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Post by dibblydobbly on Mar 28, 2024 10:21:19 GMT 1
Would RW and others be supplementing the wages if we had money in the bank? No, so we already know that, it won’t be a surprise. Were waiting (with trepidation) for the accounts, it’s worth remembering our position this time 12 months ago. This was the Shropshire Stare 13/03/23 …….. Shrewsbury Town’s first full season without Covid restrictions has seen them return to a healthy financial position.
In the club’s most recent accounts for the 2021/22 season, they announced they have increased their turnover by £2.1m, cutting their pre-tax losses from £1.46m to just over £180,000.
Under the stewardship of Roland Wycherley, the club continues to be very well run, and as of June 30, 2022, they have a healthy balance £1.6m in their accounts.
This is down by £700,000 from the figures released from the season-ending June 2021, but it is still a very solid financial position for a club in League One.
The accounts demonstrate the importance of supporters to football clubs and the return of fans to Montgomery Waters Meadow provided the club with an extra £1m.
Fans in the ground also had a positive impact on the amount they were able to sell on match days – Town’s food and beverage sales increased by almost £500,0000 compared to just the £175 they made in the previous season. Town received half a million pounds from the Premier League last season, which is something they are hoping to receive again in the current campaign but the amount is not known at this point. The directors did not take a salary or dividend payments from the club consistent with prior years.
And the also revealed they continue to be debt free.
It beggars belief. Do you ever believe what you read in the Star?
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Post by martinshrew on Mar 28, 2024 10:26:34 GMT 1
Do you ever believe what you read in the Star? Is that not just a summary of the accounts? It's fact, rather than an opinion story? If we had £1.6m cash in 2022, these accounts to 2023 showing £0 or negative would be a disaster, surely? I guess we'll find out soon enough.
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Post by Pilch on Mar 28, 2024 10:44:48 GMT 1
Do you ever believe what you read in the Star? Since the 1980s when Izal was the only available toilet paper in most public places and also newspaper was banned from being used in chippies , the Shropshire star serves no purpose whatsoever anymore , even the website only serves as an example for showing an older friend what current scams they need to avoid
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Post by davycrockett on Mar 28, 2024 11:12:24 GMT 1
Do you ever believe what you read in the Star? Is that not just a summary of the accounts? It's fact, rather than an opinion story? If we had £1.6m cash in 2022, these accounts to 2023 showing £0 or negative would be a disaster, surely? I guess we'll find out soon enough. Don't think there’s anything controversial there, the point is, I think, it’s a disaster but we’re in recovery. ❤️🩹 Let’s look forward. Everything that needs saying about financial controls been said including RW blaming himself for trusting others.
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Post by dibblydobbly on Mar 28, 2024 11:21:09 GMT 1
Do you ever believe what you read in the Star? Is that not just a summary of the accounts? It's fact, rather than an opinion story? If we had £1.6m cash in 2022, these accounts to 2023 showing £0 or negative would be a disaster, surely? I guess we'll find out soon enough. Disaster (IMHO) would be if the consequences had been a Reading style points deduction (or worse) for not paying HMRC or wages, never mind that not all clubs pay the non-playing staff when in trouble. We have always paid all the staff, no matter what. We have always paid HMRC. However, we all know the public announcements and departures mean that serious repair work has been underway for some time to get us back on an even keel, trouble is that multi year deals and practices take time to unwind and close down. I for one will be glad when we get to the end of the turnaround and back to only moaning about football.
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Post by shrewswolf on Mar 28, 2024 11:55:59 GMT 1
I’ll treat the ‘results’ of the accounts exactly as I would with any new dodgy owner we’ll have in future.
If the new owner comes in and loses all our cash reserves and has us running at a constant loss, I’ll just blame the staff they employed and oversaw instead. Because that’s exactly what everyone would do!
The above is said in jest but if the obvious erosion of all cash reserves is proven by the accounts, as we all expect it will, shame on SC, BC and Roland with no exception.
Of course, 95% of the league lose money of this level year on year but in most cases it’s sustainable as the owner plans to lose it and just puts their own money back in to cover the losses. Ours doesn’t intend to (which I think is good) but has still managed to oversee the accounts of an overspending club happen before his eyes. Poor.
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Post by davycrockett on Mar 28, 2024 12:16:35 GMT 1
I’ll treat the ‘results’ of the accounts exactly as I would with any new dodgy owner we’ll have in future. If the new owner comes in and loses all our cash reserves and has us running at a constant loss, I’ll just blame the staff they employed and oversaw instead. Because that’s exactly what everyone would do! The above is said in jest but if the obvious erosion of all cash reserves is proven by the accounts, as we all expect it will, shame on SC, BC and Roland with no exception. Of course, 95% of the league lose money of this level year on year but in most cases it’s sustainable as the owner plans to lose it and just puts their own money back in to cover the losses. Ours doesn’t intend to (which I think is good) but has still managed to oversee the accounts of an overspending club happen before his eyes. Poor. You’ve got to take into account significant inflation, with energy costs tripling, massive shortage of labour in the leisure industry after COVID with increases in wages to attract staff, football inflation due to other rising costs and how other clubs have performed in the same period. It was always going to be difficult due to legacy contracts and needed tight control which we lacked but losses aren’t all down to this.
