PartickThistle

Partick Thistle chief fears financial impact of coronavirus crisis

15-Mar-2020 14:16:25 | Four-Four-Two

Partick Thistle chief executive Gerry Britton admits the Jags would be left facing a 150,000 black hole if the rest of the campaign is cancelled.But while the Firhill outfit who recently cleared debts of 1.5million with the help of late EuroMillions winner Colin Weir could handle a three-month shutdown, Britton fears Thistle and a list of Scottish clubs would be put in peril if the coronavirus crisis carries on into next season.He told BBC Radio Scotlands Sportsound programme: Given its very difficult to put a timescale on it were really just left in limbo.The financial implications are massive across the whole game. We had looked at one scenario where we wouldnt have any further income for the remainder of the season.The first estimates were that would cost us upwards of 150,000.For clubs of our size with the turnover we have, its a massive impact.We know (the shutdown) had to happen, were not complaining. Its the reality and its about how we deal with it.Were fortunate in a situation that we dont have any debt at the club and we work to a break-even budget each season.So a club of our size might be able to pick up a shortfall to that extent. However, if it does roll into the new season then there would be serious repercussions for us in a financial sense.Theres clubs who work from week to week and month to month.This is unprecedented and youre not catering in your budget that youll go through a period without income coming in.I genuinely fear for a lot of the smaller clubs who are on a tipping point. A situation like this could very easily push some clubs under.Scottish Professional Football League chiefs must now make a decision on whether they complete the remainder of the season.If current standings are declared final, then Partick Thistle would be demoted from the Ladbrokes Championship despite being two points behind second bottom Queen of the South having played one less match.But Britton world prefer to see relegation scrapped across the divisions this term, with Dundee United and Inverness promoted to form a one-off top flight of 14 teams once league action is allowed to resume.Its hard not to be self-interested, he said. The one proposal Ive heard doing the rounds about the top two teams (from the Championship) getting promoted and there being no relegation through the divisions, with Brora Rangers and Kelty Hearts coming up (from the Highand and Lowland Leagues) for a bit of league reconstruction, that works for me.Weve spoken for years about how we can improve the game, so if we did have an experiment for a year putting the top flight up to 14 teams, we might find it works.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By PA Sport Staff'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'fc9cee92-729d-4997-96b3-8cdb74c8ae56'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football'); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Partick Thistle chief fears financial impact of coronavirus crisis'});