I was interested if not a little concerned to read that Everton spent 75% of their turnover in the 2006/2007 season on wages (‘wages ‘also covers agent fees).
The club were left with a deficit of £8.1million that season despite finishing 6th in the league; also our total wages paid (£38,427,000) was below the average in the Premier League (£48,450,000) and 9th highest in the league. We were well and truly punching above our weight as all the ‘top four’ teams had a wage bill more than double ours whilst Spurs ‘ and Villa’s bill was £5million greater.
According to football finance expert and Evertonian Prof. Chris Brady “If you can keep your expenditure on salaries below around 55 per cent of your revenue, you are going to be viable.”
Going by that logic, Everton needed to increase revenue by £10,247,200 in 2006/2007 to be a viable business. That is quite simply shocking and to me confirms more than anything how David Moyes is carrying the club as without him and the prize money his team earned we would have been struggling even more so. If Everton’s wage bill was 55% of revenue then Everton would have been the fourth lowest paying club in the premier league that season. When you take into account that Everton had the 7th highest average attendance in the country that year, all signs are pointing to Everton’s need to develop a way of gaining revenue from outside of Football.
Here’s a table showing Wages/turnover ratios of Premier League and Championship clubs in 2006-07:
Team Name % of turnover
used for wages
Tottenham 42
Man United 44
Arsenal 50
Sheffield Wednesday 51
Sheffield United 57
Liverpool 58
Watford 58
Reading 59
Bolton Wanderers 60
Norwich City 60
Premier League Average 63
Manchester City 64
Plymouth Argyle 65
Southampton 65
Ipswich Town 68
Chelsea 70
Newcastle United 72
Leicester City 73
Wolves 73
West Bromwich Albion 73
Everton 75
West Ham United 76
Hull City 77
Championship Average 79
Middlesbrough 80
Aston Villa 82
Birmingham City 85
Blackburn Rovers 85
Stoke City 88
Fulham 89
Portsmouth 90
Cardiff City 90
Sunderland 90
Queens Park Rangers 94
Charlton Athletic 95
Preston North End 97
Wigan Athletic 100
Coventry City 101
Burnley 102
Derby County 125
And another showing the amount in wages spent by Premier league clubs from 2006/2007:
Chelsea 132,817,000
Man United 92,310,000
Arsenal 89,703,000
Liverpool 77,589,000
Newcastle 62,475,000
Premier League Average 48,450,000
West Ham 44,160,000
Tottenham 43,804,000
Aston Villa 43,194,000
Everton 38,427,000
Middlesboro 38,270,000
Portsmouth 36,888,000
Blackburn 36,712,000
Man City 36,381,000
Fulham 35,169,000
Charlton 34,297,000
Bolton 30,715,000
Reading 29,815,000
Wigan 27,480,000
Sheffield United 22,421,000
Watford 17,636,000
Some reports also say that the club was below the league average for stadium utilisation last season. I do not find this surprising and have often wondered why the Everton reserves can not also play at Goodison Park. I believe that introducing a new pitch surface technology would allow for first team games and reserve games to be played) with little or no problems, the cost of installing the pitch would no doubt be cheaper than paying to use the Halton Stadium.
This is not as far fetched as you may think and there are many examples of a multi-use-stadium in the United Kingdom.
• Wigan Athletics’ JJB Sports stadium also host Wigan Warriors Rugby team games
• Hull City’s KC Stadium is also home to Hull FC of the Rugby Super League
• Doncaster Rovers Keepmoat Stadium is also home Doncaster Rugby League Club and the ladies football team Doncaster Belles.
Doncaster boasts that their pitch uses “an innovative mix of synthetic fibres and natural grass”. I never thought I’d be suggesting Everton follow Doncaster’s example. Whilst most Evertonians are proud that Goodison Park was the first football-specific stadium, the club really should be looking to redevelop it into a multi use stadium to help increase revenue.