The latest accounts are more or less as I predicted they would be a year ago.
Turnover has grown £12.4m with the return of paying crowds. The Cup run was worth half the season ticket sales as extra. Ticket revenue grew £9.3m overall.
Commercial/Sponsorship also grew £4.1m, though we got £1m less in Broadcasting.
Surprisingly the wage bill grew £1.5m, despite Assombolonga, Fletcher and Saville being chased. There were 13 more players on the staff than the previous year.
The club lost £3.3m v prior year on Covid insurance and Furlough payments, but pasid £0.6m less in interest.
There is no direct reference to Mel Morris/Derby; the only thing I can see is a £2.4m payroll related credit in Tax note 6 - though this might not be right and the money may not be included in the Club accounts.
The pre tax loss fell from £30.8m to £19.4m.
The Group offset tax, so the nett loss post tax for the year fell from £27.3m to £15.3m.
As expected annual amortisation fell to £6.2m, but there was an impairment taken on player value of £1.8m (am guessing this is the £1.8m outstanding on Saville's book value at sale). Combined there was still a £5m saving in Player amortisation.
So in short, turnover up, amortisation down, wages similar and then puts and takes to slash losses that the Group offset for tax.
This leaves the club in the worst financial shape it has ever been, which is no surprise at all.
There was no injection of equity, so Nett Club value/Shareholder value dropped a further £15.3m to -£131.9m.
In the year to June 2021, there were only 4 clubs worse. Brighton (-£239m, Stoke -£195m,West Ham -£165m Cardiff -£142m).
The club is massively insolvent, kept going by the loans/guarantees from Gibson O'Neill (Group Undertakings). They grew by £21.7m to £142.4m.
Without these Undertakings and a commitment not to call in within 12 months leaves the club horrendously underwater with defining debt to Gibson' s Group.
It has always depended on your perspective:
1. Without Gibson the club would fold. If he calls his debt in, he effectively folds the club and can't recover anything like what he is owed.
2. With the financial burden the club has - of Gibson's making, Gibson can not sell the club/give it away. The reality is a continually loss making Championship club in this financial mess is unsaleable.
Now more than ever we are stuck with each other. His decisions equal his loans.
Only promotion and a run in the PL can change the financial position to enable a change and enable him to ever recoup any money.
Turnover will be up again this year to 2023, amortisation will not grow as there has been too little recruitment to cycle what we freed up in summer of 2022.
There will be a massive profit on player sales through Tav and Spence of £22.5m minimum in the next accounts to June 2023.
I maintain Gibson could have been bolder this last summer as this is a weak Championship and we had real scope to go up.
I understand others perspective who say who else would back us?
Truth is nobody in our current position.
But perhaps another would not have us here in the first place.
Each to their own.
Now that other clubs are publishing their 2022 accounts, I will do some analysis to compare our position.