Image source, Getty Images

Arguably the most creative idea for raising income involves eighth-tier Daventry Town, of the Southern League Division One Central.

The Northamptonshire side will show new and classic films using a 9m x 7m screen on their pitch.

People will watch the films from their cars, with sound coming through their radio, and money raised used to support the club's youth and adult sides.

"We're repurposing their ground to allow for this to happen," Ian Marriott, who runs Drive In Films, told BBC Radio Northampton.

"We're working very hard with the groundsman - it's been a challenge to persuade them but it's in the middle of summer.

"It makes good use of their facilities and their bills aren't stopping."

Image source, Rex Features

Maximising the value of assets is more than just trying to get your star striker scoring 20-plus goals a season, and football grounds are more than just sporting venues these days.

Conferencing, banqueting and other entertainment are all major parts of the commercial manager's role at any football club - bringing much needed revenue in away from the 11 v 11 of Saturday afternoons and Tuesday nights.

Lockdown isn't just hitting clubs like Port Vale at the turnstiles, the modern week-long business operation is also affected.

"We have speed awareness courses at Port Vale, mother's days, funerals, weddings," chairwoman Carol Shanahan told BBC Midlands Today. "But all of that has stopped and that is a significant part of our income.

"It will be good when we can at least get that back, and I'm hoping when the government announces changes to restaurants and bars we might be able to open up to the public to some extent because we do have large rooms. We could socially distance and still serve people - but that's not until July."

Image source, Rex Features

Many of London’s football clubs are facing financial ruin as a result of not being able to play matches in front of their supporters.

This is especially the case the further from the Premiere League you go, where broadcast deals do not provide any sort of cushion from the financial blow.

The League Two season was cancelled after clubs in the division "unanimously indicated" they wished to bring the campaign to an early conclusion.

Danny Macklin, chief executive of Leyton Orient, said the impact of coronavirus on the club's cash flow was "quite severe".

“We’re not immune from the crisis – I know every business and every sector isn't," he said.

“The immediate impact on cash is quite severe so we have to make sure we balance the books as best as we can and that threat goes into next season."

Image source, PA

Macklin added that there was a lot of uncertainty on when next season will start.

“We hope we will start on time – but we will turn our attention to our streaming products in the meantime," he said.

The League Two club, which has furloughed the majority of its staff and players, has been offering fans the chance to watch a live stream of a game on its website for a fee.

"It’s the next best alternative to a live game and we’ve got fans across the world that we know will tune in their thousands as well as those nearer to home," Macklin added.

“I can see some old clubs that aren’t well run going into ruin. This is a time where football clubs have to think creatively."

Image source, Rex Features

Non-league clubs have taken the lead during the coronavirus lockdown in choosing to end their season much earlier than the English Football League or clubs in Scotland and Wales discussed the option.

National League Aldershot Town are among those to feel the financial pinch, particularly over the loss of match-day revenues and sponsorships.

Their chairman Shahid Azeem told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this week that even the return of football behind closed doors would do little to change their current predicament.

"It just wouldn't work at our level of football," Azeem said.

"We rely on sponsorships, gate receipts, we don't have broadcasting rights money coming into our level of football.

"Business would not be viable for us to play football behind closed doors – it just will not happen."

Azeem also told Garry Richardson that clubs such as Aldershot would have to be mothballed until the public are allowed back into their EBB Stadium to watch matches.

Neil Gray:@jersey_bulls, external play in Combined Counties League Div 1. We're top after 27 consecutive wins and +92 GD! Now league abandoned & points null & void. Bulls fly across to Gatwick every other weekend but also pay for opposition teams to fly into Jersey!!!

Cru: Clubs like Manchester City need to help out lower teams. We can afford it, and it would barely touch our finances. Chelsea can too, in fact most top six clubs can. In a crisis like this, I think the EFL and PL need to band together and work as a team and not 91 teams.

Image source, Paul Nail

Paul Nail runs a catering business with his wife, including a burger van used at Cambridge United games which he converted and decorated himself out of a shipping container.

As a small self-employed business they have received some help from the government, but they are missing out on the 300-400 customers they would usually get on a matchday.

"It's just sitting here with no business at the moment," Nail told BBC Look East.

"This is what we do for a living so if we can't go back to work, with no football, I don't know what we'll do.

