League 2 Portsmouth FC have announced an operating profit of £118,000 for the tax year ending June 2014, a little over 12 months after the club were saved from liquidation by a fans consortium.
Just over half of the mid-table side’s £6.6m turnover was raised through gate receipts (£3.4m) during their first season in English football‘s fourth tier.
There are circumstances to which Pompey fans should curb their enthusiasm with there being an overall loss of £171,000, all of which accounts for the interest saddled with the loans PST (Portsmouth Supporters Trust) secured to buy the club.
Portsmouth’s board are optimistic they’re out of the woods, saying, “these set of accounts give us a fantastic base on which to build on,” Pompey’s Chief executive, Mark Catlin commented.
“We undertook a substantial restructuring of internal operations, as well as managing the £14m legacy debt, which was reduced to £5m at the year-end and then fully repaid two years ahead of schedule in September 2014,” finance director Tony Brown said.
Having gained control of the club in April 2013, the PST board faced a dire situation with no training ground, kit sponsor, or significant commercial deals in place to support the team. But with legacy debts paid and an operating profit achieved the finance director feels the club is close to climbing out of the red and into the black.
“The rebuilding process has continued this year, with the building of a new training ground, improvements to the stadium, with the aim of securing solid foundations to enable the sustainable growth of the club,” Brown added.
