City £50m in the red

by rebecca camber

July 06, 2004

MANCHESTER City's debts soared to '50m last year after the club splashed out on new stars and invested heavily in their new stadium.

The wage bill rose during 2002-03 from '24m to '35m as manager Kevin Keegan paid for high-earning stars such as Nicolas Anelka and Robbie Fowler.

Transfer spending and higher wages forced pre-tax losses to climb from '13.9m to '15.4m last year, even though operating profits were up '1.7m.

Chairman John Wardle and his business partner at the JD Sports Group, David Makin, lent '10m to help pay for new players.

Turnover

But managing director Alistair Mackintosh hopes that the new stadium will pull in huge crowds to pay off the overdraft and expects turnover to rise to '60m this year.

The club spent '20m improving the pitch, catering and hospitality and the superstore when they moved to the 48,000-seat City of Manchester Stadium - leased from Manchester council - last year.

The move followed a 75 per cent increase in turnover from '28m to '49m when the club returned to the Premier League two years ago, thanks mainly to '20m from TV.

The Joe Royle judgment isn't the first expensive pay-off by City.

Last March former joint managing director Chris Bird got '120,000 - the equivalent of a year's salary.

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Vincent, Manchester (06/07/2004 at 14:44)

Oh dear.

Neil Higson, Not quite in the doldrums (06/07/2004 at 14:55)

B#50 million is that all!!? ha. After all the trials (ouch! - sorry, couldn't resist that one!) and tribulations our club has suffered over paricularly the last 10 years I'm surprised its not a hell of a lot more. Things seem very bad right now and money is tighter than a fish's ring BUT KK, John Wardle et al are doing a better job than most of the previous muppets - we fans seem to have very short memories. Even the excellent Bernstein got it so obviously wrong by jumping the gun when he sacked JR. What we need is to hang on to Prem footy for a good few seasons and we will slowly recover. The constant drain of cash over 25 years or more since Allison nearly bankrupted us in the late 70's is coming home to roost and we've got to ride it out and get behind our club, players and Manager. We've got a great new stadium and the best fans so lets show that we are the best instead of all the sniping and whinging. I fancy us at least to be not as bad as Palace, Norwich, Everton and Spurs. Prem safety is ALL that matters (for now). C'mon you Blues.
P.S. How about getting Glen Johnson on a year long loan from Chelski as they've just signed that Portuguese fella? and wot about Gary Megson for our new boss after KK retires? Think positive Blues.

V.O.R, Eastlands (06/07/2004 at 15:14)

Recycle, recycle, recycle, that's what the council are asking us to do at the moment isn't it. Well the chief executive doesn't need to panic 'cos it looks like the boys on Deansgate have got the message! I can't BELIEVE this story is on the site again. Blah blah, B#50m in the red!!..but half of that is stadium, real debt much lower. Revenue to increase. Read between the lines and this is another story with a distressing headline which does nothing except a) tell us something we already know b) undermines the club and the faith of its supporters. Until you hacks have something solid to report, sharpen some pencils or something instead.

Bece, Hollingworth (06/07/2004 at 15:28)

We have all known for some time that we are skint, but it is a bit galling to see who the MD is looking towards to pay off the debt, yes folks it is you and me. Talk about taking your support for granted.
Is there anybody out there who has any confidence in the financial management of our club or is it just me ?

J, Manchester (06/07/2004 at 16:01)

More pizz poor journalism from someone who calls herself Becks (no doubt after her idol). Go and find something new to report instead of rehashing old news.

Baz, Radcliffe (06/07/2004 at 17:02)

I agree that this situation isn't as bad as it seems.If they hadn't spent the money on the stadium then it wouldn't be able to hold the 47,000 people that we normally get,and then the revenue potential wouldn't be there.This gives us a chance to recoup the cash and with our potential sales of merchandise we are in a position to get that loss down.I know that playing side of it doesn't look that promising at the moment but the the long and short of it is to stay in the premiership and from what I saw last season there are plenty of clubs in the same position with a bobbins playing staff and limited cash.I dont know whta reallky happened with the Bernstein debacle but i'm pretty sure we'd have been in a better situation with him at the club still,remembering that he steered the club to financial safety but i also realise that he should have known that KK would have wanted more money to spend.The club still needs investors but I feel people wont invest cash because there are too many directors at the club who are unwilling to sell there shares(franny lee) and are in for an easy ride just for the cash,and we will get to the swales situation again if we are not careful.

Gloomy Blue, Macclesfield (07/07/2004 at 09:01)

Old news maybe, but if City's financial prospects were rosy, people would be queuing up to invest. Draw your own conclusions.

Blueyorkie, York (07/07/2004 at 11:07)

Tend to agree with Neil here. Many seem to deify DB when in reality it was him that oversaw the major spending and the Royle fiasco. JW has been prudent, we would all like to see big time progress but stability is the first priority. Would be interesting to see a league table of debts published , many may be worse off than us

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