Bournemouth and Watford in line for £130m windfall from Premier League promotion
Bournemouth and Watford will enjoy a £130m windfall next season after securing promotion to the Premier League and its treasure chest of TV income.
Each club will receive a promotion boost of £130m, rising to £230m if either club can survive in the top flight, according to figures from Deloitte and roughly in line with City A.M's own estimates.
Even if the two clubs fall straight back down to the Championship, a combination of one season's worth of Premier League income and subsequent parachute payments will deliver at least £130m into their respective coffers, Deloitte calculates.
Yet if either club can extend their stay in the Premier League, that minimum guarantee would swell to £230m thanks to the £5bn broadcast deal which comes into effect in the 2016/17 season.
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Adam Bull, senior consultant at Deloitte's sports business group, explained:
The prize becomes around £230m if the promoted club can survive its first season in the Premier League and benefit from the new and improved broadcast deals in the 2016/17 season…
…The continued increase in the value of promotion to the Premier League provides newly promoted clubs the opportunity to make strategic investment on and off the pitch. Inevitably, the short-term priority is usually investment in the playing side of the the business, but clubs should also look to make improvements for the medium and long-term.
One such long-term investment for Bournemouth could be expanding the Goldsands Stadium which, with a 12,000 maximum capacity, becomes the Premier League's smallest ground. Plans to expand the stadium to an 18,000 capacity have been discussed in the past but appear to be on hold for the time being.
The tiny stadium delivers relatively small gate receipts, so it's no surprise that in their most recently submitted accounts the club's income was just £5m across the entire business. It will soon be 26 times that with is entry to the top flight.