Hull City will this week announce the club made a loss in its promotion year to the Premier League of just under £28m. The figure, £27.8m, principally financed manager Steve Bruce’s signings and an increased wage bill in the 12 months to 31 July this year. The losses came before the summer’s major signing for City, midfielder Tom Huddlestone from Tottenham Hotspur for £5m.
Hull City will this week announce the club made a loss in its promotion year to the Premier League of just under £28m. The figure, £27.8m, principally financed manager Steve Bruce’s signings and an increased wage bill in the 12 months to 31 July this year. The losses came before the summer’s major signing for City, midfielder Tom Huddlestone from Tottenham Hotspur for £5m.
The huge loss in 2012-13 follows major losses in the two previous years of Assen Allam’s ownership since he took the club over in December 2010. City lost £20m in that first year, then £9m in 2011-12, a total, with the loss due to be announced this week, of £57m over three years. Allam said the accounts will show that he has put in £66m since taking over; having paid £27m initially to stave off a winding-up petition and pay a bank debt.
Allam said the City wage bill is now up to around £36m a year, and he intends to buy a striker in January to supplement manager Steve Bruce’s squad’s chances of staying up this season. This year in the Premier League, he expects the club will lose £11m.
Allam’s to rename the club Hull Tigers continues to provoke controversy. Having added ‘Tigers’, he now proposes to drop the ‘City’ tag. He insists that it will give the club a greater global presence, particularly in East Asia, and cites an article in the Harvard Business Review which said that companies with short names do better on flotation.
Any plans to alter the club name would need to be ratified by the Football Association. Hull fans’ group City Til We Die hopes that could lead to an intervention, although it has to be said that the FA’s record of being responsive to fans is not a good one.
Some might think the way ahead lies closer to home by expanding the capacity of the stadium. Hull city council built the stadium with £43.5m of public money in 2002, a civic boost to the status of Hull City and Hull FC rugby league club, who became tenants. Built at a 25,586 capacity, the stadium was designed to fit additional tiers and create 30,000 seats if the football club became successful enough.
Allam held discussions on this almost immediately, in which he says the council indicated it did not want to sell the stadium and wanted to do the expansion jointly. He refused, having few good words for the council, and insisted he had to buy the freehold. He has now severed links with the council.