Fc Isle of Man….who is paying for it?

[Josem]

23 hours ago, b4mbi said:

Let's ignore that it brings over 2,500 visitors to the Island mostly during slower tourist months and using DfE's own metrics, brings c. £1.4million to the local economy. 

Claiming a benefit of ~£1.4million from ~2,500 visitors implies they're benefiting the island around £560 each. That seems... very unlikely.

Further, "the total spend" of tourists is not equal to the "total benefit" that they bring. This is because there is obviously a lot of cost to provide the good and services that tourists use. The profit margin in the hospitality industry (including food, restaurant, accommodation, etc) is probably somewhere between -5% and +10%, so it would be reasonable to claim something in the order of 5% of the total spend as "benefit" to the industry and island economy.

 

You can substitute your own numbers in the following calculation, but here's a rough estimation that you can adapt as you wish:

-In the UK, tourists spend about £105 per night (Source: Visit Britain). I think it is very generous to assume football tourists from NW England, including each player, will spend that in IOM, but it's probably in the right order of magnitude.

-If there's about 2,500 visitor nights caused by FC IOM, that works out to a total spend of £262,500 by tourists at £105 per night. I feel like 2,500 visitor nights is a little lower than I would have expected, so feel free to replace the 2,500 with a higher number if you wish.

-With an industry profit margin of around 5%, that implies an economic benefit to the community of about £13k.

-The tax money that has been taken from Manx people to subsidise this tourism obviously counts for -£50,000.

-So we are left with a result of something like -£37k or so on purely economic terms.

 

The benefits of FC IOM come from engagement in the local community, people having fun, people building local community teamwork, and so on. It can potentially be a good organisation, but the economic benefits shouldn't be overstated.

 

More broadly, it absurd that this whole discussion is being held without the Government ever disclosing the terms of the subsidy/underwriting, or the analysis that they've conducted to justify it. Is the taxpayer subsidy limited to £50k? Could  it be more? If FC IOM runs at a profit, does FC IOM owe something back to the Government? Is this underwriting available to any sports club in the Isle of Man? Or just FC IOM? Who made this decision?

It is darkly hillarious and/or tragic that this was revealed on a Monday night at the Rosemount Pub (!!!!) rather than properly announced by the Government.