Football finance expert Kieran Maguire says Rovers’ latest accounts are in line with a growing trend across the Championship.
Venky’s London Limited, the club’s parent company, reported a £1.8million profit for the year ending March 31, 2024.
The figures included £22.9m raised from players sales, most notably Adam Wharton joining Crystal Palace for a club record fee. Thomas Kaminski and Ash Phillips were also sold to Luton and Tottenham respectively.
Without those sales, Rovers would have been looking at a similar story to last year when they reported a loss of £21m.
“The club made more profit from player sales than they generated through ticket sales, broadcast rights and commercial rights combined,” Maguire told The Lancashire Telegraph.
“Without it, they would have been looking at an 18-20million loss so that shows how critical it is to have a player trading model.
“The trouble with that is if you don’t sell a player each year, you will have a problem unless the owners are willing to subsidise the losses.
“Ultimately, that is what Rovers have found with the Venky’s who – for all of their faults – have stuck a couple of hundred million into the club to keep it where it is today, let alone make further progress.”
Wharton became the latest success story of Rovers’ Academy set-up, and the report on Companies House stated that developing young talent remains “key to the long term success of the club” along with driving commercial revenues.
Rovers also sold several players this summer, including Sam Szmodics whose move to Ipswich brought in another significant fee.
Other outgoings included Sam Gallagher, Leo Wahlstedt and Semir Telalovic, while Yuki Ohashi, Makhtar Gueye, Todd Cantwell and Balazs Toth were among the new recruits. The impact of this summer’s business will not be revealed until the 2024/25 accounts are released next year.
“The average losses in the Championship are £350,000 to £400,000 a week,” Maguire continued.
“Norwich announced their results recently, they lost around £14million and they had parachute payments.
“Bristol City tend to lose £20m a year, Preston North End and Millwall normally lose between £10m and £15m per year.
“It is not a business that you can compare to any other industry because you would normally just close the door, lock the gates and walk away. But football is different, it is addictive.”
Another interesting takeaway from Rovers’ accounts was a slight increase in wages compared to 12 months prior.
Although the wage to turnover ratio has dropped from 130 to 115 per cent, it is still on the high side.
“Wages are still substantially higher than the money the club is generating on a week-by-week basis,” Maguire explained. “It is slightly better but given that UEFA say the target is 70 per cent, it is still not good.”
