Chester Perry wrote: ↑Fri Mar 25, 2022 12:43 pm
Bolton, our friends down the road and Wigan (twice you could argue) even Bury were all similar sales with similar intentions and all went very wrong very quickly - Other clubs have been through such traumas Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, Ipswich, Birmingham City, Orient, Charlton even Leeds. There are probably many more.
I have been looking at the changes in the club since the millennium
- the noughties saw an almost doubling of the allotted shares as 7 new directors came on board, mainly as a result of buying new shares and not those of existing shareholders. On top of that there were loans from the PFA, Gerling Insurance and later Daniel Thwaites all existing in parallel. There was the sale and leaseback of club properties to first Kilby and Sullivan, then Lionbridge, also director loans - over £5m each from Kilby and Flood and more from others, Ray Griffiths was said to have written a £1m cheque on his deathbed. All that was paid back with commercial rates of interest as a result of the return to the top flight - every single one of those seasons was loss making. All that promotion did was wipe out the debt - it did little else, even though both Kilby and Flood had said it would put the club on an even financial keel for the next 10 years - back in the championship we immediately started posting losses again and cash flow was so strapped we factored season ticket sales with the TSB.
- Garlick's tenure as Chairman saw a different approach, the first promotion under Dyche shows a loss, but take out the bonuses to players and conditional payments on inward transfers there was a £300k profit, the second promotion under Dyche was the same, an underlying operational profit. Most forget that the first promotion season saw a huge issue of shares in Q1 of 2014 (around 45,000) this appears to be when Garlick and John B saw their ownership and control of the club cemented. It was not until the 2019/20 season that we first saw an operational loss - though a profit was posted as a result of the sale of Sam Vokes. Garlick has run a very operationally tight ship, the majority of profits have come as a result of first season back, or player sales. A number of posters believe that the bonuses paid out when the club finished 7th and made the qualifying stages of the Europa League shocked the board to the core (I do miss Royboy). I wage bill has never recovered (though the next accounts should show a sizeable reduction as a result of the tighter, Covid induced budgets).
Valuable post, CP.
I recommend all on the mb take a look at Burnley Football & Athletic Company on Companies House for the early years on the 2000s and, alongside that look at the Championship end of season table. (If you've not done it before, it's free to search and look at all these company records).
4 May 2003, last game of the 2002-03 season, Burnley lost to Wimbledon (played at Selhurst Park). That was the season that ITV Digital went bust. It was reported that 14 players had been told they would be let go a couple of days before that last game.
Burnley were a "bottom half" Championship club, making losses every season, 13th was the best finishing position.
Mike Garlick was appointed a director in October 2006. Brendan Flood was appointed Dec 2006. Mike Garlick bought 2,600 (approx) shares. Flood bought 14,000. Barry Kilby had the most shares, 20,000. (I guess they paid £200 per share - though I've not done the calcs. Maybe some of the small shareholders also bought some shares around this time). John B joined the board in 2010, I think after the end of the 2009-10 season.
When Mike Garlick bought his share and became a director the club was loss making. Shareholders funds were negative. He'd bought into a football club in the town of Burnley that was worth nothing.
From the club's perspective and the town's perspective, Mike Garlick (with support from John B and Barry Kilby, in particular) has turned Burnley Football Club into an enterprise that is valued at £200 million. That's some achievement in my book. That's a great outcome for the fans of Burnley, particularly the ones who owned shares, and the town of Burnley and surrounding areas.
UTC