Rugby Clubs' Finances 2019 Pre Covid Season

Here are the finances of all 13 clubs in the Premier League. Some clubs were very late in filing due to Covid. This year also saw the windfall from CVC to each club.

Here are the figures from the published results of Clubs for the year ending 30 June 2019 (Season 2018-19)

The Key facts: 

• The CVC windfall was paid in this year and each club received £12.8m. Some clubs are bringing this in to profits over 4 years but Exeter, Worcester and Wasps have taken the full amount in the year. So I estimate that the results of 2019 have been boosted by £70.4m. The clubs have also re-valued their PRL shares upwards in line with the fair valuation formula, mostly by £7.382m.
• Results after taxation and interest amounted to a net profit of £50m. So all clubs made a profit except Harlequins and Saracens
• The Investment Analyst's preferred measure EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation) shows a net loss of £35m with Exeter the only club in profit. I have also excluded the revaluation credit of the PRL investments. The table is in the order of the best performing clubs in EBITDA terms.
• Harlequins still sustained a loss as they re-valued their PRL shares last year so the adjustment was not as great as other clubs.
• Saracens loss was due to the £7.7m incurred on their salary cap case in fines and legal costs.
• 1.88m fans attended premier rugby league matches over the season about 20k down from the season before.
• Total employed by the clubs was nearly 3,000 and players and team staff amounted to 911. This includes coaching and team support staff except, in Gloucester's case where coaching staff etc are in the sales and admin figure. Harlequins do not disclose the split of staff.
• Bath discloses that they spend £1m annually putting up and taking down their temporary structures. Bath pays approximately £312k to Bath Recreation Limited for use of the Rec.

Results in Graphs

The club with the greatest turnover, Wasps, makes the largest loss. The third highest turnover is Exeter and that gives them a profit mainly because of income from non rugby and lower overheads. Four clubs disclose they only have Rugby Income – Bath, Bristol, London Irish and Sale.

Here are the overheads with turnover. Where the green line is above the red means a profit and touching is breakeven and red well above green is not so good news. In our case we spend £1m on our temporary structures and this will be eliminated with a new stadium with extra capacity for revenue to realise Bruce's ambition for the club to be self sustaining.

Solvency

Clubs that require support from their owners/shareholders are Bath, Bristol, Newcastle, Saracens and Wasps. Saracens are in a much better place as Nigel Wray had written of £51m of loans last year.

All clubs except Worcester have filed their 2020 accounts and as soon as they have filed I will refresh the figures in what will be an interesting year with part of the season without any gates.