Originally published May 2022.

On 7th May, our football club, Maidstone United, were crowned champions of National League South (NLS), English football’s sixth tier. Maidstone last achieved promotion to the National League (NL), English football’s fifth tier, considered widely these days to be equivalent to League 3 of the EFL (The Football League), in 2016. It was via a penalty shoot-out in the play-off final away against Ebbsfleet, a heavily owner-subsidised club, who were odds-on favourites to win. Our goalkeeper pulled off an instinctive save to win the match in front of my fellow co-owner Terry Casey. In a post-match interview, Terry mused that the save might cost us a million pounds. 

Between 2016 and 2018, we survived two tough seasons in the National League, struggling to finance a competitive playing squad and then making some ill-advised managerial changes, before being relegated in 2019. However, although on the field our losses were frequent and sometimes heavy, off the field we managed to avoid losing Terry’s million. So, had promotion really been a poisoned chalice? What was it about playing at the next level up which could be so costly? If we didn’t have the deep pockets, good looks and social media following of Ryan Reynolds (owner of Wrexham FC), did we stand a chance of competing without ruining ourselves or our club financially in the process? Where might new revenues be found to match cost increases? I thought it was urgent to try and answer at least some of the questions.

Assuming no owner subsidies, the main financial questions following promotion from NLS to NL are as follows: