Rent paid Highfield Road from published accounts
2005 102833
2004 308500
2003 308500
2002 425000
2001 415232
match day expenses (utilities etc) were on top of that.
yes had to rent HR but then we had no choice but to rent the Ricoh
When making comparables it also helps to compare like with like but will leave that to others to figure out
make of it what you will - am not making a comment
But people don't compare like with like. The rent paid at HR is the final few seasons enabled the club to operate the stadium 365 days a year. There were not a huge amount of facilities at HR, but there were bars, restaurants, function rooms and conference facilties. The club could profit from those facilities and in addition had access to all corporate hospitality and other matchday revenues.
At the Ricoh, £1.3 million bought us nothing more than use of the facility 25 times a year with no access to F&B revenues, and no opportunity to profit from any business activities on non-matchdays. Why would you make any comparison between HR rent and Ricoh rent? You might as well compare apples with pork pies.
The last season at HR, the club turned over approx £8.7 million making a loss of about 900K. Our first year at the Ricoh we turned over £9.9 million making a loss of £3.3 million - this despite the fact that attendances went up by nearly 6000 on average AND that both ST and matchday prices were increased considerably. FInancially we were much better off at HR (even when we didn't own it).