Finance v6.1

We have all read numerous stories and statements over the past half-decade stating how great London Wasps have been to WWFC and how much more financially stable the club has been as a result. Yet with all of this “information” to hand, the club has never divulged exactly how much money this is. The SMBU research department recently went into overdrive and dug out all the financial statements from the club dating back to the first season in the Football League.


We were looking for some form of evidence to support that the club’s chairman and managing director’s statements that without Wasps the club would be in a far worse financial state. One previous manager blamed a defeat on the state of the Rugby pitch during the important promotion drive in the 2005/06 season, whilst the former financial director stated that the club has lost 100 season ticket holders directly to Wasps, as well as sponsorship revenue. Was there any truth behind these arguments?

What did we find during our investigation?

After the club turned professional in 1993, and up until 2002 when Wasps embarked on their ground share, the club managed to post three seasons of a profit: 1993/94 (assisted by a play off victory and the sale of Keith Scott to Swindon), 1997/98* and 2000/01 (helped by that memorable FA Cup run).

The table below shows a complete breakdown of the figures that have been published to the supporters at Annual General Meetings since the 1993/94 season. The pre-Wasps era is in green and the time since the Wasps union in red.

Season	Turnover	Match Receipts	Profit/Loss	Net Worth
1993/94	1,549,794	859,020	217,379	N/A
1994/95	1,695,348	776,238	-146,301	N/A
1995/96	2,284,022	720,393	-540,328	N/A
1996/97	3,218,283	847,059	-396,094	2,941,028
1997/98	3,126,939	875,348	45,666	3,249,956
1998/99	3,522,664	984,177	-250,999	2,999,357
1999/2000	3,410,391	968,008	-264,418	2,734,939
2000/01	4,630,852	1,857,365	150,035	2,884,974
2001/02	4,561,088	1,533,790	-455,040	2,429,934
2002/03	4,639,522	1,241,373	-389,610	2,040,324
2003/04	4,560,020	1,232,742	-574,450	1,465,874
2004/05	3,618,533	1,044,000	-926,040	106,062
2005/06	4,210,723	1,220,000	-1,872,681	-1,537,821
2006/07	4,788,978	1,584,000	-698,964	-2,236,785

On average, the club made a loss of £182k per year in the nine seasons it existed as a professional club prior to their rugby tenants. In the five years the club has benefited from the rugby revenue, it has on average made a loss of £892k per year. Taking the above averages into account it would have taken twenty-four seasons to run up the level of debt the club has accrued in that period (ie until the 2026/27 season).

To state that the financial decline of the club is solely down to Wasps would be absolutely foolhardy. During those five years, much has happened; the club converted to a PLC and the club faced only its second relegation in history.

What else can we derive from the figures? Well, between 2001/02 and 2002/03 match day revenue fell by £292k, yet the turnover increased by £60k and the total loss on the year improved by £66k. At a fans forum that season the club chairman stated that Wasps had saved Wycombe Wanderers.

The figures for 2003/04 are more staggering. This was the year the club announced the new sponsorship deals with Causeway Technologies for stadium rights and Loans.co.uk for shirt sponsorship, and yet turnover off the field dropped £80k whilst match day receipts fell £11k (but are now down £297k compared with the season before Wasps ground share started). This was also the season that the then-financial director in a fans forum blamed Wasps for taking some of the fans and some sponsorship opportunities/other revenue. Is there any truth in what he said? Unfortunately the club has never produced any information that could disprove his theory, despite the fact that the above figures seem to back it up.

The dramatic fall in revenue and match receipts in 2004/05 was attributed in the chairman’s statement as being a direct result of relegation the previous season. However, this was also the season in which the club converted to a PLC to allow external investment. In the summer of 2004 the membership were convinced there were investors waiting in the wings to put their money in the club; the figures say something completely different.

Frankly the figures published for 2005/06 look like something you’d find in a Stephen King novel. Turnover went up by £592k and match day revenue was up £176k. If you then consider that the club made £480k in the transfer market that season, the £1.8 million loss published would appear to be down to gross financial mismanagement, and have nothing to do with London Wasps. That staggering figure is more than three times greater than any previous loss posted by the club, and yet that season the club had nearly half the turnover it enjoyed in 2005/06 (although the loss in 1995/96 could be attributed directly to a transfer spending spree in the space of a month where Dave Farrell, John Williams and Jason Rowbotham joined for figures in excess of £350k).

