Cherry Ripe

Bill Foley, General Partner of Black Knight Football and Entertainment bought Maxim Demin’s 100% stake in Bournemouth in December 2022 to end the Russian’s 11 years tenure.  Foley has some experience in running a sports club, as he also owns the Vegas Golden Knights, a successful NHL franchise. Various figures have been given for the purchase price, but it looks like it was at least £100m.

Foley gave due credit to his predecessor, “Without the belief and financial backing of Maxim and his family, AFC Bournemouth might well have ceased to exist.”  Foley has been even more generous, providing £93m in less than two seasons, averaging £46m.

However, Foley suggested that he should not be considered as some kind of blank cheque, “We are not a sovereign wealth fund and we don’t have that kind of backing, so we have to do it differently.”

Profit and revenue up

Bournemouth swung from a £56m pre-tax loss to a £44m profit, an improvement of exactly £100m in the bottom line, though this was largely thanks to an exceptional £71m gain after the write-off of shareholder loans.

Bournemouth have now posted profits in two of the last three years and four times in the last eight years, which is pretty good going in the extremely competitive world of football.

In addition, revenue shot up £88m from £53m to a club record £141m following promotion to the Premier League, though profit from player sales dropped from £7m to just £2m. Much of the revenue increase was eaten up by operating expenses rising £55m (50%) in the top flight.

The main driver of Bournemouth’s revenue growth was broadcasting, which almost tripled, rising £80m from £43m to £123m, due to the far more lucrative Premier League deal.  However, there was also good growth in the other revenue streams, especially commercial, which more than doubled from £5.3m to £12.6m, while match day increased £0.3m (5%) from £5.1m to £5.4m.

TV money is incredibly important to Bournemouth, contributing 87% of their total revenue last season. No other club in the Premier League clubs is so reliant on broadcasting income, though three more were also above 80%.

Bournemouth’s £44m pre-tax profit is the third best in the Premier League to date, only surpassed by Brighton £133m and Manchester City £80m, though they would have reported a £27m loss without the £71m loan write-off.  However, that was a lot better than the chunky losses posted by many other Premier League clubs. No fewer than nine clubs have lost more than £50m to date: Aston Villa £120m, Tottenham £95m, Leicester City £90m, Everton £89m, Southampton £87m, Newcastle United £73m, Nottingham Forest £67m.

Player sales

Bournemouth is a club that has traditionally made little money from player sales, as seen by making only £9m profit in the last two seasons. Therefore, the sizeable £56m profit in 2020/21 was a strong outlier, which included the big money sales of Nathan Aké to Manchester City, Callum Wilson to Newcastle United, Aaron Ramsdale to Sheffield United and Harry Arter to Nottingham Forest.  It will be no different this season, as Bournemouth said that there were two player disposals (for money) after these accounts for a price of just £1.1m.

Despite the increase last season, Bournemouth’s £141m revenue was the lowest in the Premier League, behind Southampton £146m and Nottingham Forest £155m.  To place this into perspective, this was less than a third of Arsenal’s £465m, while Manchester City’s £713m was a staggering £567m higher.

Bournemouth are acutely aware of this disparity, as noted by chief executive Neill Blake, “Given our relatively small stadium size, and as a result our comparatively low revenue streams, it is vital that we nurture such a positive mindset throughout the club in order to grow into an established top-flight team.”

Bournemouth’s wage bill rose £39m (63%) from £61m to £100m, which the board said was “mostly due to the increased salaries paid as a result of the club being a member of the Premier League”, presumably also including a survival bonus. Interestingly, this was still less than three of the previous seasons in the Premier League, when the club high of £111m was established in 2018/19.

Bournemouth spent £130m on player purchases in 2022/23, which was not only a new club record, but was also around twice as much as the previous three years combined.   In the last three years under Demin, Bournemouth only spent £68m on player recruitment, which meant that the club really had to splash the cash after promotion to give itself a decent chance of staying up.  Bournemouth’s squad cost, based on amounts paid per the club’s balance sheet (as opposed to market value), shot up 85% from £151m to £279m, which was a new club high, surpassing the £230m peak three years ago.

Debt and owner funds

Bournemouth’s £136m debt is still in the Premier League top ten, albeit far below the likes of Tottenham £851m (to fund their new stadium), Everton £792m (stadium and transfer spend) and Manchester United £613m (the lingering impact of the Glazers’ leveraged buy-out).

In the last decade most of Bournemouth’s £216m available cash has come from the owner’s pockets, very largely Demin plus Foley’s recent contribution.  The majority was spent on player recruitment with £147m (net), while another £40m was used to cover operating losses and £23m invested in infrastructure.

The multi-club model

Following the success of [Manchester] City Football Group, multi-club ownership is very much in vogue.  Foley is also determined to pursue a multi-club ownership model, “It’s really to control our destiny; to develop players in other locations and buy clubs that have great academies that are developing their own players.”

The group currently has minority stakes in Ligue 1 club Lorient and Scottish Premiership club Hibernian, while he has been granted a licence to set up a new A-League expansion club based in Auckland, New Zealand. They have also been looking at opportunities in Belgium.  Foley added, “My goal is to develop those other teams in support of Bournemouth and for Bournemouth to support those other teams.” This has already been evidenced with the £20m purchase of Ouattara from Lorient.

Foley is clearly a very ambitious individual, “I want Bournemouth to play in Europe – that’s our goal. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m confident we can get there. Brighton are a great inspiration; they do a terrific job. I certainly think we can be in Europe within five years.”

The odds might be against this grand vision, but in fairness to Foley, he has delivered on his commitments to date. That being said, in the short term it is critical that Bournemouth simply achieve the more conservative objective of maintaining their status as a Premier League club.