QPR reduced their operating losses from £22m to £12m in 2019, reveals Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball. These are moderate operating losses by Championship standards. QPR do have cash in the bank but are technically insolvent and are reliant on their owners to carry on trading. Losses over the years exceed £287 million. QPR's owners lent the club a further £11.4 million cash in 2019 interest free.
QPR are still in receipt of parachute payments which made up 64% of income in 2019. The figure of £22m will drop to £7m in 2019/20. QPR wage bill was down 25% in 2019 as club prepares for life without parachute payments and eliminates big earners from wage bill. Parachute payments meant that QPR are still in the top 10 earners in the Championship.
QPR spent no money signing players in 2018/19 and had sales of £3.9 million. Owner loans are mainly because some written off as part of FFP settlement, which costs the club £1.7m a year in terms of cash and had an effective cash cost of about £9.5m rather than the £42m quoted at the time. [QPR were able to advance competition law arguments in relation to the dubious legal foundations of financial fair play].
Maguire comments, 'To show just how nuts football is in this country, during the whole of the last decade QPR had income of £435m and a wage bill of £457m, despite three years in the Premier League and five years of parachute payments.' [What I find really nuts is the willingness of some owners to pour money into a football club with little prospect of a return and little thanks from fans].
The club's average wages £11k per week last season, relatively low by Championship standards where the average was £16k a week. To break even ave wages would have to fall another £4,000 a week. The Super Hoops had the third lowest wages to income percentage in 2019, paying out £69 in wages for every £100 of income, average for division is £106. Maguire expects this to rise in 2020 as income falls.
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