Thursday 10 April 2014

Swansea City most profitable club in the Premier League!

Figures revealed by Swiss Ramble show the Swans are still flying high financially...


...even if they don't include the £12million we spent on Wiflried Bony.

You've got to love a bit of in-depth analysis. When all is laid bare on paper (and someone is on hand to dissect the information accordingly) it's sometimes startling to see what most have always assumed spelled out so clearly, and the finances that surround football are no different. It's just been shown that in terms of a post-tax profit, Swansea's accounts for 2012/13 were easily the most profitable (if you don't include the money raised by Manchester United's IPO in the US), and when you consider that, Wigan aside, TV money made up a higher percentage of our revenue than at any other club it shows just how prudently the club is being run financially.


Undoubtedly our cup run helped, and another image Swiss Ramble posted shows that while the Swans still had the fifth lowest total revenue, our TV revenue (aided through extra cup games) ended firmly mid-table, earning us the 10th highest figure in the league. Appropriate given where we finished in the league? Quite possibly. Matchday revenue is another area which displays a clear disparity, with the Swans forming part of a group who must look on with envy at the clubs at the other end of the financial table, who are making up to five or six times as much each matchday as we do. Something to aim for, anyway.

It's a good thing our profits from player sales were so high, as our commercial revenue was lower than all bar Wigan's. Understandable given the size of our club but nonetheless disappointing, it is however tempered by the aforementioned player sales - the Swans made a profit of £21million which was more than everyone apart from Fulham (£22mil), Tottenham (£26mil) and Arsenal (£47mil). Given we saw £12million of that reinvested in Wilfried Bony it's unlikely our figures will be quite so rosy next time around, but we can rest assured that our low wage bill will stand us in good stead.


As you can see our wage bill is still very competitive, and as long as the club maintain their shrewd diligence we'll be absolutely fine. There were other images produced by SwissRamble, but given we all know we had a bit of money in the bank at the beginning of the season to link them would seem a little like gloating about our continued financial prudence and let's be honest, we've all done plenty of that in the last few years.

While next year's figures are unlikely to be as healthy as this, it's still reassuring to know that we're being run efficiently and responsibly off the pitch. Ok, there have been issues with paperwork and a few other things which could possibly have been handled with more tact, but we must remember that on the whole they are doing a fine, fine job which often goes unnoticed. I won't link the images here, but if you want a comparison to show just how well we're doing for ourselves, Swiss Ramble also did Championship figures for the same year and Cardiff's...well. You get the picture. A quick google of SwissRamble and Cardiff 2012/13 should suffice. In Huw we trust.

Now, just offer Ashley Williams a massive sodding contract, is it?

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