Ticket prices a concern, but financial woes recede

Published on Friday 19 August 2005 00:54

SCOTTISH football has pulled itself back from the brink of financial ruin but must call a halt to spiralling ticket prices and concentrate on cutting players' salaries if the road to stability is to be maintained.

The stark assessment comes from leading accountancy firm PKF in their fourth annual survey of football finance directors published today. It was found that only 21 per cent of clubs felt under more pressure from their banks in the past year, a drop of 12 per cent on the corresponding period in 2004, suggesting that football is recovering from the grim times which saw a number of clubs enter administration.

The survey, however, expresses concern over supporters being asked to bail their clubs out of trouble in the form of sharply rising admission costs with 60 per cent of SPL clubs who took part citing ticket sales as the biggest source of increased revenue for them over the past year.

"Football clubs can no longer ignore the issue of ticket revenues," said PKF's Scottish partner Charles Barnett. "There must be a tidal change in the attitude towards club funding in the next few years because there is simply no getting away from the fact that ticket prices cannot continue to rise at the rate they have. This means costs will have to be cut elsewhere and the development of other revenue streams considered. The most obvious place to rein in costs is player salaries."

In that regard, 60 per cent of SPL clubs surveyed stated they would spend less on the payroll cost of their first team squad during the current season, while 67 per cent revealed the prospect of wage capping had been discussed at boardroom level.

The PKF survey was carried out among finance directors of football clubs in the English Premiership, SPL, English Championship and League One and the Scottish First Division.