OXFORD United’s promotion to Sky Bet Championship could be worth up to £10 million, estimates the club’s chief executive.
After watching Josh Murphy fire a brace to seal victory in the League One play-off final against Bolton Wanderers, U’s chief executive Tim Williams discussed the financial upshot and what happens in the next few weeks at United.
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In the media mixed zone at Wembley, Williams was asked by the Oxford Mail how much promotion might be worth to the U’s.
He responded: “It’s the £10 million game. The reality is that somebody with my background would be foolish for not already looking at the numbers.
“Revenues will increase by eight to 10 million quid next year. It’s incredible. That means a huge amount of throughput for just about everything.
“It probably helps with the stadium and where we’re going to move, and it helps with the general structure and culture of the club.
“Things are going to change here, and things have been changing, and they’ll just get even better.”
He added: “Ed Waldron’s [head of recruitment] got an incredibly difficult job in the next few weeks, and there’s a lot of hard work that starts now.
“It’s not just on the recruitment side, but making sure we are a real Championship club.
“It’s not daunting. We’ve got a team of people that are working at this club, and running this club, who are Championship ready.
“Yes, there is a lot of work to do, but we’ve got a team of people who have got experience from different clubs, across different leagues, be it the Premier League, European leagues, the Championship, League One or League Two.
“This is a group of people who can amass the level of determination and intellect that we need to make this happen.
“The next few weeks are going to be a lot of cold towels on heads, and what does next year mean, and how does it look?
“We know this, and we’ve been planning for this, but we were also planning for it not to happen as well, so the fact it has happened is extraordinary.”
Sam Long described promotion with his hometown side as ‘the best thing ever’ #oufc https://t.co/PtTCdmSqyb
— Oxford Mail OUFC (@OxfordMailOUFC) May 20, 2024
Discussing the game itself at Wembley, Williams hailed the United faithful for their passionate backing at the national stadium.
“It’s the best day of my career in football, but more importantly it’s the best day for Oxford United, that we’ve had for a long, long time,” said Williams.
“To see 30,000 people out there, a sea of yellow, what an incredible sight it was.
“I was utterly overwhelmed from minute one to minute ninety-nine. What a great performance. We held out and did what we needed to.
“But it’s about what we did throughout the course of the season, and I’m overwhelmed.”
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