Just how badly Middlesbrough need to get back to the Premier League is demonstrated by their latest accounts. They are not making the biggest losses of a Championship club, but they are reliant on £1m a month pumped in by their chairman and benefactor Steve Gibson. Strictly speaking, it is a loan provided by his company, but it still shows that backing a football club can be an expensive interest.
Just how badly Middlesbrough need to get back to the Premier League is demonstrated by their latest accounts. They are not making the biggest losses of a Championship club, but they are reliant on £1m a month pumped in by their chairman and benefactor Steve Gibson. Strictly speaking, it is a loan provided by his company, but it still shows that backing a football club can be an expensive interest.
The club’s accounts for the 12 months to June 30, 2012 showed a pre-tax loss of £13.5m. After tax adjustments, the recorded loss is £10m. The loss in the previous period was £18.7m, but that was for 18 months so it is broadly comparable.
Revenue over the period was £18.1m made up of media earnings of £7.4m, commercial income of £5.1m, gate receipts opf £4.8m and cup income of £800,000. Player trading made a profit of £2.8m compared with £15.2m in the previous period.
Boro are currently 9th in the Championship and second from bottom in the form table. Attendances have been falling with 14,348 for the game against Birmingham City last Saturday. Two clubs in the Championship (Brighton and Sheffield Wednesday) average over 25,000 and another five average between 21,500 and 25,000.
Other clubs in the Championship reporting bigger losses than Boro last season included Leicester (£29.7m), West Ham (£25.5,), Bristol City (£14.4m), Cardiff City (£13.6m) and Nottingham Forest (£11.6m).