Millions at stake as Town eye play-off final glory

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN chief executive Nigel Clibbens believes victory in Sunday’s League One play-off final would lead to a doubling of the club’s annual turnover to £10m.

However, should Lee Clark’s side be condemned to another year in the third tier by a Peterborough United victory at Old Trafford in the eagerly-anticipated promotion decider, the Terriers chief has revealed the wage bill at the Galpharm Stadium will have to be reduced before next season kicks off in August.

It shows the fine financial line Huddersfield are treading ahead of what, regardless of the result, is certain to be a memorable occasion for the Yorkshire club and their 30,000-plus travelling army of fans.

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Clibbens, who was brought in by owner Dean Hoyle in January 2009, told the Yorkshire Post: “In terms of numbers, this is the biggest game Huddersfield Town have had in the modern era. Probably, since the war.

“Everyone is looking forward to the day massively and hoping for the best. No-one has a divine right to be at any level, the time Huddersfield have spent in this league shows just how difficult it is to get out of.

“But, as a club, we have to plan for all kinds of situations in terms of what division we are in.

“It (promotion) would open up more doors commercially. So, we would be looking at our turnover doubling to in excess of £10m.

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“There are all kinds of extra income that comes with being in the Championship rather than League One, such as a club gets £3.5m from central distributions.

“In terms of away attendances, they would increase significantly as well. In League One, I would estimate the average away following is less than 500 per game. That figure was distorted this season by Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United last year, which shows just how small some of the figures can be in the other 20-odd games.

“If Huddersfield were in the Championship, we could be looking at an extra 2,500 away fans every game. That is a lot of money over 23 games. Plus, there could be a 2,000 extra home tickets sold – which again adds up to a lot of money.

“Similarly, we have done lots of good work with businesses to get them on board. But, with all due respect to the league we are in, for us to get more (of them) involved we would have to move up the football pyramid.

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“At the moment, if you strip out play-offs and Cup runs, our turnover is about £5m. If you add in those two, it would be over £6m.

“It is a big jump and one that happens over two months. Of course, player wages would have to go up if we were in the Championship and our challenge would be to make sure they didn’t go up as quickly as the income goes up.”

The impact Sunday’s result from Old Trafford will have on Huddersfield’s wage bill is not just restricted to a possible rise to cover stepping up to a higher division.

Defeat to Posh would also bring about a change of approach at the Galpharm Stadium, where owner Hoyle’s millions have bank-rolled a squad that is the envy of many rival managers.

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With the very real possibility of a salary cap – probably of between 55 and 60 per cent of annual turnover – being introduced to League One in time for the 2012-13 season, clubs in the third tier are having to get themselves in line now.

In the case of Town, who are believed to pay substantially more than the £2.5-3m a year that would be allowed under the new rules, that means action would have to be taken this summer.

Clibbens said: “Because of the support Dean gives us, in terms of our income we are over-spending. I won’t say what the (wage-to-tunover) ratio is but, for instance, out of our existing turnover of £5m, we pay around £1m in rent and basic upkeep of the stadium.

“That is 20 per cent before we do anything. That means we don’t have much headroom within those numbers anyway.

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“If we got promoted, our rent would not go up hugely so that would be a big win. But if we are still in this league then our wages would have to start to fall, along with a few other clubs.

“The change is a season and a bit away, with debate set to take place at the Football League meeting in June. But a club has to look at this now. We can’t turn costs on and off.”

Town’s following on Sunday will be comfortably their biggest in history, eclipsing the near 27,000 fans who watched the 1995 play-off final win over Bristol Rovers at Wembley.

Nine years later, Huddersfield again won promotion via the play-offs at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff when a crowd of 37,298 saw the Yorkshire club prevail in a penalty shoot-out against Mansfield Town.

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The challenge for Clibbens now is to entice back as many of those 30,000 supporters as possible next season.

He said: “The demand has not necessarily surprised us. We have always formed the view that if the club are doing good things then people will come towards the club.

“The potential is huge. Dean made the point when he came in to the club that there are ‘a lot of chimney pots in Huddersfield’.

“It is a good-sized population and we also have a heritage that money can’t buy. Lots of other clubs would be glad to have our heritage.

“Add in to those two factors that something good is happening now and that gives us a chance of unlocking our potential.”