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Bees benefit from benefactor

Matthew Benham's total commitment to Brentford at the end of June 2017 was £101.6m. This included £30m of secured loans for the new stadium project at Lionel Road to replace Griffin Park.

The accounts for 2016/17 show an operational loss of £854k, down from £7.6m in 2016. The loss after tax was £1.04m, down from £12.6m. The reduction in losses is to a large degree attributable to the sale of players which yielded a profit of £12.7m. However, despite clever player recruitment, the club has lost £150k a week taking a three year period.

The club remains in the bottom three in the Championship in terms of revenue generated. Total staff costs account for 115 per cent of turnover, although this represents an improvement on earlier figures, representing the lowest such payout in five years. In 2014 it was £220 per £100 of revenue.

Central payments from the League and FA amounted to £6.53m or 51 per cent of turnover. Ticketing generated £3.5m and commercial income £849k. Other football income including televised games raised £638k, up from £291k. Catering contributed £462k and retail £425k.

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