"If we don't get the fans back to the football grounds there won't be any business for us. It would finish our business altogether."

Image source, Rex Features

Burton Albion this week confirmed the departure of long-serving manager Nigel Clough.

Clough's decision to stand down saved an "unbelievable" number of jobs at the League One club, according to his successor Jake Buxton.

"It's a credit to the man he is," Buxton told BBC Radio Derby.

"He's realised the strains this pandemic has caused in all businesses and football is not immune to that.

"With Nigel stepping down, he's protected the club, and an unbelievable amount of jobs will be protected because of what he's done."

There may not be any football played in a stadium near you in the near future, but that is not to say that these venues are sitting idle.

In fact, they are being put to some truly tremendous and vitally important use.

Fratton Park, home of Portsmouth, has been turned into a food distribution hub in the city where club staff, from players, physiotherapists, the kit man and even stewards, are volunteering their time.

Image source, Rex Features

At Charlton Athletic’s Valley home, it has been transformed into a Covid-19 call centre, with 50 phone lines manned from morning to evening.

And then you have Burton Albion providing their Pirelli Stadium facilities to local midwives to be able to continue supporting those in need.

And these are just three examples of the many out there...

Image source, Rex Features

Footballers' careers can be short-lived, so many professionals, like Rotherham United skipper Richard Wood, have started up businesses away from the game to prepare them for life post-sport.

Wood, 34, opened a soft play centre for children with partner Jade, but the impact of coronavirus has been detrimental to the business.

"Obviously there's a lot of contact with kids, people coming in and out, so we got shut down for that, and rightly so," Wood told BBC Look North.

"Ever since the lockdown started, the business has been closed and my missus hasn't worked. We've no turnover coming in.

"I'm fortunate in my position as a footballer that I'm still getting paid, which helps.

"But if you look at our business, how much work we've put into it over the past two-and-a-half years and for nothing to be happening, it's not a nice feeling, it's worrying."

Image source, Rex Features

A recurring theme of today’s live coverage is that football as a business is fundamentally no different to many others in society.

This point is very much highlighted in what Exeter City chairman Julian Tagg has to say about how the government's job retention scheme.

“Like every business, the furlough system is what has kept everyone alive. We are no different,” Tagg told BBC Sport.

“You are working very much with a skeleton staff because every football club has to tick over, so the furlough element of it is what has really saved the day. And that may not save everyone, but it has certainly made a huge difference.

“Without that there would have been any number of clubs that would already have gone to the wall by now, and not only clubs but businesses.”

There is more from Tagg about how fan-owned Exeter are dealing with the financial side of the pandemic here.

Sunderland shareholder Charlie Methven is calling for a government bailout to help protect EFL clubs at risk of going under because of coronavirus.

Alongside Folkestone & Hythe MP Damian Collins, he is urging ministers to back a new Football Finance Authority which would provide funds to struggling clubs.

Their report says the money could only be used to meet short-term liabilities and create breathing space to restructure finances.

Ed Barker: For some reason my club (ITFC) is adamant L1 season plays out. There are teams in that league that have zero resources to unfurlough staff and make safety provisions. It is madness to think anything more than play-off games can continue. No team is bigger than the league.

David Sale: Clubs need to admit to the fans that even if games can happen, they cannot be with crowds, so they need to start refunding ticket sales. It is morally correct but also legally correct as they are under contract to provide what was sold.

Image source, Rex Features

While some Premier League clubs such as Manchester City and Everton have paid out refunds to supporters for matches they will no longer be able to attend, the financial pressures on those further down the food chain make that prospect a potentially damaging one.

League One side AFC Wimbledon, a fan-owned football club, have already seen some supporters offer to waive their refunds and have spelled out the need for more to make that choice.

"Many of you have already contacted us and generously offered to waive your entitlement to a refund," a statement on the club website added.

"This is money we could have never budgeted in advance for because nobody could have foreseen the coronavirus crisis.

"Your contribution simply underlines how deeply you understand, as owners, how best to protect and help our club when we need it most."

Tom Garry
BBC Sport

Image source, Rex Features

The pandemic has left clubs in England's top women's divisions - the Women's Super League and the Women's Championship - assuming their season is over, sources at several clubs have told BBC Sport.

