RFC finances - The Facts

[Royal Lady]

No....instead you just get on your knees for every ex-footballer you come across.

All wrong. Again.

So, in a nutshell, W_R is wrong, on all counts. Cheers then!

[Sun Tzu]

It really is laughable that everytime anyone comes close to defending the club on this board gets a tongue-lashing from the diminuitive RL/Ideal combo.All completely wrong!

That is you disagreeing, not proving him wrong.

[RoyalBlue]

Financial Statement Coming !! but with no exact date as to when, well there is no surprise there !! just another "full of promise" bollox statement from our lame duck, dont give a toss management

Good to see you are waiting to see what it says before making any kind of judgement.

You really can;t blame the club for not releasing info they are under no obligation to make public, when they know full well there are so many people who only want it in order to further grind their personal axes.

....

In which case they shouldn't have made promises that they weren't prepared/able to deliver on! But then they've got quite a track record of doing that haven't they.

As for waiting to see what it says....... how long are people expected to wait. What's more, to counter those prepared to make a premature negative judgement, there's always those who will keep and preach the faith regardless.

[Dirk Gently]

I think the waters have been muddied by the re-emergence of the "Arab ownership" story in the past couple of weeks.

I think the worry is that that this statement (intended to give supporters information about finances) coming out right now would be jumped on by the press (and lots of others) as being something to do with the ownership issue and so would be massively misinterpreted.

Don't forget it was promised before the latest round of ownership rumours.

[Sun Tzu]

In which case they shouldn't have made promises that they weren't prepared/able to deliver on! But then they've got quite a track record of doing that haven't they.

Thankyou. That was what had already been said. Although of course the promise was not time bounded and they haven't failed to deliver...

As for waiting to see what it says....... how long are people expected to wait

Well as long as it takes ! Presumably you think it makes sense to comment on something you haven;t seen ? That seems pointless

What's more, to counter those prepared to make a premature negative judgement, there's always those who will keep and preach the faith regardless.

Possibly, not really seen anyone taking that line though.

[Ian Royal]

No....instead you just get on your knees for every ex-footballer you come across.

All wrong. Again.

So, in a nutshell, W_R is wrong, on all counts. Cheers then!

Grow up RL, you're embarrassing yourself with your petty insults and petty pointscoring.

You laid into Sun Tzu for no reason other than you dislike him because he argues with you. His post was totally reasonable. I notice you aren't accusing Stranded or Dirk of arse licking and they've made similar arguments to Sun.

Just "man up", admit it and apologise.

[Royal Lady]

I don't dislike anyone who argues with me - even Royalee, but if you go back through 99% of Sun Tzu's posts, all he ever does is back up the club whenever ANYONE criticises - it just gets a bit boring after a while. Dirk, in particular, isn't afraid to make criticisms and if he disagrees with my stance, he does so in a way that doesn't make him an apologist for the club nor does he belittle me EVER.

[Sun Tzu]

This really doesn't need prolonging but suffice to say you speak nonsense RL.

For goodness sake my post on this thread doesn;t 'back the club up' which scuppers your claim straight off !

Claiming 99% of my posts 'back up' the club is also silly.

I speak as i see, which actually rarely involves 'backing' the club but may involve not getting involved in what is often tedious sniping. There are often reasons why things are done and if I'm aware of them I'll bring them into a discussion.

At least 99% of my posts don't consist of name dropping....

[Ian Royal]

I don't dislike anyone who argues with me - even Royalee, but if you go back through 99% of Sun Tzu's posts, all he ever does is back up the club whenever ANYONE criticises - it just gets a bit boring after a while. Dirk, in particular, isn't afraid to make criticisms and if he disagrees with my stance, he does so in a way that doesn't make him an apologist for the club nor does he belittle me EVER.

So pull him up when it's relevant, not when it isn't, or you just make yourself look stupid and undermine your argument.

btw it's bollocks as well.

[Stranded]

Financial Statement Coming !! but with no exact date as to when, well there is no surprise there !! just another "full of promise" bollox statement from our lame duck, dont give a toss management

Good to see you are waiting to see what it says before making any kind of judgement.

You really can;t blame the club for not releasing info they are under no obligation to make public, when they know full well there are so many people who only want it in order to further grind their personal axes.

....

In which case they shouldn't have made promises that they weren't prepared/able to deliver on! But then they've got quite a track record of doing that haven't they.

As for waiting to see what it says....... how long are people expected to wait. What's more, to counter those prepared to make a premature negative judgement, there's always those who will keep and preach the faith regardless.

This further backs my point in it being a fruitless exercise. As the majority of fans will already have their viewpoint as to the club and it's finances and the black and white numbers will do little to sway their entrenched views.

