The authoritative Swiss Ramble takes a look at the recently published accounts of Queens Park Rangers. The club's loss significantly increased by £32m from £6m to £38m, largely due to booking a £20m FFP fine (for previous misdemeanours); a £15m reduction in the parachute payment driving a £17m (35%) decrease in revenue from £48m to £31m; and profit on player sales down £7m to zero.
The £38m reported loss is not the worst in the Championship, as it is just below Cardiff City’s £39m (including £23m promotion payments), though it is obviously significantly impacted by £20m exceptional item for the FFP settlement: a fine of £17m plus the EFL’s £3m legal costs.
All three QPR revenue streams were down. As well as broadcasting slumping £15.1m (43%) to £20.2m, due to the lower parachute payment, commercial fell £1.2m (17%) to £6.3m, while gate receipts were £0.3m (6%) lower at £4.9m. Few Championship clubs earn big money commercially, but QPR £6m is only around mid-table for the division.
Match day revenue fell by 6% (£0.3m), due to lower attendances and one home game less. This is 40% lower than £8.4m peak in 2011/12. The club itself noted 'the attrition in attendance due to a third season in a row the club was not participating in the Premier League'. In fact, QPR crowds have fallen by around 4,000 (20%) from 17,800 to 13,928 in that period. Ticket prices have been frozen for four seasons in a row.
Despite the decrease, QPR's £31m revenue is still in the Championship top 10, though only around half as much as clubs recently relegated from the top flight. Revenue is greatly influenced by Premier League parachute payments. QPR have received £74m over the last 3 years, but only got £17m in 2017/18.
Despite the large decrease in revenue, costs did not fall accordingly. In fact, the wage bill was unchanged at £30.7m, while other expenses were also flat at £12.5m. Despite revenue falling by over a third, the QPR wage bill was held at the same level of £31m, though number of players, managers & coaches rose from 111 to 119, thus increasing the wages to turnover ratio from 64% to 98% - still much better than the 195% of the Redknapp era. To give some colour to those free spending days, QPR’s £75m wage bill in 2013/14 is the second highest ever in the Championship.
Despite the worsening of QPR wages to turnover ratio to 98%, this is actually not too bad for the Championship, where around half of the clubs have a ratio over 100%. This season, Birmingham City lead the way with a scarcely credible 202% (the 'Redknapp effect' once again).
QPR spent just £2m on players in 17/18, one of the lowest in the Championship and a lot less than the previous season’s £15m. As a comparison, Boro splashed out £66m, while the majority of clubs that have reported to date spent between £12m and £17m.
Gross debt rose £6m to £56m, as shareholder loans increased by £10m to £56m, but a £4m bank loan was repaid. Shareholder loans are now interest free with no fixed payment terms. Debt of £56m was by no means the largest in Championship, e.g. Boro £101m, Ipswich £89m and Cardiff £74m, and is now down to £34m. That said, it would have been much higher without the owners capitalising £210m of debt and writing-off £60m.
Since Fernandes arrived, the owners have pumped nearly a quarter of a billion (£244m) into the club. QPR spent most of this to cover operating losses (£139m) and on net player purchases (£83m). Only £11m went on infrastructure, though the club will now build new training ground at Warren Farm. The Super Hoops see their long-term viability as reliant on building a new stadium to replace Loftus Road, although that has been an aspiration for a long time now.
This is the last season that QPR receive the £17m parachute payment, so they will have to modify their strategy to reduce the reliance on their owners. In particular, they will have to cut the wage bill and focus on youth (partly for more lucrative player sales).
Comments
Post a Comment