Thats something I have been thinking about too. I would love to have a good look at the internal management accounts (not the published accounts, which tell you very little) of a few teams in the Prem and Championship. (Yes I know, I am a boring old fart). Whats niggling away is this: one model for making money out of LUFC is to get Leeds promoted to the Prem, and make the club as attractive as possible to investors/buyers, and then sell all/part of the shares at a profit, and the new investor then can try to turn Leeds in to a Champions League club............. thats sort of the one I had orignally assumed Bates would follow, though he did not seem to put the priority I had expected on team success. Its one that would have the best chance of giving fans the sort of success we would like to experience again. Another model, is to be less ambitious than that. To aim to get promoted, yes, but then to manage very "carefully" when in the Prem, not spending much on transfer fees or long term/expensive player contracts. So, take the Prem millions and largely bank them, accepting that you are likely to come back down (with parachute payments) after 2 years max. Then, as you have not over-committed you don't need the parachute payments, so use a small portion to fund a squad with a good chance of promotion back to the Prem, and repeat.............. I have a suspicion, if you don't spend to stay in the Prem, you could make quite a lot this way. I fear GFH may be building a model essentially on these lines, note how recently they held up Reading as the sort of club they wanted Leeds to be? Yo-yo team might be a valid financial model. The problem is, is its not one the fans would want.
Certainly not the model I would want. If we return to pl I want continued building to re establish as a top six club. Definitely not to be a reading
