Liam Dooley, Shrewsbury Town CEO: “Fans don’t care what’s on the balance sheet; they want to win!”

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Another first class Football League CEO in the studio this week. Liam Dooley has been in charge of Shrewsbury town, League one’s longest serving club, since 2023. Operating on the smallest budget in the division, balancing good business with competitive performance is not easy. Shrewsbury have had 10 consecutive years at this level, but are currently bottom of the league having lost their last four games. But, with their latest accounts showing they have halved their annual losses, the business side has impressed. With a top manager like Gareth Ainsworth in charge on the pitch, the fight is on to escape relegation and attract new investment. We’re back again; how do you build great business off the pitch and win on it?
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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(01:02) Inside the Owners & Execs Football League Conference
(02:53) Premier League Revenue Sharing vs. EFL Club Independence
(05:44) How Do Clubs Avoid Overspending When They Get More Money?
(10:51) Breaking Down the £7M Revenue
(14:09) How Is the Club Performing Commercially?
(17:14) Balancing Financial Success with On-Pitch Performance
(19:22) Current Ownership Structure & Attracting New Investment
(23:43) What Makes a Good Football Club Owner?
(26:14) Budget Discussion
(32:47) How Much Does It Cost to Buy a League One Club?
(34:58) Bringing in Gareth Ainsworth
(40:46) Balancing Fan Sentiment vs. Smart Decision-Making
(44:21) Is Football Becoming More Media-Driven?
(48:47) Integrating the Women's Team into the Club's Future
(55:14) Running an Academy
(58:59) Quick-Fire Round
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In today’s show we discuss:

1. The Business of a League One Club:
- Can a football club be good business?
- Has the profile of football club owners now changed so much that ‘local’ owners are no longer able to meet the financial needs of clubs?
- What is the correlation between spending the most and achieving on the pitch the lower down the leagues you go?
- Why did Liam focus so much attention on reducing the club’s financial losses in a short space of time and what are the wider impacts of cutting costs?

2. Shrewsbury: Overachievers?
- Shrewsbury Town are the longest serving club in League One; how has a club with a small budget managed to achieve consistency in a financially driven market.
- How can you be successful when you have the lowest budget in the league?
- With the club currently looking for investment, what is the profile of owner that’s most attractive to the club and their fans?
- How has Gareth Ainsworth come into the club and created a positive environment even if results aren’t going Shrewsbury’s way?

3. “Build a Club not a Team”
- It is important to create a culture in the club that is more than just the men’s team on the pitch for 90 minutes every Saturday. How do you do this?
- Why the women’s team is separate from the operational running of the club, and where does women’s football sit in the future plans of Shrewsbury?
- Leveraging the academy to create future stars for the first team and to become an additional line of business when clubs buy your talent.
- What happens to the club if it gets relegated? Are there things that have to be sacrificed or put on hold?
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