£3 - £4m hit for relegated Preston

Interesting point about falling attendances. It is widely recognised that matchday gate receipts are the primary income stream for football clubs. However, matchday attendances are not always a great indicator of financial wellbeing, particularly lower down the leagues. For example, relegated clubs will often offer more discounted tickets throughout the course of the season (such as kids for a quid etc) and sometimes average attendances will only differ slightly after relegation but gate receipts could fall substantially due to lower ticket prices. We are currently undertaking a PhD into the financial performance of English football clubs at Sheffield Hallam University and one of my supervisors Rob Wilson has recently been interviewed around this topic for BBC Radio Sheffield and Look North in the Yorkshire region and also in the Scunthorpe Telegraph and Lancashire Evening Post in relation to this article regarding Preston North End. On the speculation regarding whether there is any relationship between the East Anglia economy in relation to Norwich City is it not also worth considering the geographic location of football clubs and the fact that in Lancashire and around Preston there are many Premier League clubs within reachable distance for locals to watch instead whereas Norwich only really have local rivals Ipswich as a serious competitor....and even then these two 'local rivals' are located in different regions.