An increase of say on average 500 extra bodies a week at ER would be about around 200k a year. Add in the ticket increases and you would probably be talking around half a million total just from that. Did we make much more than that via the LC last season? Probably not much more tbh.
One of my many many problems with the board is that they have not developed any of the revenue streams you'd expect from a club doing well in the form of decent amounts of money from sponsorships etc. All the increased revenues have came from the pockets of the fans whether that is more sales of merchandising, bigger gates etc. Which means that if crowds and interest drop due to a bad season or two (which is certainly possible) we have not strengthened the overall financial base of the club at all.
Correct, and I think this comes back to the simplistic perception of STF on a deal that was struck between the club and the fans, the 'We're staying at Easter Road' deal. The club said at the time that they expected the fans to turn out in numbers to keep the deal on. The fans did that, but the reality is that the less hard core fans will inevitably lose a bit of interest when the results and performances aren't turning up either. There is a balance to be struck, and there is no doubt the barometer has swung too far in the direction of debt clearance over the last couple of months as far as the fans are concerned.
There is an alternative theory to consider in all of this, that of the club being made ready for sale. I don't know enough about the posibilities here to comment, beyong pointing out that we are more attractive to any potential buyer than we have been since the 1980s.
It is also true that the club needs some enterprising thought in terms of widening the revenue base, and that's a fault you cannot lay at the fans' door. The whole dynamic of the club's direction over the last few years tends to suggest that the main aim has been to get the accounts squared, whatever the cost in terms of footballing achievement, short-term at least. The fans are left wondering what is happening. Are the board in it for the long term interests of the club, or are they simply preparing to sell up and cash in? Why are the board at odds with the consensus as it appears on these pages and on the streets? I will not accept the claim that the board understand what is good for the club far better than the fans do, or for that matter than the manager does. We are not idiots. Tell us what is going on.
You think about the long-term investment in the training facilities and the projected new stand, and wonder, because these are good ideas in either case (staying or seling). But the suspicion grows that it is not the fortunes of Hibs that is uppermost in their minds when they will not replace quality players when they leave, and will watch us slip steadily down the table without giving the manager what he needs to maintain results and keep the fans relatively happy.
