Partick Thistle's Relegation Could Cost Club £1M, Expert Says

Football finance expert Neil Patey suggested Partick Thistle's relegation to the Scottish Championship could cost the club more than £1M ($1.34M), according to Iona Ballantyne of the BBC. The side lost the Scottish Premiership playoff final 3-1 on aggregate to Livingston, dropping to the second tier after five years in the top flight. Should the club not secure promotion within one season, Patey said that it "will be forced to make drastic cuts." He said, "The prize money is going to be the biggest financial impact. Ticket revenue will be next." Patey, a partner at Ernst & Young, added, "It's difficult to be precise but just on the prize money alone, depending on a top-third finish in the Championship as opposed to a bottom-third in the Premiership, you're probably talking about £750,000 ($1M). So before anything else, that's clearly a pretty big financial hit" (BBC, 5/21).