Skip to main content

Player sales reduce Brentford losses

Brentford FC lost £350,000 a week from day to day trading in 2017/18 but player sale profits helped reduce losses from £18.5 million to £4.4 million. Total losses over the years are £55m.

Turnover was marginally up at £12.7m. A decrease in matchday income (£3.5m to £3.1m) for the Bees was offset by increase in TV and commercial income. Total income of £12.7m was less than a third of parachute payments received by some other Championship clubs, showing once again how the Championship has the least level playing field of all the divisions.

League and FA payments accounted for 53 per cent of income. Ticketing accounted for just under a quarter of income. Commercial was up from £850k to £1.2m.

The club paid out £135 in wages for every £100 of income in 2017/18. This is well above the level recommended by Uefa, but is far from unusual in the Championship. Employee numbers down but wage cost was up 17%.

The Chairman comments in his statement, 'Perhaps the most remarkable achievement is continuing to challenge in the top half of the table, while operating comfortably within FFP regulations, largely achieved by securing profits from player trading of over £40m in the last three financial years.'

Matthew Benham lent the Bees £12.3 million interest free in 2017/18 to keep club afloat. Total Benham loans £76 million plus shares of £38 million. Progress on the new stadium allowed £19m of Benham loans to be repaid in August 2018.

The move to the new stadium at the start of the 2020/21 season will see the start of a new phase in the club's history.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000.  The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts.  Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day income is

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to depl