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Post by ProudSalopian on Mar 28, 2024 12:18:12 GMT 1
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Mar 28, 2024 12:25:39 GMT 1
So does that mean the bulk of the loss was players wages and the lack of Premier League money?
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Post by tarporleyblue on Mar 28, 2024 12:37:25 GMT 1
The accounts have now been published on Companies House.
Look away now those of a nervous disposition.
A loss of £3,021,754 for the financial year, cash in hand fell to just £81,184.
Very concerning.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Mar 28, 2024 12:45:49 GMT 1
By the looks its players wages and the lack of Premier League money that look the biggest differences from the year before. I'm not seeing anything that suggests anything untoward. Unless that was related to players signed and wages. But it was kinda suggested on here (from time to time, once or twice anyhow) that it was "off field" expenditure where things went awry.
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Post by martinshrew on Mar 28, 2024 12:47:05 GMT 1
I don't know if I'm reading this right, but I'm seeing:
- £800k increase in wages - Director loans of £1.2m - Loss of over £3m
What the ****?!
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Post by tarporleyblue on Mar 28, 2024 12:49:32 GMT 1
By the looks its players wages and the lack of Premier League money that look the biggest differences from the year before. I'm not seeing anything that suggests anything untoward. Unless that was related to players signed and wages. But it was kinda suggested on here (from time to time, once or twice anyhow) that it was "off field" expenditure where things went awry. Admin expenses up £530K.
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Post by GrizzlyShrew on Mar 28, 2024 12:51:20 GMT 1
Sure we will be seeing the last of the higher earners playing for the club in these last few games.
Be a different squad come next season, just hope they are all not MMs LOI 'stars' else weve got another relegation battle to look forward to.
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Post by davycrockett on Mar 28, 2024 12:53:24 GMT 1
I don't know if I'm reading this right, but I'm seeing: - £800k increase in wages - Director loans of £1.2m - Loss of over £3m What the ****?! Thanks for your in depth review 😉 Think I’ll wait for Ant and others interpretation but doesn’t, look positive but we knew that.
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Post by davycrockett on Mar 28, 2024 12:54:26 GMT 1
Sure we will be seeing the last of the higher earners playing for the club in these last few games. Be a different squad come next season, just hope they are all not MMs LOI 'stars' else weve got another relegation battle to look forward to. Think wages will come down next season cos we’re not alone in making a loss.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Mar 28, 2024 12:55:11 GMT 1
By the looks its players wages and the lack of Premier League money that look the biggest differences from the year before. I'm not seeing anything that suggests anything untoward. Unless that was related to players signed and wages. But it was kinda suggested on here (from time to time, once or twice anyhow) that it was "off field" expenditure where things went awry. Admin expenses up £530K. Is that the Administration expenses? If so, yeah, I see what you mean. That is a headscratcher.
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Post by martinshrew on Mar 28, 2024 12:56:25 GMT 1
Sure we will be seeing the last of the higher earners playing for the club in these last few games. Be a different squad come next season, just hope they are all not MMs LOI 'stars' else weve got another relegation battle to look forward to. Getting Marosi, Dunkley, Shipley & Bayliss off the books would save the best part of £750,000 a year, but they're players we should be getting fees for really. Add O'Brien and it's pushing onwards over £900,000 I'd say. The worry however is what you're replacing them with... And if it's Burgoyne, Sraha, Perry & Idowu in the starting lineup then that's seriously weakening us!
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Post by martinshrew on Mar 28, 2024 12:57:50 GMT 1
I don't know if I'm reading this right, but I'm seeing: - £800k increase in wages - Director loans of £1.2m - Loss of over £3m What the ****?! Thanks for your in depth review 😉 Think I’ll wait for Ant and others interpretation but doesn’t, look positive but we knew that. I'm not paid or trained to understand the accounts, they were the headline figures that stood out. Very scary times, though 9-12 months out of date already really so hopefully we're turning a corner!
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Post by davycrockett on Mar 28, 2024 13:07:24 GMT 1
Thanks for your in depth review 😉 Think I’ll wait for Ant and others interpretation but doesn’t, look positive but we knew that. I'm not paid or trained to understand the accounts, they were the headline figures that stood out. Very scary times, though 9-12 months out of date already really so hopefully we're turning a corner! We basically started the season with £80k in the bank hence the changes we’ve seen and Directors loans of £1.2 million.
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Post by ThrobsBlackHat on Mar 28, 2024 13:10:13 GMT 1
Goodness me.
No wonder we needed a scapegoat.
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Post by stuttgartershrew on Mar 28, 2024 13:14:39 GMT 1
No wonder we needed a scapegoat. I'm not quite sure how to take that but cat and pigeons comes to mind.