[Royal Rother]

But that sums up the entire fruitlessness of HNA.

There are a handful who will change their views week to week then the remainder who dig in and never budge an inch whilst saying the same thing again and again and again until everybody is bored witless.

[Terminal Boardom]

But that sums up the entire fruitlessness of HNA.

There are a handful who will change their views week to week then the remainder who dig in and never budge an inch whilst saying the same thing again and again and again until everybody is bored witless.

There are the odd one or two who are prepared to acknowledge if they have made a mistake. But it is difficult to maintain a rational attitude when confronted with the likes of Royalee and others.

[ZacNaloen]

Reading FC financial details
Posted on: Thu 01 Oct 2009

Reading Football Club is now able to publish a detailed insight into the club's finances.

When we entered the Premier League back in 2006, we had lost a total of £12,000,000 in the previous two seasons. The majority of that came in 2005/6 when the board made a conscious decision to invest heavily and push for promotion.

In our two seasons in the Premier League, the club received a total of £54,450,000 from central payments, including all television revenue. However, for those two seasons our wage bill was £59,370,000, outstripping central money received by almost £5,000,000.

Taking into account all other revenue, but before transfer activity, in our two Premier League years we made an operating profit of £6,300,000 then £7,000,000 respectively. That money was reinvested on two fronts - £10,600,000 on player transfers, and a further £7,450,000 on club infrastructure. Therefore, we came out of our two seasons in the Premier League with a deficit of £4,750,000.

Last summer the board again made a concerted attempt to ensure promotion, and every aspect of the club was run at a Premier League level - for example our wage bill was double that of the last time we were in the Championship. Even taking into account a parachute payment of £11,500,000 we made a loss of £6,265,000 last season.

Historically, the club has been able to manage any ongoing deficit thanks to a bank overdraft facility. However, as a result of the economic climate, this summer the club was asked to repay the total £7,500,000 overdraft, and we also needed to cover the £6,265,000 loss from last season. In order to help repay that total of £13,765,000, we raised £11,000,000 from the sales of Kevin Doyle, Stephen Hunt and Andre Bikey.

Despite that, the board have still invested £3,000,000 on transfer fees this summer. We remain on very solid financial foundations and are budgeting to break even this season. We are still enjoying the most successful period in the club's entire history, and we are confident we can once again push for success under Brendan Rodgers.

For the avoidance of any doubt, Sir John Madejski has not requested any repayment of his loans to the club.

During the past four seasons we have finished first and fourth in the Championship, as well as eighth in the Premier League, arguably the best league in the world. We would like to think that our success in the past few seasons demonstrates we can run the club in a prudent manner, but still achieve historic results on the pitch.

Financial prudence has been absolutely vital to our success in the past few seasons, and we will continue to run Reading Football Club in a manner that the board believe gives us the best chance of success and stability in both the short and long term.

This club has known unprecedented success under Sir John Madejski, and no individual has ever done more for Reading Football Club.


/ bitch slap

[Thaumagurist*]

You beat me to it, Zac. I'm really shocked that we lost a fair amount of money whilst we were in the Premiership.

Also, take note, you Madejski haters, he has not requested any repayment!

[Percy's Rocket]

All we wanted was some clarity in the facts for those of us who are not accountants. As long as these facts are correect it all looks fair enough to me. The costs of getting in to the premier league are frightening and it is a huge gamble to put that kind of money up front unless you have billions to burn.

[Bowman's Quiver]

A couple of initial thoughts.

Why did it take so long to prepare and post such a general synopsis of the club's financial position?

And why, when discussing revenue from the Premier League years do they not allow for "transfer activity", but then tell us how much they spent on players bought in to the club (£10.6 million).

I'm not normally one to be critical of the club but Disraeli spring to mind. T'was he who apparently said there are `lies, damn lies and statistics'.

[TFF]

And the views of the anti-Madejski crowd will be?

[ZacNaloen]

A couple of initial thoughts.

Why did it take so long to prepare and post such a general synopsis of the club's financial position?

And why, when discussing revenue from the Premier League years do they not allow for "transfer activity", but then tell us how much they spent on players bought in to the club (£10.6 million).

I'm not normally one to be critical of the club but Disraeli spring to mind. T'was he who apparently said there are `lies, damn lies and statistics'.

Christ.

[Alivey]

so once madejski demands his loans being paid we are f'd

[Sun Tzu]

so once madejski demands his loans being paid we are f'd

Not at all.

Because he owns the club. Therefore any debts are owed to him and by him.

He could foreclose and put the club into receivership, thereby ensuring he doesn't get repaid.

We are pretty safe - much safer than the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd or Liverpool with their dire financial positions.