The financial statement for 2006/07 doesn’t really make for pretty reading either. This was the season when the club reached its second major cup semi final in six years, an achievement put in perspective when you consider Everton hadn’t done it once (until this season) since they won the FA Cup in 1995 and Manchester City haven’t reached a cup semi final since 1981. The club still managed to lose £698k, despite a rise in turnover to the tune of £578k, an increase in match receipts of £364k, and a player transfer profit of £531k.

The turnover and match receipt figures are comparable to 2000/01 when the club reached the FA Cup semi final. The turnover difference is £158k in favour of 2006/07 season, although the 2000/01 season made £273k more from match receipts. However, the end of season profit or loss is a staggering £549k difference in favour of the pre-Wasps and pre-PLC days.

So what has been the main contributing factor to the current plight of the WWFC finances? Could it be London Wasps? You can look at the figures of 2001/02 (the last season without the tenants) and 2003/04 (the last year before PLC conversion) to see that the turnover and match receipts seem to have fallen more than £1k (despite the Wasps payment), although the club were £119k better off in the profit and loss column at the end of the season.

If you compare the figures from last season to those of the last season in the third tier of the Football League (which is also coincidentally the club’s last season before PLC conversion) it is truly horrific. Turnover is up £229k, match receipts up £354k, TV revenue up £112k and transfer revenue up £531k, and yet somehow the club managed to lose £125k more.

The average financial loss since converting to a PLC is over £1.1 million compared to just over £199k per year whilst run by supporters. These figures are even more staggering when you realise the club has also made a £1 million profit from player sales since the conversion.

Two of the most harrowing statistics are the fact that prior to the conversion to a PLC the football club was had a net worth of nearly £1.5 million, the value of the club now is a negative £2.2 million, that is a staggering £3.7million less. The second figure is despite relegation in 2004 staff costs have increased from 2004/05 season to 2006/07 by £997k.

The managing director has stated that the reason the club are losing so much money is because of the division the club are currently in. The comparison to the 2003/04 season and 2006/07 season, that included the League Cup run and far more revenue, would counter that argument. He has gone on record as stating that promotion would add 2000 people on the gate, increasing turnover and match receipts.

The table below shows the last eight clubs to have gained promotion from the 4th tier of the Football League to the 3rd.

Team Name	Attendance Before Promotion (Season)	Attendance After Promotion (Season)	Difference
Cheltenham Town	3453	4348	+905
Carlisle United	7218	7793	+575
Northampton Town	5935	5612	-323
Leyton Orient	4739	4848	+109
Bristol Rovers	5280	6936	+1656
Walsall	5642	5619	-23
Hartlepool	5087	4506	-581
Swindon	7419	7169	-250

The average attendance differences from the last eight teams to have gained promotion is just 259 people, some way off the magical 2000 figure that has been quoted.

In fact only Bristol Rovers, a club with a far greater supporter base, has got near that figure and they are over 350 people away. The next nearest is more than half the distance away. What’s more, after the euphoria of promotion and the attendance increase on their first season in a higher league of the sides promoted in 2005/06, half of them saw a decrease in attendance in 2007/08.

Wycombe Wanderers Football Club spent 10 years in the division above the one they are currently residing in. In that time the club ran up debts of £2.2 million; the league above is not the Promised Land that the managing director is making it out to be. Those debts accrued over a 10-year period are obviously dwarfed by the sums in the last three seasons, which asks the question: why are the club gambling so much money on promotion (increasing staff costs by nearly £1 million from 2005 to 2007)? The level of debt is out of control, to the point that the very future of the club is at stake.

Lincoln City proved for three consecutive seasons that you can make a profit playing in the basement division. It is time for WWFC to start living within its means.

Relegation in 2003/04 should have meant a period of prudence, to try and gain some financial stability. Instead the powers-that-be have gambled to try and regain promotion. The next time you post on a message board your desire for Wycombe to sign a fourth-choice striker, think again; you might get what you wish for.


NB * After 1998 accounting procedures changes with regards to players contracts and how these were written down over the length of the contract. As an example, the £45,666 profit declared in 1998 would have become a £9,153 loss under the modified accounting practice.

05.06.2008. 11:18

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