Spurs Financials 2019/20

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Revenue for the year ended 30 June 2019 was £460.7m (2018: £380.7m).

Premier League gate receipts were £34.3m (2018: £42.6m). Home matches in the 2018/19 season were played at Wembley Stadium for 14 of the 19 home Premier League games, and at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (“THS”) for the remaining five games.

The Club reached the Final of the UEFA Champions League (2018: Round of 16 of UEFA Champions League) resulting in gate receipts and prize money of £108.4m (2018: £62.2m). This represents the 13th time in the last 14 seasons that the Club has played in Europe.

Revenue from the domestic cup competitions earned the Club £3.1m (2018: £4.4m).

Television and media revenues increased to £149.9m (2018: £147.6m), due to an additional live televised game and overseas media revenues, whilst the Club finished 4th in the Premier League (2018: 3rd).

Sponsorship and corporate hospitality revenue was £120.3m (2018: £93.4m) and merchandising revenue was £20.6m (2018: £16.0m). Other revenue contributed £24.1m (2018: £14.5m).

Profit from operations, excluding football trading and before depreciation was £172.7m (2018: £162.5m). Profit for the year after all charges including interest and tax was £68.6m (2018: £113.0m).

The opening of THS in April 2019 has seen a significant investment in tangible assets totalling £1.4bn (2018: £1bn) – facilities which include the Training Centre, the new Players’ Lodge, Percy House, (home of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation), Lilywhite House (Club offices), new retail warehouse, new Paxton House Ticket Office and the Tottenham Experience.


The total cost of intangible assets was £332m (2018: £327m) and subsequent to the year end a further £184m has been spent on player registrations.


These investments have been financed by profits made by the Club, advanced sponsorship monies and bank finance, principally from Bank of America Merrill Lynch International, Goldman Sachs Bank USA and HSBC Bank plc. At 30 June 2019, the Club had net debt of £534m (2018: £360m).

Subsequent to the year end, our total debt of £637m was converted in September 2019 into a mix of long-term maturities with an average life of 23 years.


Running the Club within Financial Fair Play regulations, whilst servicing debt and continuing to invest in both tangible and intangible assets continues to be a key focus for the Board.


Chairman, Daniel Levy:

“We are painfully aware that it seems wholly inappropriate to be giving any attention to the prior year’s financial results at a time when so many individuals and businesses face worrying and difficult times. We are however legally required to announce these by 31 March 2020.

“We are all facing uncertain times both at work and in our personal lives. I have spent nearly 20 years growing this Club and there have been many hurdles along the way – none of this magnitude – the COVID-19 pandemic is the most serious of them all.

“You will have noticed that we have, as a necessity, ceased all fan-facing operations. With such uncertainty we shall all need to work together to ensure the impact of this crisis does not undermine the future stability of the Club. This will include working with the wider football industry and its stakeholders to seek to restore the season – but only when it is safe and practical to do so.

Our priority is the health and wellbeing of our staff, players, partners, supporters and their families.

“We shall look to come out of this stronger and more resilient than ever. Our hope is that the virus peaks over the coming weeks and that we have a summer to enjoy.

“Please look after yourselves and stay safe and healthy. This is more important than football.”
 


Spurs now ahead of both Chelsea (just) and Woolwich on revenue - really opening Spurs up to competing for players against those clubs.

Into the top 4 on revenue for the first time - in decades or possibly ever ?

Impossible of course to forecast the future financial state of Spurs or any other club atm.
 
Would not surprise me to see a few clubs go under due to coronavirus.
Definitely going to happen outside of the premier league. The Swedish league system looks set to collapse since as good as all clubs are heavily reliant on match day income.

I have an old childhood friend working in a club in the second tier and he said that if the season starts later than May they will have to file for bankruptcy.
 
Would not surprise me to see a few clubs go under due to coronavirus.
Those clubs with huge wage to revenue exposure would be the ones I'd expect to feel the heat first:
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Cross the above with shite EBITA numbers and these clubs are walking a tightrope.

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Would not surprise me to see a few clubs go under due to coronavirus.

Including a few in PL who have insane player wages costs as a % of turnover

Almost guaranteed due to all countries GDP reducing over the next 12 months that club revenues (even in PL) will reduce - and even a 20% reduction would push clubs with say 60-70% ratios into trouble. And a few at the higher end may go under.

Very few clubs in Championship made a profit, so all in trouble.

Ditto Leagues 1 and 2.

Only way out is to reduce player wages but with many players on 5 year contracts that's not straightforward.
 
My boy at the club says we could lose almost 100m if the season gets wiped out, not turnover but bottom line all our agreements are conditional on playing a certain number of games, we will breach many of them if the season is made void. Discussions with sponsors are positive but a lot of those companies are also in severe financial trouble so not paying us would obviously help them. We can survive a 100m hit we are financially very well placed right now, but there will be no significant cash on hand even if there is a transfer window. That's not Levy or ENIC that's every club everywhere.

