After recording losses of £121m in the last financial year, surpassed only by Chelsea with a £141m loss in the first year of Roman Abramovich’s ownership, Manchester City need an escape strategy to avoid falling foul of Uefa’s financial fair play regulations. These come into effect next season and require clubs to make a loss of no more than £39m over three years if they are to qualify to play in the Champions League.
After recording losses of £121m in the last financial year, surpassed only by Chelsea with a £141m loss in the first year of Roman Abramovich’s ownership, Manchester City need an escape strategy to avoid falling foul of Uefa’s financial fair play regulations. These come into effect next season and require clubs to make a loss of no more than £39m over three years if they are to qualify to play in the Champions League.
Hence City are thinking of expanding their stadium at Eastlands beyond its current 47,726 capacity, enabling them to increase their match day revenue streams. At £18.2m last season the amount they receive in gate money was dwarfed by the £101.5m earned by rivals United.
Home matches in the Barclays Premier League are selling out on a regular basis. Season tickets have been capped at 35,000 and there is a waiting list of 10,000 so a capacity expansion plan makes sense.
Feasibility studies are under way to look at different options. One would be a modest expansion of 5,000, but another would expand the stadium by 20,000 to rival Old Trafford as the biggest club ground in the country. The improvement of corporate facilities is another target.
Having splashed out on players ahead of the arrival of the fair play regulations, City consider that they now have a deep and competitive squad which will make further acquisitions on the same scale unnecessary. However, the wage bill of £133m, even before this summer’s transfer activity is taken into account, is a concern. It cannot be easily reduced and it will be difficult to increase revenue sufficiently to offset it.