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Post by venceremos on Mar 28, 2024 13:20:38 GMT 1
The eye opener for me is that the increase in wages is only a small part of the story - that accounts for just £800k of the £3m loss and, with 15 additional non-playing staff on the payroll, a fair chunk of that £800k presumably wasn't spent on the increased playing budget.
More to the point, what on earth generated the additional £2.2m loss if it wasn't spending on players?
And how have we managed retrospectively to lose an additional £450k in 2021/22?
Important point that - the loss isn't £3m, it's £3.5m - about 56% of our total revenue.
And the cash has more or less gone.
By my definition yesterday - very much a black hole!
But also referring back to yesterday, this was the position 9 months ago. It'll be different now, and hopefully a bit better.
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Post by GrizzlyShrew on Mar 28, 2024 13:27:21 GMT 1
Sure we will be seeing the last of the higher earners playing for the club in these last few games. Be a different squad come next season, just hope they are all not MMs LOI 'stars' else weve got another relegation battle to look forward to. Getting Marosi, Dunkley, Shipley & Bayliss off the books would save the best part of £750,000 a year, but they're players we should be getting fees for really. Add O'Brien and it's pushing onwards over £900,000 I'd say. The worry however is what you're replacing them with... And if it's Burgoyne, Sraha, Perry & Idowu in the starting lineup then that's seriously weakening us! I guess the flip side of the argument is that despite paying those inflated (for6 us) wages we have 'achieved' a mid table finish followed by a flirting with relegation season. So it's not sustainable in any way shape or form. Just hope PH can conjure some magic like the last time to put a competitive squad together that can at least keep us away from the lower reaches of the table. Of course that is if he is actually still here come next season too.
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Post by GrizzlyShrew on Mar 28, 2024 13:31:17 GMT 1
We could most certainly do with some sort of update from the club covering these figures (not the detail obviously but an outline). I'd like to hear what measures are being taken to move us back towards being sustainable going forward.
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Post by tarporleyblue on Mar 28, 2024 13:32:52 GMT 1
Is that the Administration expenses? If so, yeah, I see what you mean. That is a headscratcher. Administrative expenses, that's the one.
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Post by dannylad01 on Mar 28, 2024 13:35:18 GMT 1
After a very quick look:
The notes in the accounts suggest that the restated loss is due to brining in the academy costs (from memory) into the accounts.
The directors put in £500k up to June 2023 by way of loan, which at the time of signing of the accounts has increased to £1.2m.
Lack of Premier league money is a £500k shortfall
Big jump in wages across the club of £800k.
No breakdown of the £500k increase in administration expenses, which would be the general running costs of the club, not necessarily on the football side (maintenence, energy costs etc)
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Post by mattmw on Mar 28, 2024 13:38:29 GMT 1
The eye opener for me is that the increase in wages is only a small part of the story - that accounts for just £800k of the £3m loss and, with 15 additional non-playing staff on the payroll, a fair chunk of that £800k presumably wasn't spent on the increased playing budget. More to the point, what on earth generated the additional £2.2m loss if it wasn't spending on players? And how have we managed retrospectively to lose an additional £450k in 2021/22? Important point that - the loss isn't £3m, it's £3.5m - about 56% of our total revenue. And the cash has more or less gone. By my definition yesterday - very much a black hole! But also referring back to yesterday, this was the position 9 months ago. It'll be different now, and hopefully a bit better. Haven’t had a chance to fully read the accounts yet, but this seems a good summary and asks the right questions The losses are almost double the £1.7 million the club lost during the Covid lockdown when we lost our main source of income - attendances. Some of that is clearly attributed to player and staff wages, but it’s far from the biggest contributor, so either other costs have massively increased or other income sources (maybe the Premier League money) significantly declined At first glance can’t see any suggestion the accounts include any mention of funds being pursued as a result of fraud so that at least eases some of the more extreme reasons for the losses, but doesn’t really explain the scale of such losses outlined
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Post by MartinB on Mar 28, 2024 13:42:06 GMT 1
After a very quick look: The notes in the accounts suggest that the restated loss is due to brining in the academy costs (from memory) into the accounts. The directors put in £500k up to June 2023 by way of loan, which at the time of signing of the accounts has increased to £1.2m. Lack of Premier league money is a £500k shortfall Big jump in wages across the club of £800k. No breakdown of the £500k increase in administration expenses, which would be the general running costs of the club, not necessarily on the football side (maintenence, energy costs etc) I suspect that will also include hotel stays at 5* hotels for all away games which last seasons manager booked.
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Post by dibblydobbly on Mar 28, 2024 13:46:24 GMT 1
We could most certainly do with some sort of update from the club covering these figures (not the detail obviously but an outline). I'd like to hear what measures are being taken to move us back towards being sustainable going forward. On measures, I think you may have seen or heard of some of them already: New Sponsors Staff changes, football and non-football Director Changes Shop changes Kit Supplier Changes Which we can assume means other supplier changes are done, proper financial controls and reporting are in place, and plans are afoot for more changes e.g. academy move, and revenue generation
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