Thomas Sandgaard has revealed he expects to lose £8million this season running Charlton Athletic – and has warned that the changes he wants to make to the way the club operates could take a number of years.
The Addicks only missed out on the League One play-offs on goal difference last season but are 16th in the current standings.
But Sandgaard has reiterated his belief that Charlton can climb back up the English football pyramid with a prudent approach – pointing out Derby County and Wigan Athletic, two clubs whose financial mismanagement led to administration, as cautionary tales.
The US-based Danish businessman acquired ownership of the South London club in September 2020.
He told BBC’s The London Sport Show: “Here in the last three decades, before my ownership, there have been two very different strategies applied to how you run a football club.
“Before the Belgian owner Roland Duchatelet, the owners before them – for a couple of decades – actually managed to rack up a net operating loss of £100million and eventually ended up having to sell to someone like Roland Duchatelet from Belgium.
“To me that was a scenario similar to what we’re experiencing up at Derby.
“Sorry if anyone is expecting that – it ain’t happening. After that we saw someone come in – Roland Duchatelet – with a much better, maybe not business understanding, but ran the club more financially healthy – didn’t lose that much money. But obviously didn’t get enough in the trenches to turn the right dials and adjust the right parts of the club.
“Whether it was on the football side, there were definitely a number of mistakes made there – and certainly on the business side.
“There is now a culture of ‘yeah, nothing’s ever going to work anyway’ type thing and you call it the internal indirect pushback to ‘we need to make some changes here guys’.
“That’s going to take a long time, we’re only one year in and it’s probably several years before it’s really turning around to the business culture I’m eventually going to have at the club.
“So you’ll see a third strategy. I’m going to try and, as soon as possible, of a level of break even while I continue to invest in the club.
“I’m not losing as much money as I did last season. But I’m losing £8m this season, investing, and that obviously can’t continue for a whole lot longer.
“We have a lot of initiative internally and it all starts with filling The Valley, to make sure as many as possible of the fanbase are in for a live home game.
“We have a fantastic fanbase. We have more potential than most English football clubs. I want to make sure we leverage that, to make the most of it on the revenue side. There is a limit to how much we can cut the expenses, but we have huge potential on the revenue side.
“If and when we start improving on the football side, it’s all going to click.
“I’m sure better results will mean if another club is interested in one of our players, maybe the price tag is higher if we eventually let go of a great talent.”
And Sandgaard claimed his enthusiasm and appetite for the challenge at Charlton remains the same, despite the challenges faced.
“I’m very tenacious – some people who call it stubborn – when it comes to business.
“When I set goals I typically say ‘there is always a way’. Even when things are difficult and it looks impossible. I continue to apply that to everything at Charlton. Also on the business side of things, we have a campaign to Fill The Valley – despite our league position – because that is going to form the foundation of the future revenue we are going to be generating.
“My heart is beating football. That’s why so many people love football – the passion. That passion is something we need to build on. But compared to 30-40 years ago, things have moved on and developed in European and English football. The people and clubs that understand that, and grow with it, are eventually going to go to better places and I expect us to be able to do that with Charlton.”
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