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'Impressive' financial results at Wolves

From his Zurich fastness, the authoritative Swiss Ramble blogger reviews the latest accounts of Wolverhampton Wanderers. He notes, 'Since being bought by Chinese investment group Fosun International in July 2016, Wolves is a club transformed, helped by a close relationship with super-agent Jorge Mendes. Under charismatic manager Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolves can realistically compete for European qualification.'

The £146m revenue growth was very largely driven by broadcasting’s £125m increase from £8m to £133m, due to much higher TV money in the Premier League, while commercial also rose £17m from £11m to £28m and match day was up £3.7m (47%) from £7.8m to £11.5m.

£20m profit is the second highest reported so far in the 2018/19 Premier League, only surpassed by Manchester United £27m. This is impressive, given that half of the eight Premier League clubs that have published accounts have lost money, including huge losses above £100m at Chelsea and Everton.

The Swiss Ramble comments, 'Wolves were very prudent under former owner Steve Morgan, making profits six times in seven years. In contrast, Fosun’s strategy of “strong investment into the squad” led to £80m of losses in the Championship, but the gamble paid-off with promotion and a return to profits in the Premier League.'

The Premier League is even more lucrative than when Wolves were last there. 'To illustrate the huge difference in the Premier League, Wolves 2018/19 £172m revenue is more than the previous six seasons in the Championship (and League One) combined. Furthermore, revenue is £112m higher than last time in Premier League in 2012 with £91m due to new TV deals.'

The £172m revenue is 11th highest in the Premier League, just below Leicester City £176m. However, the gap to the Big Six is still enormous: they are £220m behind 6th placed Arsenal £393m, while Manchester United £627m is almost four times as much as Wolves. Although a substantial 77% of club revenue comes from broadcasting, this is far from unusual in the top flight. In fact, 13 of the clubs in the Premier League earn more than 70% of their total income from TV.

2019/20 revenue will benefit from playing in the Europa League, where they have so far reached the last 32. For an idea of how much they could receive, last season the two English representatives, Chelsea and Arsenal, earned £41m and £35m respectively (though both got to final). However, this is small change compared to the money available in the Champions League, where the English clubs earned between £80m and £100m last season.

Average attendance increased from 28,298 to 31,030, which was almost 2,700 (9%) more than the previous Premier League peak of 28,366 in 2009/10. The upturn in the club’s fortunes on the pitch has firmly reversed the declining crowds in the lower leagues.

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