To me, this is the most bizarre aspect of all. Did Alan Hardy seriously think that if we got promoted, all of this apparently unsustainable financial outlay would have been solved by the extra income from being in a higher league?
Yes, sponsorship and other rewards are higher in League One, but it's hardly the land of milk and honey, and whatever extra money you rake in, the odds are you will have to spend just as much again (at least!) to retain that higher status.
As I've said many times on here, football clubs don't need investors, they need rich benefactors. If you "invest" in a football club in the true sense of the word, expecting that somewhere down the line you'll break even or make a profit, then you're scarily naïve.
It's beginning to look like Alan Hardy bought the whole of last season on credit, with no real plan as to how he would pay the balance.