Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has given an assessment of Town’s accounts for the year to the end of June 2020 which were published yesterday and reveal that former owner Marcus Evans waived or settled almost £96 million in loans as part of the agreement which saw Gamechanger 20 take charge of the club in April.
The accounts cover the 2019/20 season, the Blues’ first in League One which covers the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Relegation saw the club’s revenue drop from £17.95 million the previous year to £10.63 million, while the Blues’ wage bill fell from £19.25 million in the final Championship season to £12.85 million.
Town made a loss of ÂŁ5.25 million compared to ÂŁ3.60 million a year earlier and an operating loss of ÂŁ8.64 million compared to ÂŁ10.78 million 2018/19. Accumulated losses had reached ÂŁ100 million.
Season ticket sales were up from 10,618 in the final year in the Championship to 12,870 and the average league attendance was up to 19,549 from 17,767.
The accounts show that the club received ÂŁ1.1 million in furlough payments from late March to the end of June with further payments having been made in the following months while the lockdown continued.
In July general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill confirmed that some of the players had been on furlough as well as off-field staff.
The club’s overall debt had risen to £116.93 million with almost all of that owned to other Evans companies in loans.
Regarding Evans’s write-off of his debts following the takeover, the accounts say: As a result of the change of ownership, there has been a significant debt restructuring. In total, loans and other amounts due to group companies of £95,877,000 at the balance sheet date have been waived or settled on the Group’s behalf.”
In April, new chairman Mike O'Leary confirmed that the club's only remaining debt is ÂŁ400,000, which is understood to be the loan notes issued to well-heeled fans following the club's period of administration.
Following the takeover Evans has a five per cent stake in Gamechanger 20, which owns 87.5 per cent of the club with the PLC - the shareholding prior to Evans's 2007 takeover - retaining 12.5 per cent.