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The stretched finances of Championship clubs

The authoritative Swiss Ramble has taken a look at the finances of the Championship. Of course, the figures are a year out of date, but they still tell us something.

In contrast to the Premier League, only six clubs in the Championship made money, led by Nottingham Forest £32m and Barnsley £13m. Why Barnsley made a profit is unclear, as they only publish abbreviated accounts, but it is most likely to do with player sales.

In this very competitive division most clubs over-extend in a bid to reach the lucrative top flight. Largest losses were at two promoted clubs: Newcastle United £47m and Brighton £39m.

Profit on player sales is on low side in the Championship: below £20m for all but two clubs (and 15 of those were less than £10m). The two clubs to show a significant profit were Aston Villa and Newcastle United.

Newcastle United's £86m revenue was the highest in the Championship in 2016/17 (a record for the division), ahead of the other two relegated clubs (Norwich City £75m and Aston Villa £74m), then a sizeable gap to QPR £48m and Reading £37m. Top club not benefiting from parachute payments was Leeds United £34m. Championship revenues are greatly influenced by parachute payments. Even if parachute payments were excluded, the clubs with the highest revenue would still have been the three relegated from the Premier League.

Most Championship clubs receive £7-8m TV money, including £2.3m EFL central distribution and £4.3m Premier League solidarity payment (up from £2.3m in 15/16, thanks to the new three-year deal). Differences mainly due to how many times club is shown live (£100k home game, £10k away).

Newcastle's match day revenue of £23m was more than twice as much as the next highest in the Championship (Aston Villa £11m, Brighton £11m and Leeds United £10m) and was in fact above all but seven Premier League clubs. Half the clubs earned less than £5m from this revenue stream.

Newcastle's attendance of around 51,000 was by far the highest in the Championship, nearly 20,000 more than the closest challenger Aston Villa 32,000, who were followed by Derby County 29,000, Brighton 28,000 and Leeds 28,000.

Only six Championship clubs generated more than £10m commercial income with Leeds United leading the way at £16m, just ahead of Norwich City and Newcastle United (both £15m),

Newcastle United's £80m wage bill was miles above other Championship clubs, even after deducting £10m promotion bonus and £22m onerous contracts provision from the £112m reported by the club. Next highest were Aston Villa £61m, Norwich City £55m and Fulham £37m (also clubs benefiting from parachute payments). Over half of the Championship clubs pay more in wages than they earn.

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