Crystal Palace report £58m loss for pandemic-hit 2019-20 season
Crystal Palace have announced a £58m loss for the 2019-20 season as a result of Covid-19’s impact on football.
The Premier League club saw revenue fall £13m to £142m, while operating expenses increased by £15m to £154m.
The drop in income was largely due to the effect of matches in the second half of the season being postponed or played behind closed doors.
Chairman Steve Parish said: “We are pleased to report that the club well placed to look forward to the 2021-22 season having seen out what we all hope is the worst of the economic impact of the pandemic.”
Palace’s decision to extend their accounting period to 13 months, in order to include the entirety of the protracted 2019-20 campaign, increased expenses by £10.5m.
The club estimate that Covid-19 will reduce revenue by £30m over the two seasons affected by the pandemic, 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Palace say the pandemic had a negative net impact of £11m on 2019-20 which, coupled with the change in accounting period, led to an EBITDA loss of £11.7m rather than a profit of £9.8m.
Their pre-tax loss of £58m represented a big swing from a £5.5m profit in 2018-19.
They ended 2019-20 with a cash balance of £58.4m, although this was largely money borrowed from external lenders and shareholders.
“Some sound financial planning and prudence along with supportive shareholders has granted us both stability and the continuation of investment in the club,” Parish added.
Palace finished 14th in the Premier League in 2019-20 and repeated that performance last season.
The club has since appointed former France and Arsenal midfielder Patrick Vieira as manager, following the departure of Roy Hodgson.