It's just occurred to me that the Official Saints site has not been updated for the inclusion of the 2008 annual report...
I've just been through the figures for 2008 - highlights for me include:
* Total revenue of £14.9m, of which c.£8m is matchday revenue. This season attendances have been much, much lower so I'm guessing that for the current season our total revenue is going to be more like £12m
* We only repaid £900k of borrowings - considering our net income from player sales was c.£7m, this isn't too clever (but then again all the money went on wages)
* So, we were still £29m in debt in the summer, with interest costs of £2.2m guzzling up much needed cashflow
* Add onto that a working capital imbalance (i.e. money owed to creditors over what's owed to us by debtors) of some £3.5m, and that's £32.5m we effectively owed as at June 08
* Our total "cash out" over the course of the year was £9.2m. I was predicting this figure at £10m when I wrote a looooong financial review back in March damn I hate being right all the time. This would have been £16m of negative cash flow had we not gained £7m (net) from player trading over the course of the year
* Believe me, I cannot stress enough how ludicrous it is for a business which owes £32.5m to LOSE £16m of cash through its normal operations in the year and still be allowed to continue in business
* I'd like again to re-iterate my ire at Wilde and Crouch for their abominable mis-management of the club, and think that they should count themselves lucky not to be facing investigation as Southampton Leisure Holdings plc is a publicly-listed entity
* Now, since our ordinary revenue is going to be £12m per annum, we're going to owe £3m per annum in interest on debt (before any repayments) and have operating costs (before wages) of a few mill, you can see why - in effect - we have no money for wages and hence the club is forced to operate on as little a wage bill as possible
* So, essentially we're properly screwed
* Incidentally, if we get relegated again (highly likely), the pathetic charade that is Southampton Football Club might just be put out of its misery. OUr only hope (and - let's not get too depressed here, cos this is a REAL hope) is that the only valid asset in the business (the stadium) has literally no alternative use that I can think of. No other sports team can feasibly play there, it's in a relatively poor part of town and hence it's real estate value isn't too great (especially in the current climate), so a liquidation is a highly dubious strategy on the part of the debt holders. That said - if we go down to League One then they may as well liquidate us, cos they sure as hell aren't going to see any of that £32.5m any other way.
* In fact, if we were to be relegated and liquidated (which is my "most likely" expectation for next year), it might be a blessing in disguise. Why? Because then the "club" would actually be a valid investment for someone. They could cut a deal with the debt holders and PERHAPS pick up a 32,000 seater stadium, training ground etc for £10m-£15m debt free. I wouldn't even be surprised if such a package is already being discussed. Not that anyone has £10-£15m at the moment...
Found this as a summary to their financial problems.
Pretty grim reading and they'll have to sell players in January...
Comments
Andrew Surman , bradley wright phillips, stern john, david mcgoldrick, jack cork (alan corks son),
Someone was ejected for throwing silver coins at the board (a la Judus), the whole room bar one expressed their wish for Lowe to leave, including Lawrie Mac's wife, while Lowe opened the meeting by reading out an 'anonymous letter' praising him for what a wonderful job he was doing !!
Jack Cork is on loan from Chelsea
They should sell him as well, before Chelsea find out
;o)