A LEADING football-finance expert has painted a gloomy picture of what life will be like for Rotherham United next season following their relegation to League Two.
The highly-respected Kieran Maguire says that, economically, the Millers, who posted a £4.6-million loss in their most recent accounts, are still among the best-run clubs in the lower leagues.
But he warned that they will be hit hard by the slide into the fourth tier as TV revenue drops significantly and gate receipts become lower because of opposition sides bringing smaller followings to AESSEAL New York Stadium.
Maguire, a lecturer at Liverpool University and one of the driving forces behind the popular Price of Football podcast, analysed the figures that covered July 1 2024 to June 30 2025 – the season after relegation from the Championship – as he gave his worrying forecast.
He said: “In League Two, the TV money works out as around £1.25m, so that is going to halve from League One. It won’t necessarily halve immediately as you’ll get a slight parachute payment, but it’s going to be a bit of a reset.
“The crowds are going to be lower. In League One, some of the bigger clubs will have sold out the away end. That’s not going to be the case in League Two.”
Turnover dropped from more than £19m in 2023/24 to £10.5m in 2024/25 and Maguire says it will fall significantly again during the forthcoming fourth-tier campaign.
Over the years, he has consistently held up the Millers as an example of a club on a sound footing and his opinion hasn’t altered even though they have been incurring heavy losses.
“I’ve always had them in my top half-a-dozen clubs,” he said. ”I’d normally also name Bradford City, Grimsby Town, Burton Albion – clubs that have not acted like lunatics historically.
“And I’d still keep Rotherham in that, even though it seems crazy that they’ve lost £4.5 million. It’s £90,000 a week. That still puts them, by far, in the bottom half of losses in League One.”
The club’s debt has risen to £9.5m as chairman Tony Stewart has propped up Rotherham through loan from his family’s ASD Lighting company.
“Effectively, Tony has provided the funds to allow the wages to be paid on a month-by-month basis,” Maguire said.
Asked for his overall view of the accounts, he replied: “I think it just shows that League One has become a mini Championship.
“It used to be quite a sane league. Whilst nobody was making money, the losses were quite manageable. What we’ve seen in the past few years, especially with Wrexham and Birmingham City, is new benchmarks being set.
“The average losses are now in excess of £100,000 a week. I’ve always had Rotherham down as one of the sensible kids in the classroom. But what they’ve had to do, and this is just to tread water, is to acknowledge that the money coming into the club has collapsed because the gap between the Championship and League One has expanded.
“While they’ve always had good control over wages, you can’t get them down fast enough. I think that this season (2025/26) the losses might, potentially, be a wee bit better, but that’s going to be of no consolation to the fans. I don’t think anybody expected them to fall through to League Two this quickly.”
