League Championship side Burnley returned to the Premier League "at the first attempt with a 1-0 home win over Queens Park Rangers securing promotion from the Championship" and a minimum £100M ($145M) windfall on Monday, according to Martyn Herman of REUTERS. The Lancashire club, relegated last year, has 90 points, "two more than Brighton and Middlesbrough who meet next weekend to decide who takes the second automatic promotion spot." A new three-year domestic TV rights deal for the Premier League worth $5.14B ($7.5B) "kicks in next season meaning promotion to the top flight has never been more lucrative." Even "finishing bottom next season" will be worth £100M with "so-called parachute payments over subsequent seasons estimated to double that total" (REUTERS, 5/2). The BBC reported Burnley Manager Sean Dyche believes the club's "business-like" approach to its Championship campaign paid off. Dyche said, "We've balanced the books and been successful again." Dyche said that the amount of money spent by other clubs had made the Championship "a different league this year," adding, "People have been having a real go this season financially, putting money into it." Asked about the challenge of the Premier League, Dyche said, "We'll be written off immediately. I asked two years ago (when Burnley were promoted in 2014) for people to give us 24 hours to enjoy it, before they started slaughtering us and telling us we've got no chance" (BBC, 5/3). SKY SPORTS' Andy Burton reported club Chair Mike Garlick said that Burnley "will be in a better position to invest" this summer. Garlick said, "We want to improve the team. The emphasis is on quality not quantity, but bearing in mind that balance we have always got to find between improving, and making sure if the worst-case scenario happens and we don't make it, we've got a sustainable plan for the next four to five years. It's fair to say last time in the division we had to pay back a lot of external debt, and debt to directors. We also had to redevelop our training ground -- that was a top priority -- and we also bought our ground back, which we didn't own at the time. That cost about £20-25 million, and this time we don't have to do that -- we are debt-free" (SKY SPORTS, 5/3).