With 45 matches outstanding in the WSL alone, the cost of testing has been deemed too high. Sources have estimated the cost of completing the campaign in both divisions to be as high as £4m, but it is understood there are other specific concerns around safety and praticality as well.

For example, compared to the men's game, a higher proportion of women's players in the top two divisions live in households with either several housemates, their parents or older relatives.

This is particularly the case in the second tier, where salaries are predominantly not sufficient for players to afford their own home, and the average age of squads can be much lower. Players do not want to risk infecting their older relatives, nor work colleagues in other jobs, as most second-tier players hold full-time jobs as well.

A formal consultation process between clubs and the Football Association - to decide or whether to, and how to end the season - is ongoing.

Image source, Morecambe FC

Steak and kidney, chicken balti, meat and potato, maybe a cheese and onion flavour? Whatever your favourite filling, the humble pie is a staple of the matchday experience for many.

It's also a regular source of income for companies like Eric Twigg Foods, who supply 20 stadiums with their gameday pies and pasties.

The shutdown of live sport, and with it the crowds, has had a knock-on effect for businesses such as catering and stewarding, and they have had to become creative.

"When we first went into lockdown we had a lot of fans asking if they could buy the pies so Rotherham allowed us to pull up in the car park with a van and serve fans over a fence to keep distance," Matt Twigg told BBC Look North.

"We did really well, but with the government guidelines we didn't want people travelling around even short distances. We were looking at keeping people in their cars, and we said we would do home delivery.

"We set up a website, people place their orders. It's been good for our minds as well as the fans, I think."

Image source, Rex Features

Football's coronavirus-enforced shutdown has highlighted the tenuous position many football clubs have found themselves in, in terms of coping strategies while matchday revenues are not coming in.

While the furloughing of staff and players has helped clubs deal with some immediate short-term financial burden, any talk of returning to action - aside from the safety aspects - has concerned how clubs might afford to bounce back.

Among the English Football League's proposals to put football clubs in a better financial position and force them to exist within restraints is to impose salary caps.

Northampton Town chairman Kelvin Thomas can see the benefit in the cap concept, and in the EFL's working party plans to reshape the way clubs operate.

"Football has an opportunity - and hopefully we take it - to put our house back in order again and make football more sustainable so we can handle these type of events moving forward," Thomas told BBC Radio Northampton.

"There'll definitely be some salary cap models to be presented that we'll be voting on.

"I think there will be a control of our main expenses such as player costs which have probably got out of hand."

Image source, Rex Features

During the increasing financial uncertainty around the game, Burton Albion chairman Ben Robinson had been waiting on the end of the phone this week for the EFL Board to make a recommendation on how to proceed with the League One season.

While League Two clubs last week collectively agreed to end their season, the picture in the division above is still unclear with a framework for completing the division only being announced on Thursday.

A simple majority of League One clubs is all that would be required to end the season along the same lines as League Two.

But six clubs have expressed their desire to play out the remaining games if possible. Robinson's Brewers are among a group looking to end the season now to avoid "financial suicide".

“I don’t want us to play nine games and fork out £140,000 [for coronavirus testing] when we’re having to pay our overheads over the coming months when not knowing when next season’s going to start," Robinson told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"More pertinently, when it does start, are we going to get revenue from the fans and our season ticket holders?"

Image source, Rex Features

We want to hear from you - the lifeblood of clubs across the football pyramid - about what your team is trying to do to stay afloat and what you've been able to do to help.

Keep sharing your thoughts and experiences on social media using #bbcefl and we'll continue to showcase them here.

Since football was halted in mid-March, the soundings from Championship clubs has been that they have wanted to finish the season.

As it stands, sides are due to resume training on Monday with an aim of trying to restart the season next month alongside the Premier League.

As league leaders, Leeds are desperate to complete the campaign to try to secure promotion to the Premier League for the first time since 2004, and chief executive Angus Kinnear says it would be a "national embarrassment" if the Championship season does not resume.

Some sports people have put their enforced hiatus to good use, helping communities out as best they can.

Blackburn Rovers’ Bradley Johnson has teamed up with one former footballer to source and distribute personal protective equipment.

Former striker Dexter Blackstock is using the company he founded in retirement to help the public donate PPE to frontline staff dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

You can read more about the work medical technology firm MediConnect is doing by clicking here.