Rovers accounts for year end June 2018

[silent majority]

A key part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the VSC and DRFC is that we will be kept informed on a regular basis as to the financial health of the club. This is so we can monitor the financial ups and downs and make sure that situations like those at Bolton and Blackpool etc. don't occur here.

Part of that means we can sit down with the club once a year and go through the clubs accounts together, ask any questions we like and receive straight forward answers. In many ways it's a privileged position, and not many, if any, supporter groups at other clubs have this type of relationship.

The following is a précis of our discussions and the accounts for y/e June 2018;



Analysis of Doncaster Rovers Limited Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2018.

The financial statements up to 30th June 2018 for Doncaster Rovers Ltd (trading as Doncaster Rovers Football Club) have been completed and were passed to the Viking Supporters Co-operative for analysis.  The results of which are set out below.

Company Structure.

As reported last year, to standardise matters, dispense with any confusion and to fall in line with the corporate image of Club Doncaster, the company name was changed from Patienceform Limited to Doncaster Rovers Limited on 4th October 2017.
Further, last year, the club sadly had to come to terms with the passing of one of the Directors, Mr Richard Watson, who is greatly missed and very fondly remembered.
There were no further changes in the year to 30th June 2018.

Loans and “Debt to Equity conversion”.

During the year to 30th June 2016, it had been reported that there was a conversion of debt to the owners to equity provided by Club Doncaster. This had freed up the company from a large amount of debt to the owners. Loans within the club had been reduced at that time from £12.4M to £614K. During the ensuing year ended 30th June 2017, further cash was injected into the club in line with expectations and also in line with previous years. The cash injection came from Club Doncaster and at 30th June 2017, the outstanding loans by Doncaster Rovers Limited rose from the £614K of the previous year to £2.6M.
In the year ended 30th June 2018, those outstanding loans again rose from the £2.6M to £5.4M. This being through further input of £2.8M from Club Doncaster.

Accounting Loss.

In the financial year ended 30th June 2018, the financial loss suffered was £2.78M. This can be compared to the loss in the year ended 30th June 2017 of £2.14M. Increased wages were allowed for of approximately £500k, however due to the run of bad injuries to the playing squad, and a desire by the owners to give the manager a chance to succeed, this was increased by another £500k. Ultimately the increase in salary to the playing squad rose by £1m.
Thus the club, despite promotion back to League 1, had managed expectations extremely well, because of the Directors and staff controlling the spending budgets, even with an increase especially in player’s wages.
The loss would have been much more due to this promotion and increased costs if it hadn’t been for the tight controls to limit this and the generosity of the Directors.

Increase in Income.

At the end of the 2016/17 season, it was pleasing to find the club had finished in a promotional position in League 2 and the 2017/18 season would be fought out in League 1. As a result, Income in the year ended 30th June 2018 increased against the figures achieved in the prior year (higher match-day revenue, broadcasting revenue and another great performance by the commercial team). Overall income in the year to 30th June 2018 was £5.93M against the previous year of £4.93M.

Staff numbers.

Whilst the administrative staff and stadium staff had increased by 17 (in the previous year they had increased by 26), the football squad and support staff had increased by 6 (in the previous year it had been a decrease of 19). The return from League 2 to League 1 had meant there would be an increase in staff and players and in particular, the higher division had meant a higher quality of player and structure of player’s wages.

Overall.

Yet again the owners have shown their support of the club with both their immense business acumen and financial support. They had carefully controlled the budget and steered the club to their goal of sustainability and utilised the Club Doncaster Group model to increase revenue and share costs in which in turn will help to minimise the losses to a manageable level.

They had injected a further sum of £2.8M via Club Doncaster during the year. As the loss suffered by the club was £2.8M, then it can be seen that it was shored up by the aforementioned cash injection.

The owners have been consistent with earlier years and not let the club financially spiral out of control with increased benefits coming from Club Doncaster year on year.

[coventryrover]

Thank you owners.  The majority appreciate you and the fact we ate now a stable club.   Not the basket case.may others are

[Glyn_Wigley]

I wonder if the 'the owners don't want to spend any money' brigade will show up.

