I’ll be perfectly honest, these accounts are much much better than I was expecting. Perhaps it’s the fact that I was preparing for them to be so bad, that actually they have turned out to be a rather nice surprise by comparison. Anyway, that’s enough of me waffling about how suprised I am, let’s get down to some facts and figures.
The headline figure is that the club made an operating loss of £33.5 million although after player trading this loss was actually £17.1 million. Turnover was down 39% from £86.1 million to £52.4 million, which isn’t too bad for the Championship. I estimated that our turnover would be around the £50 million mark, so I wasn’t too far off. How was that turnover comprised though? Let’s have a look..
Season ticket revenue was down 29% to £11 million (from £15.6 million) although gate reciepts were actually up by 18% (from £5.5 million to £6.5 million) which is possibly due to the fact that people bought tickets for individual games instead of a season ticket perhaps?
Down went TV revenue from £37.6 million to just £16 million whilst income from corporate boxes fell 58% to £2.8 million. Commercial, Catering and Sponsorship revenue was down 21% and fell to £15.4 million.
With regard to what was paid out, wages dropped from £71.1 million to £47.5 million giving us a wage/turnover percentage of 90.6. Basically, nearly everything the club brought in last season was paid out in wages. Other associated costs, such as travel, maintenance, upkeep, safety, stewards, policing, travel, hotels etc remained unchanged at £26.9 million.
Some people may wonder why I say that these results are positive when all you’ve read so far is basically a list of losses. Well to put it into perspective the losses were limited to roughly what they were in previous season where we had a Premier League income. That in itself is an achievement.
Ashley has now spent £285.8 million on NUFC since he bought it. Call it protecting his own investment or covering up mistakes or whatever, but I dread to think what would have happened had we not had his money to bail out both his mistakes and the mistakes of the previous regime. I’m not saying that Ashley is our knight in shining armour, in fact at times he has been more like a ****** in tinfoil, but at least he has the cash to pay his way.
Managing Director, Derek Llambias has given himself some breathing space and has emerged from kissing Mike Ashley’s backside for long enough to talk to the official club website. Owlheed had this to say about the financial results:
“Our overriding aim in 2009/10 was to secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt. Relegation presented a considerable challenge to us financially. With such a marked reduction in turnover, largely due to reduced TV and media revenue, we needed to cut our operating costs accordingly without jeopardising our ability to return to top flight football straight away.”
“We succeeded in reducing our wage bill considerably whilst maintaining the basis of a Premier League squad. It has been a significant achievement to keep our overall loss at a level similar to the year before despite the impact of relegation, and our ability to do this has been helped immeasurably by the continued support of Mike Ashley, who injected a further £42 million into the club last year interest-free.”
The current debt level at the club is £150 million although only £11 million of that is bank debt.
So what does this mean going forward? Well I would say that this is pretty much conclusive proof that club is now technically self-sufficient if we can maintain our Premier League income, but I’ll detail that more in the next article which will focus mainly on the current financials and not those of last season.
It’s good news, honest!
So if we stay in the league, we can be self-sufficient, but that will purely to be breaking even, wouldn’t it?
How long would it take us to clear the bank debt and our debt to Ashley then so the club can totally and cleanly “be clean” like Stoke and Wolves claim to be?
I don’t know if these figures make it more likely for Ashley to leave or more likely for him to stay, lol.
funkyjesus(Quote)
The next article should clear that up 😉
I just think the debt will sit there until someone comes along and clears it by paying it off. Clearing that much is going to be impossible really whilst maintaining a PL status.
toonsy(Quote)
We would need an entire team of Andy Carroll’s developing in the youth team for nothing and selling for £35m to clear the debt while not spending anything to get them in.
It’s not likely, I guess, lol.
funkyjesus(Quote)
He could just turn it into equity, although effectively that’s all it is anyway. Its’ more flexible how it is at the minute as opposed to how someone like Short at the Mackem has over-inflated the cost of the by turning all the money into equity in the club. More room for manouvre 😉
toonsy(Quote)
Another record day yesterday again lads n lasses. Top job everyone 😎
toonsy(Quote)
I can’t believe I’m still up 😯
dan4toon(Quote)
Neither can I 😯
I’m not alone 😆
toonsy(Quote)
You still at work mate?
I Just can’t sleep, also been trying to fix my Xbox with Xbox support offering no help whats so ever 👿
dan4toon(Quote)
Aye, still at work. Busy as you can see 😆
One article published, another written 😆
toonsy(Quote)
Try youtube. They always have wacky fixes on there lol
toonsy(Quote)
😆
I’ve been on, watched them all, tried them all. The problem is that it won’t read the discs so I contacted support and they sent me this link to a solution and it was things like ‘make sure it’s xbox 360 game’ 🙄
To make it worse it’s out of warranty as well 👿
dan4toon(Quote)
Get pimping Andrew out then. Get that money earnt 😆
toonsy(Quote)
😆 There’s also David, Liam & Josh off here as well who I know who could lend a hand with that 😉
Me and Andrew keep telling them to comment more and I think Josh at least is starting to get the message 😆
dan4toon(Quote)
More the merrier marra 😀
toonsy(Quote)
Indeed! David keeps telling me to do an article about one of the players he’s got a video for 😆
dan4toon(Quote)
That reminds me actually, 78 people grabbed those pics he made that I put for people.
