Hereford FC shareholders were told this evening that the club is expected to have made a loss of £45,000 in the year ending May 31st 2023.
The losses for the last four years amount to a staggering £628,000.
And the shareholders funds at May 31st were down to just £5,000.
In essence the club was close to folding.
However season tickets sales started just in time to improve finances and along with good gates so far this season the position has improved.
Chairman Chris Ammonds spoke to BN after the meeting.
"It's a difficult situation but we felt we had better come out and let people know exactly where we were in terms of the financial position at the end of the last financial year which ended on May 31st.
"The figures that we will be putting forward to be audited are recording a loss of around £45,000 which is clearly disappointing. You don't want to be making a loss. But that is the position where we are.
"The key thing is since those figures have been known we've done a real exercise in terms of trying to put things right and trying to make sure we never find ourselves in this position again.
"Over the course of the last couple of months there's been a lot of work to try and remedy the situation.
"Prior to that there was the reduction in the playing budget and the management budget which has previously been spoken about. A 20% reduction in that compared to last season.
"Clearly this loss comes off the back of two, three, four years of losses prior to that so it was a serious situation."
Some figures given to shareholders:
Headline Figures (unaudited) For 2022/23 Financial Year (all figures mentioned are gross)
Turnover – £1,265,000 (approximate breakdown as follows):
- Matchday ticket sales – 23%
- Bars/Hospitality/Room hire – 18%
- Season Ticket sales – 16%
- Sponsorship/Commercial/Shop – 16%
- Donations – 6%
- TV money – 5%
- League income – 3%
- Cup prize money – 2%
- Other – 11%
Expenditure – £1,310,000 (approximate breakdown as follows):
- Players, coaching and management costs – 42%
- Bar costs – 14%
- Administrative costs – 13%
- Wider football related costs (kit, travel, training facilities, match officials etc) – 12%
- Administrative/Office staff – 8%
- Shop costs – 2%
- Repairs and renewals – 2%
- Other costs – 7%