That said he told me that speaking with other clubs the feeling is that upto half the professional clubs in the UK could be at risk of folding without private investment or loans ... there will be several clubs, big clubs as well, who might be looking to sell players just to stay afloat ... if we see opportunities then transfer funds can be found, allegedly we're already looking.

The EPL is in a much better position than a lot of the smaller European leagues, several of them are already in real trouble being far more reliant on gate receipts than the big leagues are. The FA and other associations who rely more on massive gate receipts than the clubs, are also hurting badly. They will not now see any income this year from the Euros either which many were banking on.

If Covid hangs around for a year football will be spun on it's head, however it will no doubt return with a vengeance and perversely the TV companies are the ones who are making money from Covid especially those with paid streaming, because of that there is talk of some fairly massive advance TV payments to clubs in return for an extended TV contract. All very much rumour and very fluid, like everybody else the club is pretty clueless although quietly he said nobody believes there will be any football until next season, and who knows when that will start.

He reckons Woolwich are really hurting, already making no money this is crushing them ... their owner is also seeing massive sporting losses in the US so no help likely from there.
 
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Amiens in France first club to reduce all wages (including players) by 16% indefinitely
hopefully clubs in Championship, League 1. League 2, will start paying their players in line with their direct income and not relie on EPL tickle down money, my lads friend 18yr old playing for League 2 club £500 pw come on he has only just started his working life
 
hopefully clubs in Championship, League 1. League 2, will start paying their players in line with their direct income and not relie on EPL tickle down money, my lads friend 18yr old playing for League 2 club £500 pw come on he has only just started his working life

That's got to happen, but unless HMG introduces a law allowing all employees to reduce wages (similar to the long standing French law), its going to be tough to deal with players on long term contracts.
 
One area to comment on :

Profit from operations, excluding football trading and before depreciation was £172.7m (2018: £162.5m). Profit for the year after all charges including interest and tax was £68.6m (2018: £113.0m).

Be interesting to see the explanation (possibly in the full accounts when released) for

1. Profit from operations being only £10m better off than 2018 despite an £80m increase in revenues.

My guess would be all of :
- Wembley rent hired on a match by match basis rather than a full season, so cost is higher
- Higher player wages (due to new contracts)
- A number of staff would have been hired in say June 2018 with the expectation that the stadium would open in August/September 2018, even though it only opened in 2019, and
- Not to forget staff hired to start up new businesses such as conference and exhibitions inside the stadium (new business start up costs).
- and not forgetting that the new stadium will have had operating costs of its own (security electricity etc) for the first 9 months or so of the reporting period until the first game, meaning Spurs will have had the costs of not one but two stadiums to bear.

2. Profit after tax and interest being £45m down on last year, even though operating profit is £10m higher.

My guess would be one off costs, possibly one or two player values being written down, but I'd guess the majority of the £55m extra (say £30m) cost is the costs of opening the stadium in training costs and pre-opening costs for new staff, agency fees - all the building costs capitalised but not the 'soft costs' of opening.

Edit - Interest will also be higher on the bank debt which will be higher in the year versus previous year and thus interest also higher. Of course in the following year interest will drop as the bank debt was converted to bonds more than halving the interest rate. Not sure on quantum until the accounts are published but could be £20m ish

Hopefully some explanations in the full accounts, but that's my initial guesses
 
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I know i sound like an idiot here but the world should come together and agree a freeze wherever possible.

The tv companies dont want the clubs to go bust for obvious reasons and have no intention of refunding subscriptions so none of this demanding they finish the season etc. Support the league to find the most sensible way forward possible.

In turn the premier league absolutely has to support the lower leagues.
 
And just exploring new player acquisition costs :

The commentary to the accounts say :

and subsequent to the year end a further £184m has been spent on player registrations.

I estimated :

1. Ndombele - £55m (CM)
2 Lo Celso - £41m (AM/CM)
3. Bergwijn - £27m (AM)
4. Clarke - £10m (AM)
5. Sessegnon - £25m (LB/LW)
6. Gedson - £ 4m (DM) (18 month loan fee only)
Total £162m

So my estimates are £22m light (£184m less £162m I estimated), which might be impacted by :
- agents and signing on fees (including extending Alderweireld and Sissoko contracts) which might combined cost £10m or so plus
- a few youth players (eg Kone Etete £200k) but
- as we didn't sign any players in the previous year I doubt we will have paid that many 'add ons' from previous year transfers

but even so, if anything the estimates I made per player might, if anything, be on the low side ?
 
I know i sound like an idiot here but the world should come together and agree a freeze wherever possible.

The tv companies dont want the clubs to go bust for obvious reasons and have no intention of refunding subscriptions so none of this demanding they finish the season etc. Support the league to find the most sensible way forward possible.

In turn the premier league absolutely has to support the lower leagues.

I think the tv companies will agree a new deal, but I doubt if it will be a higher £ amount than now (more unemployment = fewer subscriptions ?) so I think clubs will need to address player salaries which were out of control before coronavirus. Added to that marketing budgets of all companies providing sponsorships will be under pressure (reflecting UK and other countries GDP squeeze), so if anything that source of income is as likely to reduce as increase for most clubs - Spurs may be the exception with a brand new stadium so open to new sponsors but that might be optimistic.

