Parachute payments

[The Lone Gunman]

its not nonsense, it still gives you a good idea on the relative levels of income in this league

Maybe it makes sense to you. To me, it looks like a load of codswallop. But each to their own.

[OurManFlint II]

If all of the players were taking performance-enhancing drugs, wouldn't the better players still be, like, well, better?

Sure of course, it doesn't mean everybody is a clone, but you are also elevating those mediocre ones so the gap then becomes smaller especially around concentration and energy levels. The human body has a limit of how many red blood cells it can produce (safely) which carries the oxygen to the muscles. Surprisingly there is a science behind it.
I believe drugs, rather than some sort wealth distribution would level up the playing field more (unless its full armature), which was my point to whole discussion but as is the de rigueur here i'm losing track of the point and counter point.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

apparently parachute payments came into effect in the 06/07 season.

on the face of it there doesn't seem to be much difference between the 2000s and the 2010s, with 12 and 13 teams promoted within the first 3 years.

however that works out as 1.2 or 1.3 a year.
for the last 4 years there have been 2 a year promoted with parachute payments, and it seems likely that there will be at least 2 this year, possibly 3 - it just feels as though there has been a bit of a step change over the last few years.
I could be wrong and maybe next season we will see teams without parachute payments dominating the league, but I doubt it

Since 2006/07, here's a list of each season and the number of promoted teams that had been relegated within 3 seasons.

2006/07 2
2007/08 1
2008/09 2
2009/10 2
2010/11 0
2011/12 1
2012/13 1
2013/14 1
2014/15 1
2015/16 2
2016/17 1
2017/18 0
2018/19 2
2019/20 2
2020/21 2

It ebbs and flows.

Last one. From 2003/04, teams that finished in the top 6 and had been relegated within 3 seasons.

2003/04 4
2004/05 4
2005/06 2
2006/07 5
2007/08 3
2008/09 4
2009/10 2
2010/11 1
2011/12 3
2012/13 1
2013/14 2
2014/15 1
2015/16 2
2016/17 2
2017/18 2
2018/19 3
2019/20 4
2020/21 4

Again, ebbs and flows.

[NYCBlue]

The point of the parachute payments is not to give relegated teams an advantage, it's to save them from being completely ****ed. Most promoted teams have to buy at least a couple of established Premier League standard players and if they have to re-sign anyone from their current squad, it's on Premier League terms any club that only spends one year in the top league could find themselves in a pretty dire financial situation if they'd signed or re-signed half a dozen players the previous season. Can you imagine?