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The 2018/19 accounts - the Grumpy take

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Grumpy Old Man said:
This, hopefully, is the nadir, the final emptying of the cesspit of declining finances. We live in hope.

What can we say from the numbers, and what does it really mean going forward?

First, this year's figures

Income
Obviously, way down on 2016/17. TV income halved as expected. Gate receipts went down by £2.4m, a drop of just under 25%. That's the cost of PL fanboys and stayaways. Sponsorship fell off a cliff, down 80%, while commercial and retail were down about 35%. Depressing, but pretty much what you might expect. Looking at 2018/19 gates, everything but TV income will probably have bottomed out. However, we're looking at another £15m or so drop in TV income in the 2018/19 accounts. That's why the new owners needed, and still need, tocut costs.

Expenses
Staff costs dropped by £35m (around 42%), lower than the fall in income. so staff costs were 73.4% of turnover (2017 - 67.5%). Bain got a £1m payoff (looking at his total pay, that's probably a contractual one year notice). On staff numbers, it looks as though redundancies affected 1 in 6 admin staff. It appeared that we still managed to spend around £2om on other operating costs. This is where Donald is really going to have to wield the axe to get the books balanced.

Other points to note from the P&L: a further £12m was written off player contract values, we made an £8m profit on the sale of the Charlie Hurley centre, and the lawyers and merchant bankers trousered £6.5m for the share issue.

Turning to the balance sheet, transfer debtors were £16.2m (£4.4m receivable next season), while transfer creditors were £19.6m (£3.5m payable next season). Other debtors include £9.6m due from another group company (not Sunderland Ltd). It's unclear who owes this, or why the debt is there. As expected, there arer no external debts, and there was a positive cash balance of £11.1m at the year end.

Looking forward, there are grounds for optimism, although we may continue to make smaller losses while the position the owners inherited unwinds. Clearly, there is much more work to be done on the cost base, particularly player wages, but it's a far brighter picture than when I was writing this time last year.
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A very interesting read as always mate and good to see you posting again.
 

Dilligaf60 said:
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
Best of luck with that.
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Haway man we've got to manage to do it once a year :D

Grumpy Old Man said:
Maybe. It's a distinct possibility that costs would rise by more than income if we were promoted this season, given that the parachute payment is the same whichever division we're in.
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Given the list of players with their contract end dates that was posted on here a few days ago?
It's almost like we're 'steadying the ship' with that last payment ready for the remaining big contracts to terminate at the end of the next season and give us some breathing space.
 
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Zak's Dad said:
Haway man we've got to manage to do it once a year :D



Given the list of players with their contract end dates that was posted on here a few days ago?
It's almost like we're 'steadying the ship' with that last payment ready for the remaining big contracts to terminate at the end of the next season and give us some breathing space.
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I don't think the owners would turn down a play-off win, but, financially, it wouldn't be the end of the world if it didn't happen. Next season is a different matter.
 
Zak's Dad said:
My favourite take on new technology was a crusty old social worker I knew emphatically telling someone who was trying to show him how to log on to a computer:

"That's no good to me, I am a squashed hedgehog on the so called information superhighway"
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:lol:
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
I don't think the owners would turn down a play-off win, but, financially, it wouldn't be the end of the world if it didn't happen. Next season is a different matter.
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I said on another thread, I definitely want to be promoted this season but I can see the 'financial sense' in going up next year 'in the black' with loads of contracts gone giving us some wriggle room.
 
Something I've just noticed from the Sunderland Limited account. If charges SAFC £2m a year in rent (and always has done, by the look of it). This wasn't known before, because the accounts were consolidated. This means that the loss for the Sunderland Limited group will be £2m lower than that in SAFC Ltd alone. Another reason why we need to see a set of consolidated accounts to get an accurate picture.
 
I think in the second series of STID, there is a meeting of staff with Charlie and Stewart and it goes into detail about the finances and just how bad it was, we could of been worse than Bolton....

Big thanks to Stewart and Charlie for turning it around,and I think Stewart was quoted in saying we are in better shape this year than he thought we would be...
 
JL1985 said:
Did Short give the club £5m recently for his part in Alvarez saga or have I dreamt that up?
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some taslk of it but hard to see in the accounts..

DrewC said:
That Alvarez surprise £9.6 debt could have come from Short’s companies as a kind gesture that was under his watch....
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wasng much of s gesture..the money left safc and went to another company in the group..

Fact Hunt said:
It makes me wonder how on earth are we ever going to fund a serious promotion push back to the top-flight.
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same way we funded the last decade of losses..by issuin new shares..youn dont think safc funds itself do you?



Grumpy Old Man said:
Something I've just noticed from the Sunderland Limited account. If charges SAFC £2m a year in rent (and always has done, by the look of it). This wasn't known before, because the accounts were consolidated. This means that the loss for the Sunderland Limited group will be £2m lower than that in SAFC Ltd alone. Another reason why we need to see a set of consolidated accounts to get an accurate picture.
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so safc ltd pays sunderland limited? but oif they are one group of companies..surely it just washes out anyway as the same thing at the group operating level/
 
Fact Hunt said:
It makes me wonder how on earth are we ever going to fund a serious promotion push back to the top-flight.
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Fund the academy big style and that could bring in money long term, big money given the premium placed on English/British players. The top 2 in the championship sold young British player in the summer for big money, they both re-invested that money wisely.
 
Fact Hunt said:
It makes me wonder how on earth are we ever going to fund a serious promotion push back to the top-flight.
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davoak said:
This is the point I've made with the transfer fees in the championship been mad aswell it's hard to imagine it at the moment
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Equally, if you do things right, then you don’t need the biggest budget to get promoted. Look at the two teams that went up this season. I dare say that our budget would exceed Sheffield Utd’s and Norwich are a couple of years into a massive playing budget cutting exercise.
 
0321safc said:
Fund the academy big style and that could bring in money long term, big money given the premium placed on English/British players. The top 2 in the championship sold young British player in the summer for big money, they both re-invested that money wisely.
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we did that, and should do it again. just watsed the profits made by the academy..
 
kildaremackem said:
some taslk of it but hard to see in the accounts..


wasng much of s gesture..the money left safc and went to another company in the group..


same way we funded the last decade of losses..by issuin new shares..youn dont think safc funds itself do you?


impossible,,,they own it and paid for it..its their property,,


so safc ltd pays sunderland limited? but oif they are one group of companies..surely it just washes out anyway as the same thing at the group operating level/
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Yes, but because the sub-group doesn't publish consolidated accounts anymore, you have a to do a kind of manual consolidation. So SAFC Ltd £26m retained loss less Sunderland Ltd's £2m profit, less a £1m profit in the ladies (group loan adjustments here), gives a group loss of £23m. This is why I'm getting stroppy about the change in filing.
 
Guinness Guzzler said:
Definitely something Donald could do with being asked like. Why did another company in the group need £10m, what's it been used for, why was it paid from the football club and when do we get it back? I might be totally misreading it, but that £10m could have been pretty useful this season!
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Probably already received, the accounts are a snapshot in time.
 
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