We have talked about ‘the Burnley phenomenon’ before on these pages. This time we want to focus on their fierce rivals Blackburn Rovers who also come from a town of around 100,000 people but are currently 10th in the Premiership.
We have talked about ‘the Burnley phenomenon’ before on these pages. This time we want to focus on their fierce rivals Blackburn Rovers who also come from a town of around 100,000 people but are currently 10th in the Premiership.
It was local multi-millionaire Jack who created the modern Blackburn Rovers. With his deep pockets they won the Premiership in 1995, the only team outside the top group to do so. Ten years after his death, his trustees are no longer bankrolling the club, but it continues to flourish. Annual turnover is £50.9m and wages account for a worrying 91 per cent of that. However, the club made a profit of £3.6m in the last year for which figures are available and debt is well under half of turnover at £20.3m. By way of comparison, Burnley pay out 120 per cent of their much smaller £11.2m turnover in wages.
In absolute terms the Blackburn wage bill is lower than most peer clubs and they do manage to get 20 per cent of the indigenous population of the old mill town to turn out and watch matches. The club hopes that a formula of good management and investment in players will enable it to continue to compete at the highest level.