CITY have taken a six-figure hit with their Boxing Day postponement – but stress it won’t impact their January spending.
The club’s first Christmas home game since 2017 bit the dust yesterday because of the number of positive Covid cases that are still affecting their squad.
It is a bitter setback for the Bantams, who had marketed Harrogate’s visit on Sunday for potentially their record Valley Parade crowd in the fourth tier.
Chief executive Ryan Sparks admitted: “We were looking forward to the occasion because we’ve not played at home on Boxing Day for such a long time.
“It’s not just a financial blow but one on a number of levels.
“The plan was to have our record crowd for this level and Harrogate were looking forward to the game as well.
“It is a body blow but we’re in a position that we’ve never been in before with so many players and staff having tested positive for Covid-19.
“First and foremost, their health and well-being is the most important thing. At the moment, we are making sure everyone is okay.
“It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that it has ripped through the first-team squad and backroom staff.”
The early call-off saved further potential costs such as catering but the club still estimate they have missed out on a significant windfall. Sparks insisted that will not impact their transfer-window spending.
“It doesn’t mean January,” he added. “But it will certainly have an effect on our proposed cashflow position going into the second half of the season.
“Every business has a cashflow projection and you project an amount of money is going to enter your bank account on a certain day.
“That date is now going to move and the income from the rearranged match will probably be less than it would have been on Boxing Day.
“It’s an adjustment to the cashflow which hopefully will be quite minor but it’s still not what it was.
“I’m not suggesting it will impact the business in a detrimental way.
“But it would be very naïve of me to suggest that we’re not bothered and it hasn’t affected our finances. We’ve just missed out on over £100,000 in revenue from the matchday at the very least.”
The EFL have cancelled today’s planned update meeting with all club CEOs and chairmen after announcing yesterday afternoon that the show would go on.
They followed the Premier League’s lead in deciding against a mid-season “circuit-breaker” while infection rates continue to rocket.
Sparks said: “As I’ve always said, it’s all about the integrity of the competition.
“That’s why we curtailed the season right back when all this began.
“In no way am I suggesting we should do the same again. However, if we get to a point where we can’t have crowds in the ground, I think we should stop and have a break and let the vaccination booster campaign catch up.
“We’re not in the business of asking anyone to stop the season. We want to play on, but it needs to be safe.
“But you don’t want to start looking at league tables where some teams have played four or five games more than others which happened last season.
“That skews the table and has effects on all kinds of things.
“The EFL have obviously followed the Premier League and we support that.
“We play our part as we always do, as long as we can do all we can to uphold the integrity and keep providing the entertainment for the public.
“We’re heading into another one of those periods where people need that distraction of sport and that’s the power that it has.”
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