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Bristol City owner speaks out

Billionaire Stephen Lansdown has sought to end Bristol City's reliance on his fortune, but the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed back these ambitions by several years.  Bristol City has been hit hard by the loss of matchday revenue.

The presence of rich owners like Mr Lansdown was one reason the Premier League was reluctant to share revenues with the Championship.   However, he told the Financial Times, 'you just can't keep throwing good money after bad.  There comes a point in time where you have to start making some very difficult decisions.'

Lansdown lives in Guernsey for reasons of tax efficiency, but says a lot of his money goes back to his sporting ventures in the UK which also include rugby and basketball.   He rejects the argument that billionaire owners of sports team should cover all the losses.   He told the Pink 'Un: 'I can't run my business because the government isn't allowing me to run it.'

Mr Lansdown praised the controversial Project Big Picture which he described 'as the most constructive thing I've heard in football since I've been in it [since 1996].'

Before Covid-19 Bristol City's accounts for the 2018/19 season showed pre-tax losses of £17.7m before player sales worth £30m led to a £11.3m pre-tax profit.   Ticket sales accounted for almost £6m of revenue.

The writer is a client of Hargreaves Lansdown.

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