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West Ham report big profit

West Ham turned a £4.8m loss into a £43m profit in 2016-17, but this mainly because of additional television revenues and player sales. The club has admitted that the profit figure would have been much the same if the club had stayed at Upton Park: West Ham

The sale of Upton Park produced a profit of just £8.7m. They had 52,000 season tickets renewed, ticket sales were up by 6.3 per cent, retail up by 2 per cent and the community and sponsorship departments increased revenue by some 35.7 per cent.

Anecdotally, I know that some disillusioned Charlton supporters living in Kent have taken advantage of fast rail travel to Stratford to support West Ham.

I have now read the accounts in more detail. These are available free of charge online at Companies House. Please note that the figures relate to the year ending May 2017 and do not include what the club regards as 'significant investments' in players in the summer transfer window.

Turnover was £183.3m, up from £142m. Profit from disposal of players was £28.4m compared with £4.1m. Match receipts were up marginally from £26.9m to £28.6m. Retail and merchandising was relatively unchanged at £9.5m from £9.3m. This suggests to me that the club lacks the global reach of top clubs.

The biggest increase was in broadcast and central sponsorship distributions from £86.7m to £119.3m. This emphasises why it is so crucial for West Ham to stay in the top flight and why a change of manager was unavoidable.

Commercial activities were up from £19m to £25.8m which is encouraging.

Total employment costs were £95m, up from £84m. At just over 50 per cent of turnover, this is a healthy figure. The highest paid director received £868,000.

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The board states in its report: 'The Board were hopeful that we would build on the fact that we finished 7th in the Premier League in the 2015-16 season, but as a result of unprecedented major injuries we had to endure, coupled with a difficult start to the season in our new stadium as we ironed out the teething problems associated with moving to a new ground and dealing with an outside operator, we are satisfied we finished 11th.'

This season the top six have pulled away from the other clubs with more points than all the rest combined. The middle stratum of clubs who are safe from relegation but unlikely to qualify for Europe has largely disappeared. West Ham find themselves in a crowded relegation league.

I am confident they will not be relegated. But the challenge is to be more than the 'nearly men' of the Premier League. My father played his non-league football in the borough, having been born in North Woolwich and working in Stratford. He was at the famous 'white horse' final at Wembley. I wish West Ham well, but it may be a bumpy road.

The price of football site has provided a detailed analysis of West Ham's results: Fools gold

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