Saints become top money makers

Jun 24 2009 by Paul Behan, Paisley Daily Express

ST MIRREN have out-muscled Old Firm giants Celtic and Rangers to climb to the top of the SPL money-making league.

Latest figures released by finance experts at PricewaterhouseCoopers show that the Buddies sit top of the tree when it comes to being the most profitable club in Scottish football’s top flight.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, who provide audit, assurance, advisory and taxation services, issued their most up-to-date financial dossier on all 12 SPL clubs yesterday – and Saints are sitting pretty.

According to the firm, St Mirren are the SPL’s most profitable club after the sale of their former Love Street ground for £9.2million to supermarket giant Tesco.

They moved from Love Street in January this year to take up residence at their new home in Greenhill Road and the club’s finances make encouraging reading, culminating in a total profit of around £11million.

The report from PricewaterhouseCoopers covers the 2007/08 season and shows that the SPL as a whole reported a record-breaking profit of £23million.

Following a decade of losses, prudent financial action taken at boardroom level resulted in eight top-flight Scottish clubs reducing their debt, with two reporting no debt and all but one of the rest managing to break even.

Celtic had the highest wage bill for season 2007/08 at £39million – a 53 per cent wage-to-turnover ratio. Hearts were the only club in the SPL to report a loss, while Inverness and Falkirk operated with no debt during the same accounting period.

Rangers were the only club in the SPL to report an increase in net debt – up by £5million on the previous season to £21.6million.

The SPL attracted slightly lower crowds during the 2007/08 season, with average attendance figures down by three per cent from the prior season’s total to 184,297.

The increase in profit across the league was largely driven by the success of SPL clubs on the European stage, with Celtic reaching the last 16 of the Champions League and Rangers reaching the final of the UEFA Cup.

Much of the SPL’s profits were derived from media rights to broadcast matches, with the television deal agreed with Setanta representing £13million per season.

Interestingly, the report shows that Setanta income represented 20 to 30 per cent of clubs’ operating income.

However, the Irish broadcaster lost the rights to show SPL matches earlier this week.