consistently competitive in SL and marketed ourselves properly, we would be be getting sustainable crowds (or near to).

jbuzza wrote:

Yep, but we have a much bigger potential audience. If we were consistently competitive in SL and marketed ourselves properly, we would be be getting sustainable crowds (or near to).

If we played at home semi regularly during the season might help as well building up a bit of momentum.

BigTime wrote:

If we played at home semi regularly during the season might help as well building up a bit of momentum.

Guessing that Wimbledon are relaying the pitch? Leigh are annually in the same position as they share LSV with soccer teams (Man Utd reserves and women) and the piper plays the tune suggested by the larger payer. Following last Monday's game against Fev, this parish won't see Cherry & White shirts for about two months. 4,226 saw them off (notwithstanding it being a streamed fixture on a Monday night), maybe a larger crowd will welcome them back - absence and the heart and all that. Two sides to every coin.

Bent&Bongser wrote:

Guessing that Wimbledon are relaying the pitch? Leigh are annually in the same position as they share LSV with soccer teams (Man Utd reserves and women) and the piper plays the tune suggested by the larger payer. Following last Monday's game against Fev, this parish won't see Cherry & White shirts for about two months. 4,226 saw them off (notwithstanding it being a streamed fixture on a Monday night), maybe a larger crowd will welcome them back - absence and the heart and all that. Two sides to every coin.

All true Bongser but you’ve got to remember we’ve moved to a different area of London. There’s very little connect between Ealing and Wimbledon and so they’ve needed a re haul in who attends. A lacklustre awareness raising campaign coupled with 2 disgusting performances against Widnes and, in particular the 8-0 loss against a modest Whitehaven threw away our first and best chance to make a good impression. Decamping for 6 weeks whilst the pitch is relaid during the increasingly shrinking timeframe when football is not the only game in town is a bit of an own goal. All things considered I suspect our average attendance will be at around 900-1000 (much of it heavily discounted) but basically we will be back where we were post Covid and the seemingly wilful running down of Ealing.