Editors Blog: Wigan Would Have Made Extra £24 Million in Premier League

Last season finishing in third from bottom Wigan Athletic received a total of £40,785,667*, now that I think you will agree is a tidy sum of money, and which was the main reason we were able to stay on such a good financial footing within the Premier League, with the plan being our general expenditures did not exceed our broadcasting payments.

This year of course we have had very very little TV exposure even as the FA Cup winners. The coverage by BT of us in the Europa League would have roped in a few extra millions, but all in all we lost from that value this season, the 'gap' is supposedly plugged by the parachute payments which we get off the Premier League. . The idea of course was to build a strong squad, on a large wage bill, to bounce straight back up. Which of course we have failed to do so.

All in all it is therefore better to be in the Premier League when it comes to financial safety, and when you look at just how much teams have made extra this season compared to last, teams coming down from Premier League should be a lot better off.

This may not be the case as Fulham, Cardiff City and Norwich City all do have rather large wage bills.

To show just how much of a difference it would have made on Wigan, financially for us to have been in the Premier League this year, I will look at the stats for third bottom Norwich City. We therefore both finished in the same position for the two seasons, Norwich were actually three points worse off than us, and should be some comparative measure.

Where as we achieved £40,785,667*, Norwich City this season went onto achieve a total of £64,554,468*. That is a massive leap just shy of £24 million in terms of extra revenue, to put that into context of what it is actually worth that would be us buying Adam Lallana (reportedly worth £20 million) with £4 million left over. It would be safe to say that the extra money would also cover the majority of the expenses that we will be playing to build our new training ground.

We all may enjoying being in a competitive league, where we win more than we lose, but the Premier League is somewhere that the financial reward for the club could outweigh that. In the long run getting back into the Premier League has to be the objective if we wish to continue moving forward at the club.

*All stats come from the Premier League's official website, 2012/13 payments and 2013/14 payments.