I told him we should charge 😆
toonsy(Quote)
He’s good with things like that pictures, video’s etc. Be good idea like you said to make them into posters!
Right am defiantly away now, only a few more late nights for me as I’m back to my apprenticeship on Tuesday 🙂
dan4toon(Quote)
Have a goodun mate. I’m off for a smoke anyways 🙂
toonsy(Quote)
Nothing new in these accounts.
The only thing that suprises me is that Llambias has actually stated the clubs ambitions. He wants the club to finish tenth or above every season!
Wow, least I know we’ve got some ambition – all be it a pathetic target!
Stuart79(Quote)
Or a realistic target based on the financial model theyve implemented Stuart?
Also top ten covers positions one to ten but I assume your comment is based on us finishing 10th.
Right now I’d snap your hand off if we were offered 10th…
witters(Quote)
I guess he could have said we will be challenging for the title next season……
For we are the mighty Newcastle with a big crowd and **** all else to show for it….. 🙄
toonsy(Quote)
“Relegation presented a considerable challenge for us financially. With such a marked reduction in turnover, largely due to reduced TV and media revenue, we needed to cut our operating costs accordingly without jeopardising our ability to return to top flight football straight away.”
If they know this….what a gamble it was not bringing in anyone decent in January (who is fit to play) you would think they wouldn’t be risking it after last time! And I mean having plans to do so before selling gypsy, before that argument rears it’s head again…
Moreno(Quote)
****** in tinfoil XD
Jobey07(Quote)
We love fat mikes money!
Jobey07(Quote)
Good article from the man in the Mirror here:
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Newcastle-owner-Mike-Ashley-has-spent-a-staggering-285-8million-on-the-club-so-far-it-can-be-revealed-today-article718115.html
No it’s not wacko jacko! 😀
Toon Chicken(Quote)
A chunk of the Carroll fee, which manager Alan Pardew was promised for his transfer fund, has already been spent on the cost of Cheik Tiote’s new six-year deal. But cash raised from player departures this summer WILL be added to Pardew’s spending pot.
this is from the mirror..
if true the money from judas sale will go on new playerstransfer fees and there length of there contract..
hitman(Quote)
So am i right in thinking that 6 times Tiote’s annual wage has already been taken out of the kitty, Jesus, and for new deals like Nolan, there will be nothing left!! 😯
Davidtoon4life(Quote)
theres always a catch with ashley 😉
hitman(Quote)
Regarding Toon accounts;
He got himself in a mess by appointing 5 managers in 3 yrs and relegation. Credit to him for bailing HIMSELF out the *****.
He caused alot of the mess and the biggest travesty is, the money he has invested to get us out of trouble could have been invested in the January window pre relegation.
But he knew best didn’t he?
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
Nor, i new the case was that he would take new players wages and transfer fee’s out, but not for new deals that we are offering existing players 😯 But i guess that once we let a couple of high earners go like Smith and Campbell etc that the money off them will be used to, so its not all bad 😉
Davidtoon4life(Quote)
I would imagine its only the first year of the contract that comes out of this years income (ie; Judas money).
It wouldn’t make sense otherwise.
And before anyone says it, yes Ashley has made a lot of decisions that don’t make sense.
Usually his mistakes are to do with the football side of things though, not money matters.
Toon Chicken(Quote)
It’ll be a huge help once Smith and Xisco leave, thats well over 100k a week on players that never even play.
AndrewNUFC(Quote)
According to Geroge Caulkin who writes for the times, just said on twitter this morning Carr’s got a 5 year contract 🙂
AndrewNUFC(Quote)
Andrew – Hopefully we get rid of the disease (xisco), he is no good for us, we paid 5-7 million for him and for what, he will most likley be in excess of 50k per week. If we cant get rid of him in the summer maybe we shud just terminate his contract ❗
Davidtoon4life(Quote)
That is brilliant for Carr and for Newcastle!!! Lets hope that Pardew takes his advice and wisdom on which players to get, i know i would 😀
Davidtoon4life(Quote)
We’ve signed stephen carr on a 5 year deal? Isn’t that a backward step?!
Jobey07(Quote)
@Jobey
I hope you’re pulling everyone’s leg here!
I’m tempted to ridicule you but I dont even think you are that backward! Then again! Who knows?
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
Kind of related to the article as he could be another future money maker for Ashley. A good read from the BBC regarding one of our youngsters
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/12896192.stm
Halftimebovril(Quote)
Stephen Carr has actually won more silverware than our entire squad this season….
Moreno(Quote)
@Moreno
Pity he never won any silverware for us when he was here. He was about 2 st overweight and always on the sick.
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
im joking 😆
Jobey07(Quote)
Another link is that we could sign Reo-Coker. I reckon that’s likely. Played well for Pardew at west ham, free in the summer too
Jobey07(Quote)
Reo-coker is to old for us and probably would be in excess of like 35k a week + we already have too many central midfielders, with ireland most likley coming in i highly doubt we will go for him.
davidtoon4life(Quote)
Hmm… i dunno. he’s a free. I think we’d get an older player if they were free
Jobey07(Quote)