Skip to main content

Villa revenue the second lowest in the top flight

In his Zurich fastness the Swiss Ramble has been analysing the latest accounts of Aston Villa in his usual forensic style.

Despite promotion Villa’s loss widened from £69m to £99m. Revenue more than doubled from £54m to £113m, though profit on player sales fell £11m to a small negative result, while investment in the squad to compete in the Premier League increased expenses by £76m (55%).

Main driver of the £58m revenue increase was broadcasting, up £56m from £22m to £78m, due to the much more lucrative Premier League TV deal, though commercial also rose £4m to £21m.

The £99m loss is obviously not great, but everyone has been adversely impacted by COVID with half the clubs to date in the Premier League 2019/20 posting losses above £50m. That said, only Everton £140m and Manchester City £125m have reported larger losses than Villa.

COVID resulted in £48m reduction to club revenue, split between £12m lost (match day £5.5m, TV rebates £6.9m) and £36m broadcasting deferred to 2020/21. Along with £1.5m cost savings, net impact is £47m, but club would still have posted £52m loss.

Despite the adverse impact of the pandemic, the £113m revenue is still £4m (3%) higher than the last time they were in the top flight in 2016, mainly due to higher broadcasting (71% of total revenue). Without COVID, Villa would have reported £161m revenue, a club record.

Even after the growth due to promotion, Villa’s £113m revenue was the second lowest in the Premier League, only ahead of Bournemouth £95m. To place that into perspective, it’s less than a quarter of the top three clubs.

The club made a small £0.4m loss from player sales, down from prior year’s £11m, as many players were released for nothing. Unsurprisingly, this is one of the worst player trading performances in the Premier League.  Until the blip in 2020, Villa had been generating more from player sales. They still earned £87m from this activity in the last 5 years, compared to £48m in the preceding 5-year period. That said, profit has declined each year since 2016 and 2021 is also likely to be low.

The board strategy includes a long-term plan to improve the Villa Park stadium, aiming to increase capacity (there is a substantial waiting list for season tickets) and modernise commercial facilities (to help boost revenue).

 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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
1 comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more