PL does already contribute money via various guises to The FA and lower leagues but will be under pressure to do more - but at least half PL clubs will need to address player wages before they can do that, as too many were making no money before coronavirus.

So it really comes down to cost control throughout al clubs - and biggest costs are almost always player wages and transfer fees.
 

A study published by accounting firm KPMG estimates that Ligue 1 will lose between €300m and €400m in revenue if the 2019/20 season does not pick back up again from where it left off, as health professionals across Europe and the world continue to battle with COVID-19.

This study, published on Tuesday, sought to financially quantify the collective hit that teams are taking following the sudden suspension of league activity.

The study estimates that the majority of these losses will come from missing out on €150m to €200m in TV rights money for the matches that simply would not be broadcast, with another €100m to €140m in losses owing to partnership agreements that clubs have with brands not being fulfilled, and between €50m to €60m in losses owing to the match-going revenue that teams would miss out on.

Whilst these losses appear massive on paper, they are minimal compared to the €1.15bn to €1.25bn worth of losses that KPMG anticipates the Premier League would see in this scenario, as well as the €800m to €950m in losses that La Liga would be hit with.



If that £1bn figure of lost revenue to PL is correct, it means every club would lose an average of £50m, but the bigger clubs (including Spurs) taking more of the revenues, that £50m might be closer to £75m.
 
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A study published by accounting firm KPMG estimates that Ligue 1 will lose between €300m and €400m in revenue if the 2019/20 season does not pick back up again from where it left off, as health professionals across Europe and the world continue to battle with COVID-19.

This study, published on Tuesday, sought to financially quantify the collective hit that teams are taking following the sudden suspension of league activity.

The study estimates that the majority of these losses will come from missing out on €150m to €200m in TV rights money for the matches that simply would not be broadcast, with another €100m to €140m in losses owing to partnership agreements that clubs have with brands not being fulfilled, and between €50m to €60m in losses owing to the match-going revenue that teams would miss out on.

Whilst these losses appear massive on paper, they are minimal compared to the €1.15bn to €1.25bn worth of losses that KPMG anticipates the Premier League would see in this scenario, as well as the €800m to €950m in losses that La Liga would be hit with.



If that £1bn figure of lost revenue to PL is correct, it means every club would lose an average of £50m, but the bigger clubs (including Spurs) taking more of the revenues, that £50m might be closer to £75m.

So if this virus could really slaughter a fair few teams pushing the limits of their spending compared to what they make. I hope it doesn’t but this could really change the landscape of professional football across all the leagues. No idea who is at greater risk but you’d like to think a club like ours who is always careful with its spending should be absolutely fine. Not the biggest issue at the moment but it still impacts something I guess
 
So if this virus could really slaughter a fair few teams pushing the limits of their spending compared to what they make. I hope it doesn’t but this could really change the landscape of professional football across all the leagues. No idea who is at greater risk but you’d like to think a club like ours who is always careful with its spending should be absolutely fine. Not the biggest issue at the moment but it still impacts something I guess

I think Spurs will survive no problem - but transfers might be more tricky this summer than I thought a month ago.

And although our wages to turnover is likely to be lowest in PL, we will probably need to move on any players on high wages who aren't productive or at the highest standard, and just generally be prudent on wages offers.

But I think some PL clubs will have huge financial problems.

And I think FFP needs tightening up - the obvious one being to add a wage cap of the lesser of 50% of last years audited annual revenues or next years projected revenues with these calculations submitted and audited by PL and The FA. And all commercial contracts with connected parties above a certain size to be disallowed from the relevant revenue calculation - if its black and white like that Mancity and others cant fudge the issues. It should be on the agenda now - as the price of having to bail out clubs, and if 15 or 15 PL clubs vote for it, then Mancity has to abide by the rules as from now.

Severe punishment for non compliance including any false statements leading to mandatory and immediate forced reduction of squad size, and for repeated offences expulsion from PL (and for lower leagues expulsion from EFL).

Only effective and demanding financial criteria like that will stop the likes of ManCity booking phoney revenues and paying big wages which ratchets up wages in all clubs.
 
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I know i sound like an idiot here but the world should come together and agree a freeze wherever possible.

The tv companies dont want the clubs to go bust for obvious reasons and have no intention of refunding subscriptions so none of this demanding they finish the season etc. Support the league to find the most sensible way forward possible.

In turn the premier league absolutely has to support the lower leagues.


Freeze what though?

The clubs are just part of a long chain, for example:

Sky Subscribers and advertisers was to reduce payments > Sky want to reduce payments to clubs > clubs can't pay the players > the players can't pay their cleaner / gardener / etc
 
No doubt the full accounts will be available in a couple of days - and there could be a lot of time to analyse and digest them this year !



And everyone waiting

Last year the accounts weren't available on Companies House website until first few days of April......here's hoping it might be earlier to get the full financial set of accounts
 
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