Stoke City Finances 2022/23

Police On My Back

Stoke City’s 2022/23 financial results covered a season when they finished 16th in the Championship, which means that they have now finished in the bottom half of the table five years in a row since relegation from the Premier League in 2018.

Manager Michael O’Neill was sacked after a poor start to this season, replaced by Alex Neil, though the Scot was in turn succeeded by Steven Schumacher last December.

That makes five managers that have been tasked with restoring Stoke’s fortunes on the pitch, but unfortunately little appears to have gone right for them since the club dropped down to the Championship.

Even though they are backed by the wealth of bet365, Stoke have been constrained by the need to comply with the EFL’s Profitability and Sustainability regulations, though it’s also true that they did not make the most of the parachute payments they received after relegation.

Profit/(Loss) 2022/23

Stoke swung from a £102m pre-tax profit to an £11m loss, though the decline reported in the accounts was almost entirely due to the owners of the club forgiving £120m of historic debts in the previous season.

In terms of normal business, Stoke’s revenue was unchanged at £31m, though profit from player sales rose £4m from £11m to £15m. Operating expenses were slightly trimmed by 4% (£2m) to £58m.

If we take the exceptional loan write-off out of the equation, Stoke actually showed a £7m improvement over 2021/22 with their loss narrowing from an adjusted £18m to last season’s £11m.

Denise Coates, joint chief executive of Stoke’s parent company bet 365, said, “The principal reason for the improvement in year-on-year losses is attributable to the profit the club earned on the sale of player registrations during 2022/23.”

Indeed, Stoke still made a £27m operating loss, which was partly compensated by £15m from player trading.

As a technical aside, these figures relate to Stoke City Holdings Ltd. In the football club, there was hardly any difference in terms of the overall 2022/23 loss of £11m, as wages and depreciation were lower, but this was offset by higher other expenses.

Not only was Stoke’s total revenue flat compared to prior year, but there was also little movement in each of the revenue streams. There were small increases in both broadcasting, up £0.3m (3%) to £9.3m, and commercial, up £0.3m (2%) to £16.9m. However, this was offset by a £0.5m (10%) reduction in match day to £5.1m.

The club continued to cut costs, so the wage bill fell £7.3m (20%) from £37.4m to £30.1m, while there were also reductions in player amortisation, down £1.5m (26%) from £5.7m to £4.2m, and player impairment, down £0.6m to £0.1m. On the other hand, other expenses increased by £6.4m (41%) from £15.7m to £22.1m.

Although Stoke’s £11m loss is still not great, it was actually not too bad for the Championship. In fact, it is the third best financial performance of the eight clubs that have published 2022/23 accounts to date.