Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston has warned the SPL club would be forced to make major cutbacks if they were relegated.
Killie are struggling to stay in the top flight and sit one point above bottom-of-the-table Falkirk with just four games to go.
Johnston is hoping they can avoid the drop but he admits if they were to go down then it would have serious financial implications for next season with several first-team players, who are out of contract in the summer, expected to leave.
He told the Herald: "We're not planning on being relegated, there are four games to go and we're not bottom of the league, so there's every reason for us to be confident.
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We have assets that outweigh the amount of our debt.
But while the hotel is profitable, the football club is not.
"If the football club income was reduced by going into the SFL, then the football club's expenditure would have to correspondingly be cut back. That would be a painful progress, but that's what we would have to do to balance the books."
He added: "There's a huge difference between the budget we would work on in the SFL. It can be done. It would be difficult and it would require the bank's support.
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There is a parachute payment from the SPL to the club that is relegated, which gives the club a serious chance of bouncing back, as looks likely for Inverness.
"If the worst came to the worst, the club would be heavily dependent on the support of the Bank of Scotland. That, combined with severe cuts in budget, would have to be the survival strategy."