QPR and Derby prepare for the biggest payday in global sport as Championship play-off final winner will accrue £134m The Championship play-off final winners will accrue £134m over the next five years The Wembley showpiece is the most lucrative one-off fixture in sport The promoted club will earn £62m just for being in the Premier League next season Queens Park Rangers and Derby County will play for a place in the Premier League The Championship play-off final is famously the single most lucrative one-off fixture in the whole of global sport, and it’s now richer than ever. Sportsmail can reveal that the payday for the winner of this weekend’s showdown between Derby County and QPR will be £134million - at least. That sum is new income that the winner will accrue, at minimum, over the next five years, that the loser will not. It’s winner takes all, and that £134m is a worse-case scenario. [table="width: 500, class: outer_border"] [tr] [td]£134m - for winning 2013-14 Championship play-off £47.7m - most lucrative boxing purse ever, Floyd Mayweather’s earnings from his fight against Canelo Alvarez last year £13.8m - the biggest prize ever for winning a single cricket match, Allen Stanford’s notorious West Indies Superstars v England Twenty20 in 2008 £6.9m - the biggest prize in golf, the bonus for winning the FedExCup £6.9m - the biggest prize in horse racing, for winning the Dubai Cup £5.97m - or $10m, which is the difference in prize money between winning this summer’s World Cup in Brazil ($35m) and being runner-up ($25m) £3.26m - or 4m euros, which is the difference in prize money between winning this year’s Champions League final (10.5m euros) and being runner-up (6.5m euros)[/td] [/tr] [/table] That sum is broken down into £62m of Premier League prize money even if finishing bottom of the Premier League next season, plus four years of subsequent ‘parachute’ payments totaling a further £72m at least. Parachute payments are made to relegated clubs for four years after going down and are based on a complicated formula relating to what clubs in the top division earn from central funds each season. To simplify matters, that £72m is expected to be made up of parachute payments of around £26.4m in 2015-16, £21.6m the following year, and £12m in each of the two years after that. It may in fact rise in the final two years depending on the value of future TV contracts signed from 2016 onwards but that cannot be forecast specifically at this stage. To stress the point: the £134 million is a worse-case scenario of new income for the play-off winner. If they don’t immediately get relegated, their new riches will be bigger and last for longer. And they will almost certainly earn extra ticket income and sponsorship cash from being in the Premier League on top of the extra central revenue. There is an argument that the play-off is worth not nearly as much as the headline figure because the extra money will inevitably be spent on pricey signings and big wages - and that is a perfectly legitimate argument because most promoted clubs do in fact spend most of the new cash on those things. But that is not mandatory. Promoted clubs do not always do that. Some use it to improve facilities, invest in academies, or simply boost the owners coffers. Whichever way you look at it, winning the play-off brings a massive windfall, a windfall that in 2014 will be £134m... and counting. As the accompanying panel shows, the stakes are higher in the play-off by far than for any other one-off event in global sport. The 'marginal gain' of winning and losing this weekend's Champions League final, for example, is a mere £3.26m, or the difference in extra prize money between the winner (10.5m euros) and runner-up (6.5m euros). Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...y-final-winner-accrue-134m.html#ixzz32M8H52yA Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
