Is it really getting harder to compete financiallly?

[Upper West?!?]

There is another and much more positive way to look at this.

Reading is now able to compete for top players much more successfully with Italian, Spanish and German clubs. The Premier League is the richest in the world, so even though Man U will still have more money than us, we will now have more than Torino, Bayern Leverkuesen, Athletico Madrid ...

If Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal tie up 25 players each, there are more than 100 top players in the world, and Reading is far better off now than mid-table Premier League teams have been in the past to compete for world class players.

[Millsy]

The TV money is now such a big proportion of a club's income (and growing) that a slightly larger ground capacity and a few more shirt sales do not make the same % difference between the others that it used to.

An interesting point. I hope this is true.