West Brom handed fresh Premier League incentive as £6.7bn news emerges, can ease financial woes
Everyone associated with West Brom knows all too well just how massive it would be to make it back into the Premier League.
The Baggies, who gave it a good go last season but ultimately fell short, are currently looking strong under talented manager Carlos Corberan.
The man in the dugout has the team playing a high standard of football this season, which has led them to fifth place in the Championship table after 19 matches.
There is, of course, a very long way to go, meaning a lot will undoubtedly change between now and the end of the campaign.
But Premier League promotion has always been the aim since dropping out of the top flight, and that ambition should now rise a level after the latest news regarding the competition.
As per the official Premier League website (4 December), the Premier League has completed the sales process for UK live rights & free-to-air highlights for the four-year period starting season 2025/26.
The three agreements, with Sky Sports, TNT Sports and BBC Sport, are the largest sports media rights deals ever concluded in the UK, and will deliver a total of £6.7billion in revenue across the four-year period.
The domestic revenue is split into three sections, with 50% divided equally between the clubs, 25% awarded on a merit basis determined by final league positions, and 25% distributed as a facilities fee for televised matches [official Premier League website, 16 September 2016].
West Brom certainly won’t care so much about final league positions at this moment in time, with getting there the only focus right now.
Their current financial situation is precarious at best, with the Midlands club last week announcing that West Bromwich Albion Group Limited has secured additional funding from MSD UK Holdings Limited [official West Brom website, 27 November].
The current situation at The Hawthorns has been labelled “pitiful” by former Birmingham Mail reporter Chris Lepkowski.
Fans of the club can only imagine how much better the circumstances would be if the Baggies were back in the big time.
In other West Brom news, one Albion man once left out in the cold is now undroppable after his 90% display against Leicester City.