League 1 General Chat Thread

[masi51]

Pictures of the design for the new Kop have been published, due to be complete for summer '26.View attachment 21519View attachment 21520View attachment 21521

 

[Conker]

L1 accounts starting to appear.

A £2.9m loss last season for us, but that doesn't include the sale of Jensen to Millwall (£500k-ish). Mentioned it a few weeks back but confirmation that our budget last season was mid-table and even with an increased budget this season, we're now bottom 6. To maintain our budget position we'd have to have increased it by 67%, which is mental. Basically income for most L1 Clubs has flatlined but overheads/wages keep increasing at a far, far faster rate.

We're effectively debt free, there's about £500k owed to supporters as part of a bond issue for the Stacey West Redevelopment but that's it and will be down to £350k next year.

Only other ones I've seen:

Leyton Orient - £3.7m loss
Bristol Rovers - £6.2m loss

It’s absolutely mental, I imagine we will be running a budget similar to Lincoln which will put us not far off the relegation spot budget wise.

Birmingham coming down and Wrexham and Stockport coming up with top end budgets is a big factor in this change. Must be very unusual for two sides promoted out of L2 to go straight in and around the play-off spots financially.

 

[EnglishRed]

Straight away I thought Walsall and Battersea Power Station.

Like most stands when they're re-built at old stadiums, it'll look completely out of place with the rest of it especially with the height. Why would they not look to incorporate some corner stands into it and try and wrap around what's already there?

I'm not sure that would work, the Mold road stand (stand from the 90s) doesn't really lend itself to being incorporated like that. Was a bit of a short sighted design really, particularly when you consider the Kop was condemned less than a decade after Mold road was built.

Ultimately both of the big old stands from the 70s will need refurbishment/rebuilding at one point so there might be scope to get a design that makes the stadium look less piecemeal.

Tbh it will be nice to have a proper four sided stadium again so fingers crossed we do actually see this one built.

 

[Luke Imp]

It’s absolutely mental, I imagine we will be running a budget similar to Lincoln which will put us not far off the relegation spot budget wise.

Birmingham coming down and Wrexham and Stockport coming up with top end budgets is a big factor in this change. Must be very unusual for two sides promoted out of L2 to go straight in and around the play-off spots financially.

L1 wages are also up 58% on last season.

Next season it might settle down slightly depending on who gets promoted but also who comes down from the Championship (going to be decent budgets but they don't look like Birmingham or Wrexham level of spending) and up from L2 (don't look to be any genuine high spending sides this season?).

Just to put some further figures to L1 budgets, this is what we were told last night:

“League One seemed pretty mad at the start of the season. We get the benchmarking, we see where we are—19th in the budget table. We see we’re two million off 10th, and three and a half million off playoff positions."

 

[Stocky]

Our forecast for the season was a top 10 budget. We're nowhere near Birmingham, Wrexham, Bolton and Huddersfield for example.

I would have our budget around Blackpool, Barnsley and Rotherham.

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

Straight away I thought Walsall and Battersea Power Station.

Like most stands when they're re-built at old stadiums, it'll look completely out of place with the rest of it especially with the height. Why would they not look to incorporate some corner stands into it and try and wrap around what's already there?

We are. Just not in these plans as essentially we have a blank canvass and got to get it right and seems like they have with the size they want to increase it to as and when the opportunity arises.

I've heard that depending on what league we are going to be in, potentially the new kop won't get built straight away but will look to add seating into the corners.

 

[Conker]

Our forecast for the season was a top 10 budget. We're nowhere near Birmingham, Wrexham, Bolton and Huddersfield for example.

I would have our budget around Blackpool, Barnsley and Rotherham.

Yeah you’ll be in and around the play-offs spots.

The Lincoln DOF figures if true say a lot, he claims they sit 19th and 10th is 2 million higher, play-offs £3.5m higher.

We may up the ante eventually, JR can afford to do that financially, doubtful under Clough we are going to massively splurge, but I would like to think he will get the transfer profit from this season on top of the usual budget for the summer rebuild.

I imagine we sit middle to lower mid all considered, we clearly have a bit of financial muscle to get the likes of Lee Gregory/Flint etc who will require a good contract.