The Swiss Ramble provides a forensic analysis of the accounts of Bristol City from Zurich.
The pre-tax loss widened from £10m to £38m, as profit from
player sales dropped from £26m to £6m and revenue fell £10m (39%) from £27m to
£17m, due to COVID. Wages to turnover ratio was 212%, clearly not sustainable, gross debt £96m. Unsurprisingly, the £38m loss is one of the
worst in the Championship, though other clubs’ figures will also be bad when
they publish 2020/21 accounts.
The revenue
decrease was largely driven by COVID (games played behind closed doors and
stadium lockdown), as commercial fell £6.1m (44%) to £7.7m and match day
dropped £4.0m (85%) to £0.7m. Broadcasting was also down £0.4m (5%) to £8.2m.
Government grants up £1.0m to £1.6m.
The Swiss Ramble estimates
the club lost around £15m revenue in 2020/21 from a full season of COVID: £6m
match day (games behind closed doors) and £9m commercial (conferences and
events “heavily restricted”). This takes the total revenue loss over the past
two years to £18m.
Revenue has nearly halved since the pre-pandemic £30.3m peak
in 2019, falling 45% (£13.6m) to £16.7m. Broadcasting has held up, but match
day is down 88% (£5.3m) and commercial has decreased 52% (£8.4m).
CEO Richard Gould
said: “The Championship is the competition most affected by the
pandemic, across all sports. Football clubs will remain in a precarious
position and we will be plugging holes left by the pandemic for perhaps the
next four years.”
COVID shrunk Championship transfer market by 90% with Bristol
City profit on player sales significantly reducing from £26m to £6m.
£17m revenue is now in the bottom half of the Championship,
significantly below clubs with parachute payments, e.g. Norwich City £57m,
though others will see similar revenue reductions when they publish 2020/21
accounts with a full season of COVID.
Gould said: “Parachute payments
are so significant that they are making the Champion ship an unfair
competition. Three years’ parachute payments ruin the ability of other clubs to
compete. The longer it goes on with
these parachute payments that are out of kilter with the commercial reality of
the Championship, the Premier League will just become a closed shop. The door
is almost shut now.” This makes it extremely tough for clubs like Bristol City.
Crowds had significantly grown since promotion from League
One, rising 87% from 11,681 to 21,809 in 2019/20 (for games played with fans).
Their average attendance was 8th highest in the Championship, sandwiched
between Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town.
Despite the revenue fall, the wage bill rose £1.8m (6%) from
£33.5m to £35.3m, a new club record. Wages have more than doubled (up £18m)
since the first season after promotion from League One in 2016, though many
players have since been released this summer to cut costs. Even after this significant growth in the
past few years, the £35m wage bill is still only mid-table in the Championship,
around half the size of those clubs benefiting from parachute payments.
Directors’ remuneration decreased from £143k to £106k, very
much on the low side for the Championship, especially compared to the likes of
Birmingham City £1.6m, Fulham £948k, Stoke City £834k and Cardiff City £712k.
Even after the low 2020/21 outlay, Bristol City have
significantly increased their gross transfer spend, amounting to £64m in the
last 5 years, though they still had £30m net sales, thanks to £94m sales in
this period. Only sizeable net spend in last decade was £10m in 2018.
Gross debt rose £22m from £74m to £96m, with £89m of this
owed to owner Steve Lansdown (Pula Sports Ltd £72m plus group undertakings
£17m). Also included £6.8m interest-free loans from the English Football League
and a £0.6m overdraft.
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