Argyle net a profit despite tough year

PLYMOUTH Argyle FC has made a £376,000 profit, after season-ticket holders decided not to ask for refunds when Covid-19 kept them out of the stadium.

The club, which has published its annual report and financial statement for the year to June 2021, said it is virtually debt-free and in a strong financial position despite the losses caused by the pandemic which meant matches had to be played behind closed doors during the 2020/21 season.

But the League One club, currently top of the division, said it would have made a loss of more than £1 million had it not been bailed out by fans, sponsors, the Premier League, and chairman Simon Hallett, and had not secured a £2.5m payment from its insurers. And Mr Hallett has now made it clear that the £3.5m he has put into the club, a loan which was converted to shares, will be the last cash injection he will make.

The club said the 2020/21 year was “one of the most unpredictable periods in the club’s modern history” but it was still making progress towards gaining promotion to the Championship and remaining financially sustainable with earnings covering expenditure.

David Ray, the club’s head of finance, praised the “generous backing” from supporters, and sponsors and stakeholders, and the “diligent approach” from the directors and senior management and said that turning a profit was “a considerable achievement.”

But he said the surplus nevertheless represented a “somewhat misleading picture” and said that the pandemic-hit 2019/20 and 2029/21 seasons viewed together, with the former resulting in a £674,000 deficit, represented an overall loss and the current profit was due to “several unique contributions”.

Mr Ray said: “Firstly, our deep and sincere thanks must go to our supporters – 97% of you turned down your option to claim a refund on 2019/20 season tickets, before purchasing nearly 5,000 season tickets for 2020/21 despite knowing that the chances of setting foot inside Home Park for anything other than a vaccine were slim.

“Similarly, our commercial sponsors continued to support the club, despite the disruption they each faced in their own businesses.”

He explained that the club used the Government’s furlough scheme and using the refurbished Mayflower Grandstand as an NHS mass vaccination centre meant “we are grateful to the NHS for the financial support that this opportunity gave us”.

The club has £6.75m in the bank, the financial report showed, with the reserves providing “vital security”.