How much the play-offs and possibly Premier League promotion could earn West Brom

With eight games to go Albion occupy the final play-off spot only on goal difference, with Bristol City breathing down their necks in seventh.

Just six points separate Tony Mowbray's side and Sheffield Wednesday in 12th - with plenty of points to be won between now and the final game of the season.

Mowbray will be hopeful his side can get over the line and he can lead them to a Wembley play-off final, like he did back in 2007 where the Baggies lost 1-0 to Derby County.

Even back in 2007, promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs was lucrative in terms of finances - but those figures have gone through the roof in recent years.

So, how much is it worth this year and how much could West Brom earn if they were to be promoted via the play-offs?

In terms of final standings, the league champions would receive £5m for finishing top of the table.

And as it does in the top flight, albeit on a larger scale, it comes down as you drop down the final standings.

Albion currently sit sixth in the division and if things were to stay like that, then the club would be handed £900,000.

They are still fighting for fifth spot, and if they were to move back ahead of Coventry City by the time the final game comes to an end, then that figure could rise to as high as £1.2m.

The play-off final and the finances

The Championship play-off final has long been dubbed the richest game in football, and on paper, and with that is waiting for the winner if they do achieve promotion, then it has hard to argue against that.

If you win the final, you are on the way to the top flight where revenue is far and away what is offered in the Championships - with that largely down to getting a slice of the broadcasting revenue.

It is hard to nail down an exact figure of how much promotion is worth to the football clubs.

However, there has been a ballpark figure in recent years of £170m.

In 2022/23, Luton went up and through just one campaign in the Premier League they were able to cash in.

Unfortunately for the Hatters they were relegated back to the second tier, and are in the brink of now dropping out of the Championship.

So even if you only spend one year back in the Premier League, which Albion have done in the past, then it is still lucrative.

Should you stay up, that money goes up further. According to reports, due to the fact they went up and stayed up, Nottingham Forest's earnings for that feat were in the region of £290m.

So going up is one thing, but staying up only adds to the financial benefits.

Parachute payments

What promotion to the Premier League locks in is parachute payments, that are handed to a club if they are relegated back to the Championship.

Albion know about these payments, having been receipt of them in recent years before they ended following three straight seasons in the second tier.

The parachute payments are reportedly built into that figure of £170m, if you are to be promoted. They make up for about £80m of it.

The payments provide extra financial support for clubs who go down. They get 55 per cent of the broadcasting distribution that every club receives in the first year back in the Championship.

That decreases for every year you are back in the second tier, to 45 per cent in the second year and 20 per cent in the third.

There is an expectation that the make up of the parachute payments could change with the introduction of an independent regulator in football. But if Albion were to go up this year, it is unlikely to impact them.