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Chelsea recorded a second record loss for a football team in the year to 30 June 2005 and it was even higher than last year. Their loss was £140m before tax compared with £87.8m a year before (the previous owners made a loss of £26.5m in their last year in charge but also managed to run up debts of £80m). This was equivalent to a loss of £1.47m for each of the 95 Premireship points obtained by the club in its title winning 2004-5 season. The loss also comfortably exceeded the aggregate 2003-4 losses of all other sides in the top four English divisions which reached an overall total of around £100 million. Sales fell 4 per cent to £146.6m after rising 40 per cent to £152.1 million in the previous year. Part of the loss relates to a payoff of £24.5m to former kit supplier Umbro, allowing the club to sign an eight year agreement with Adidas worth about £100m. The loss also followed a second straight year of record spending on players. After spending more than £128m on players in 2003-4, combined fees for 2004-5 amounted to £95m. Spending on players in next year's accounts will drop by about two-thirds. Chelsea said that sales turnover had fallen because of the disposal of Chelsea Village Travel which generated an annual revenue stream of just under £10m. Sales do not include the first payment from Samsung under the new shirt sponsorship that is worth £10m a year. Overall payroll costs did fall from £115.5m to £108.9m. The club's long run business objective is to break even by 2009-10. Chelsea is seeking to boost its revenue by adding seats to the existing 42,000 at Stamford Bridge. However, that may not be easy given the constricted nature of the site and there have been reports that the club would be prepared to pay £400m for the Earls Court exhibition centre, which lies a mile away, to build a 65,000 seat stadium there.
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