The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews the (13 month) 2019/20 accounts of Crystal Palace.
The club swung from £5m pre-tax profit to £58m loss, mainly due to profit on player sales dropping from £46m to only £0.5m. Revenue fell £13m (8%) from club record £155m to £142m, partly due to COVID.
The £142m revenue
was 11th highest in the top flight, though the gap to the Big Six is enormous,
as Palace are more than £200m behind Arsenal £343m. For more perspective, it’s
less than a third of Manchester United £509m, Liverpool £490m andManchester
City £478m.
Although the £58m loss is obviously not great, it is only
mid-table in the Premier League, as all clubs have been adversely impacted by
COVID with no fewer than nine of them posting higher losses than the Eagles in
2019/20,
Main driver of the revenue reduction was broadcasting, which
fell £11.7m (9%) from £124.4m to £112.7m, while match day dropped £2.8m (19%)
from £14.6m to £11.8m. However, commercial rose £1.4m (9%) from £16.4m to
£17.8m. Even after the steep decrease
in broadcasting income, this was still by far the most important revenue stream
for Palace, accounting for 79% of total revenue, followed by commercial 13% and
match day 8%
Without COVID, revenue would have been £11.7m higher at
£154m, due to broadcasting rebate and lost match day income. Along with £14.1m
extra costs incurred for additional month in accounts less £0.7m net cost
savings, this would have resulted in a smaller loss of £33m.
However, the main reason for the worse bottom line was
profit on player sales, which declined from £46m to just £539k, as prior year
included lucrative Wan-Bissaka transfer to Manchester United. This was 3rd
lowest in the Premier League, far below Chelsea £143m.
Since promotion to the Premier League in 2013, Palace have
made money in four out of seven seasons, though they have made an overall £52m
loss in that period, due to the hefty deficits in 2018 (£36m) and 2020 (£58m). The Swiss Ramble comments, ‘It is clear that the
club have been run sensibly, effectively breaking-even in the top flight before
the pandemic hit.’
Despite the decline in 2020, revenue has still grown by £52m
(57%) since 2014 from £90m to £142m, their first season following promotion to
the Premier League. Much of that growth is due to new Premier League TV deals,
but commercial has also shot up.
The reported £133m wage bill was 9th largest in the Premier
League, probably higher than most fans would expect. The wages to turnover ratio increased from 77% to 93%, 4th highest in the
Premier League, though this would fall to 86% based on 12-month wages. If we
further adjust for the COVID £11.7m revenue loss, the ratio would fall to 79%,
though still in top 10.
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