Munster’s success boosts stadium firm
THE company behind Thomond Park last year returned to profit on the back of attendances at the Munster stadium doubling for the 2016/17 season.
New accounts show that Thomond Park Stadium Company recorded an operating profit of €234,000 in the 12 months to the end of June last.
This followed the company recording an operating loss of
€150,000 in the prior year – a positive swing of €384,000.
Stadium manager John Cantwell confirmed that revenues at the company increased by 30pc – going from €2m to
€2.6m for the year.
He said this was driven by the additional knock-out matches at Thomond – the PRO12 semi-final and Champions Cup quarter-final plus the match against the Maori All Blacks.
“There was additional license fee income and bar and catering revenues resulting from these matches.” he said: “We are very happy with the financial performance of the stadium for the year 2016/17 which saw us return to a profit generating position (pre-depreciation).
“We continue to be heavily dependent on the success of the Munster team and we are constantly looking to ways of driving our non-matchday revenue.”
In terms of the current year, Mr Cantwell added: “We are expecting a reduction in revenues this season as last year was exceptional but we will still be in a profit-making position with cash flow similar to 2016/17.”
Mr Cantwell said the company incurred non-cash depreciation costs of €1m last year and if this cost was taken into account, the stadium recorded a post-tax loss of €774,000 for the year.
Numbers employed by the stadium company remained at eight and staff costs increased to €359,346.