Bournemouth Finances 2022/23

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AFC Bournemouth’s financial results for 2022/23 covered a season when they finished fifteenth in the Premier League, thus maintaining their position in the top flight after coming up from the Championship the previous year.

After a poor start to the club’s second spell in the Premier League, head coach Scott Parker was replaced by Gary O’Neil in August 2022. However, despite managing to keep the Cherries up, O'Neil was dismissed after the season ended, with former Rayo Vallecano manager Andoni Iraola arriving in his place.

Ownership

Iraola was hired by new owner, Bill Foley, General Partner of Black Knight Football and Entertainment, who had bought Maxim Demin’s 100% stake in Bournemouth in December 2022 to end the Russian’s 11 years tenure.

Foley has some experience in running a sports club, as he also owns the Vegas Golden Knights, a successful NHL franchise. Various figures have been given for the purchase price, but it looks like it was at least £100m.

Profit/(Loss) 2022/23

Bournemouth swung from a £56m pre-tax loss to a £44m profit, an improvement of exactly £100m in the bottom line, though this was largely thanks to an exceptional £71m gain after the write-off of shareholder loans.

In addition, revenue shot up £88m from £53m to a club record £141m following promotion to the Premier League, though profit from player sales dropped from £7m to just £2m. Much of the revenue increase was eaten up by operating expenses rising £55m (50%) in the top flight.

The main driver of Bournemouth’s revenue growth was broadcasting, which almost tripled, rising £80m from £43m to £123m, due to the far more lucrative Premier League deal.

However, there was also good growth in the other revenue streams, especially commercial, which more than doubled from £5.3m to £12.6m, while match day increased £0.3m (5%) from £5.1m to £5.4m.

In addition, other operating income was up from £0.7m to £2.0m.

In order to boost their chances of surviving in the Premier League, Bournemouth invested in the squad: wages rose £39m (63%) from £61m (including hefty promotion bonus payments) to £100m, while player amortisation increased £11m (39%) from £30m to £41m.

Other expenses also grew £4m (25%) from £17m to £21m, while net interest payable was up 12% from £6.8m to £7.6m.

Bournemouth’s £44m pre-tax profit is the third best in the Premier League to date, only surpassed by Brighton £133m and Manchester City £80m, though they would have reported a £27m loss without the £71m loan write-off.

However, that was a lot better than the chunky losses posted by many other Premier League clubs. No fewer than nine clubs have lost more than £50m to date: Aston Villa £120m, Tottenham £95m, Leicester City £90m, Everton £89m, Southampton £87m, Newcastle United £73m, Nottingham Forest £67m, Wolves £67m and Arsenal £52m.

Player Sales 2022/23

Furthermore, Bournemouth’s relatively good financial result was achieved without much benefit from player sales, where the profit dropped from £7m to just £2m.