Town made a loss before tax of £4.3 million in the year to the end of June 2017, the club has announced.
Ahead of this evening’s PLC AGM in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite shareholders were given a sheet outlining the financial highlights of the overall club for the year to June 2017.
The PLC owns 12.5 per cent of Ipswich Town Football Club Co Limited and consists of the club's shareholding prior to the takeover 10 years ago with Marcus Evans owning the other 87.5 per cent.
The club made an operating loss of £7.8 million in the financial year 2016/17, while receiving £4.1 million from player sales.
Most of that came from the £3 million paid by Newcastle for Daryl Murphy, while around £650,000 came from Chelsea for academy striker Charlie Brown and the Blues would also have received top-ups from previous deals such as Aaron Cresswell’s move to West Ham in 2014 with Town due further cash as the left-back hit appearance milestones.
In the previous financial year Town made a gross loss of £3.4 million and an operating loss of £6.6 million, having received only £603,000 from player trading.
The club’s overall debt has grown from £86.51 million to £89.26 million, owed almost entirely to owner Evans’s other companies with MD Ian Milne having previously outlined the position.
"This is no third party debt," he told TWTD in November 2014. "The money that an owner has put into a club, he’s never going to see that back, unless maybe it goes up [to the Premier League]. But even then I doubt he’ll see that return.”
Town’s turnover in 2016/17 was up slightly from £16.28 million in the year to June 2016 to £17.24 million.
The wage bill, by far the club’s biggest outlay, was £17.78 million, up from £16.57 million during the 2015/16 season.
Gate receipts were down from £6.5 million in 2015/16 to £5.13 million last season, while commercial income also dropped slightly, from £4.43 million to £4.35 million.
The average attendance was down from 18,959 in 2015/16 to 16,980 last season, while season ticket sales were also lower at 12,022 in 2016/17 from 14,017 the previous year with a further drop to around 10,500 ahead of the current campaign.
"Gate receipts were down on last season due to lower attendances,” the highlights document explains. "Also in 2015/16 the club received a significant share of gate from Manchester United in the League Cup which boosted last year’s overall gate receipts.
"Commercial revenue was slightly lower than 2015/16 due to reduced match day catering and merchandise sales although this was partly offset from the successful Elton John concert in June.
"Football League income was higher than last year due to an increase in both the basic award distribution and solidarity payments via the Premier League.”
Regarding costs, it adds: "Direct costs increased from £19.7 million in 2015/16 to £21.4 million due mainly to player wages, medical costs and associated agent fees as further funds were invested in the first-team squad and our academy.
"Administrative expenses decreased from £2.4 million to £2.3 million in the season 2016/17 as a result of general cost savings.”
The financial highlights can be found in full on the club site here.