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Ipswich are low spenders

Ipswich Town have now filed their full accounts with Companies House. Ipswich had losses before player sales (£3.83m profit) of £160,000 a week in 2017/18, compared to the average in the division of £390,000 as owners chase the Premier League TV gold at the end of the rainbow.

Turnover decreased by £116k to £17.1m, mainly due to lower gate receipts which were offset by an increase in media revenue. Commercial revenue remained at the same level as in 2016/17 (£4.35m). Average home league gates decreased from 16,980 to 16,272. The operating loss was £8.4m, up from £7.8m.

Distributions from the Premier League and EFL, along with televised matches, accounted for 50 per cent of revenue. These revenues would be substantially reduced in League One.

In four years out of the last five Ipswich have spent less than £1m on new players in a division where the median spend is £7.1 million by clubs in the Championship. Ipswich spent the lowest of any club in the Championship (who have reported to date) on new players in 2017/18, the legacy of that strategy perhaps being felt this season?

In 2017/18 the two clubs with the lowest wage bills were relegated (Sunderland haven't published yet but their demise was due to other reasons). Ipswich consistently in the bottom six wage payers, so would expect to be in a relegation fight each season.

Marcus Evans lent Ipswich £6.2 million last season. The total due to him is tricky to calculate as funnelled through many companies, some in offshore tax havens .

Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball commented: 'The problem for Evans (and other club owners) is that wages usually exceed income, even for clubs deemed unambitious by fans, so it's a case of setting a ceiling on the amount of weekly losses which are deemed to be acceptable to the owner.'

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