Grabbing fifth place in the Premier League helped to boost turnover at Tottenham Hotspur from £70.6m to a record £72.1m in the 12 months to 30 June yet operating profits before player dealings slumped from £12.8m to only £2.4m.
A £12.3m profit on selling players just about offset the writing down of the value of the playing staff left on the books but pretax profits came in at only £600,000 compared with £4.9m in the previous less successful 12 months.
Spurs came close to qualifying for the Champions League, the top European club competition, but had to settle for the still lucrative UEFA Cup. The extra income should boost this year’s figures but the team will have to improve on its current 10th place at home to qualify again for next season.
A five-year sponsorship deal with sports goods brand Puma was signed in February and international gaming and entertainment group Mansion will cough up £34m over the next four seasons for having its name on Tottenham’s white shirts.
Media and broadcasting revenues were boosted by more live appearances on TV, one of the benefits of doing better in the league.
The ticket office has experienced ‘significant and unacceptable service issues’ in recent months. Chairman Daniel Levy promises that this is being dealt with but he hopes that more fans will book seats online to alleviate hold-ups.
Tottenham Hotspur shares slipped 1p to 69p today but they are still on an upward trend from below 20p just over three years ago. However, Spurs has found, as other clubs have, that success comes at a price and there are no guarantees in football even for those willing to splash out.