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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).

 


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