Bristol City have Another Turbulent Year, Announce Financial Losses

November 29, 2011

English Football League Championship side Bristol City’s financial losses have continued as they announced deficits in excess of £11million for the financial year ending May 31, 2011.

The npower Championship club reported a loss of £11,454,525, compared to the record deficit of £11,808,085 for the previous financial year.

Turnover increased from £11.1million to £11.9million, but staff costs also rose from £13.8million to £15.9million. The stadium project incurred a loss of £0.6million in 2011 compared with £1.9million the previous year.

City chairman Colin Sexstone insists the wage bill must come down if costs are to be brought under control, and he warned that players may have to be sold in order to help balance the books.

“The thing that stands out in this set of accounts is that our costs are far too high for the level of income we are taking. That is not acceptable and, clearly, we have to reduce our wage bill,” Sexstone said. “We are losing too much and we have to get those losses down to a sensible level. We need to have a football club that runs at a more sustainable level.

“We are going to have to be clever with players we bring in and also foster our youth development system. We will also have to sell players at certain times. I am not saying we want to become a selling club, but there will be occasions when we will need to be.”