TIGHT BUDGETS

CLUB MAKES PROFIT OF € 45K AS TREASURER PRAISES HUGE WORK IN IMPROVING FINANCES

THE end of year 2016 finances were a vast improvement for Sligo Rovers compared to the year previous, with the club recording an operating profit of € 44,987. Roll back twelve months and it was a completely different scenario altogether. By the end of 2015, the club made a loss of € 169,502, as departing managers and struggling League form saw fans intervening from seeing the club go down to the First Division.

Treasurer David Rowe presented the club’s 2016 finances during the AGM last Tuesday in the Clayton Hotel. the 2016 turnover of € 1,067,735 was in comparison to 2015’ s € 1,048,066 and 1,474,843 for 2014, when the club was last in Europe.

The Treasurer admitted that while stringent efforts had gone into improving the club’s books, yet it was still an enormous struggle to keep things afloat.

Mr Rowe said: “A huge amount of work has gone into the annual finances, it’s a miracle to make it balance and we made a relatively small surplus of € 45,000 which was absolutely necessary.”

He said that the club, whenever it made surpluses, always put money back into the grounds and that is why the it’s fair to say the grounds are one of the best in the League, he added.

The Treasurer said that 2016 was a tough year for those on the management committee and by no means was the club out of the woods yet financially.

Turnover was up 2%, while the club’s expenses, which stood at over € 1.2m in 2015, had dropped to € 1,020,72 for 2016, which was a significant drop.

The main income from gates was up to € 174,000 for 2016 from € 158k, he added. “Gates suffered with a number of fixtures not on Saturday, the pause for the Euros also affected things and being mid- table and a fair bit out meant people weren’t coming to see relegation battles, not that we wanted to be in that position.”

There was an increase in prize money, with Sligo Rovers getting a little bonus of € 40,000 for European Fair Play earlier in the year.

The ambassador fundraising events, which were praised many times at the AGM, brought in € 36k for the club, and also included a fashion show.

“We didn’t have Rally around Rovers ( which brought in € 76k in 2015 after fans sought to help the club’s finances) - however we did have these ambassador events which were very important to us,” Mr Rowe told the audience.

Another positive was a major drop in players’ salaries.

“There was a major fall in players’ salaries down from € 538k to € 392k, there was an increase in management and coaching ( from € 71k to € 104k) as we spiked up areas of strength and conditioning and the backroom team and we’ve seen the benefits of that. The major item is that player salaries are down very significantly,” the Treasurer added.

A bank loan saw the club owe € 63k in 2015, with Mr Rowe indicating this had dropped to € 35k by the end of 2016.

Another big change the Treasurer highlighted from 2015 to 2016 was that in 2016 the club had a Revenue liability of € 65k, which was almost totally cleared now, down to € 4k.

Mr Rowe added: “What’s happened is that there’s a big fall in what we owe - down € 202k to € 126k - it’s still not in a brilliant place,” he pointed out.

Some of the season ticket money was used to pay some of what the club owed, but the Treasurer said the cashflow problem still exists.

“We are struggling to make ends meet with very little cashflow, so we’re still not in a great place,” he explained.

With regard to 2017’ s Budget, the Treasurer said it is € 1.1m, an increase of € 70k on the current year, taking into account no European competition receipts for the third year running.

He said with the changes happening in the League, there was a danger of the League becoming the have and the have nots - those teams left behind the top four.

“There’s a huge difference between getting € 200k for the Europa League and what you get for finishing fifth,” he pointed out.

In saying that and despite the club’s cashflow being tight, they are fully up to date with Revenue, the club’s Budget has been approved by the FAI and all the requirements have been submitted for the FAI Licensing 2017.

“It’s fair to say we got good value on playing and management staff last year.

“The Astro has € 40k outstanding on it, with an income of € 60k, we’re paying € 12,800 on the loan every year.”

The Treasurer said the club’s main aim is targetting getting into Europe within the cashflow ability that is there.