[i_ateallthepies]

Thanks for the information Martin.  And particularly big thanks to the club Directors for their generosity in time, expertise and financial support.

[Bristol Red Rover]

Thanks for the transparent and up to date info, and of course a huge thanks to our Directors for keeping th etarin rolling.

Forgive my ignorance here. Isn't the Club Doncaster money simply other language for what is essentially input from the Directors (shares, loans etc). So, the calling a spade a spade version is that DRFC were running at a loss of £2.8m, something that is likely to be similar for the year ending 30th June 2019?

How does that work out long term? eg all being the same, in 10 years without writing off debts we'll be in £30m debt?

[BigH]

Irrefutable proof, as if it were needed, of our owners' commitment to the cause. Thank you.

When you look at what's going on at Bolton, we should thank our lucky stars.

[Red wizard]

Thanks Martin. KUTGW.

[silent majority]

Thanks for the transparent and up to date info, and of course a huge thanks to our Directors for keeping th etarin rolling.

Forgive my ignorance here. Isn't the Club Doncaster money simply other language for what is essentially input from the Directors (shares, loans etc). So, the calling a spade a spade version is that DRFC were running at a loss of £2.8m, something that is likely to be similar for the year ending 30th June 2019?

How does that work out long term? eg all being the same, in 10 years without writing off debts we'll be in £30m debt?

Bristol, If you read the report again you'll see that we referenced the loan to equity conversion. The season before last the club wrote off about £12m of debt leaving DRFC pretty much debt free. An incredible amount of money for a club of our size and incredible generosity from our owners.

[silent majority]

I'm surprised nobody has commented on the playing budget increase that DF had at his disposal. An extra £1m over and above the year before, enough for us to be ranked 6th in the division, and yet he still complained.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

It shows we are in good hands and someone has the finger on the pulse at all times. You'd hope by now folk would trust the club with financial matters and spend less time worrying about it with endless threads about something we are not qualified to criticise. Again, the fact that the club opens the books up to us should tell us alot.

[Chris Black come back]

Complaining was not just the issue SM it was the rank underperformance - we never once I think made it into the top half.

[Bristol Red Rover]

Bristol, If you read the report again you'll see that we referenced the loan to equity conversion. The season before last the club wrote off about £12m of debt leaving DRFC pretty much debt free. An incredible amount of money for a club of our size and incredible generosity from our owners.

"equity conversion" - you lost me there!

I may be the only one not immediately and thoroughly understanding all this... Is "equity conversion" where there is a debt and it is written off, or changed to shares?

If that's the case, then we are only "sustainable" because directors (or Club Doncaster?) are effectively gifting us money. £2.5m a year is massive gifting, and obviously appreciated, but I can't see it as "sustainable" any more than someone who has a rich mama and dadda funding their lifestyle is sustainable - I'm assuming I'm not getting it, help me here

Another question - approximately how do we rank amongst say other League 1 clubs in terms of the amount of debt we have year on year (albeit debt that is somehow magically wiped out).

[Chris Black come back]

They exchanged debt (where one party owes another money) for equity (a share of ownership and potentially, share of profit).

As there will never be any profit derived from Rovers (or Club Doncaster) then the equity has no value other than as a claim on the underlying assets, which given we do not actually own the stadium are pretty minimal.

So they have effectively gifted the club a load of money, for a load of pointless equity because not only are we not a profitable concern and have few assets but the owners are I think something like 99pc owners of the currently issued share capital anyway.

Short story - they have given us money for free.

[Jonathan]

Don’t forget there is a clear difference between sustainability and self-sufficiency.

If the generous annual input of the directors is at a level that they see as sustainable, then we ought to be very grateful for that. It means we are being funded by the owners at a sustainable level. I’m sure everyone would love us to be self-sufficient, but maybe that’s still a pipe dream in the modern game.

The negative connotation that people on here associate with sustainability has always baffled me. It’s as if they would prefer it wasn’t an aim, in which case the obvious alternative would be an unsustainable model. Crazy!

[Bristol Red Rover]

Thanks CBCB, and Jonathan. Good point re sustainability being within the bounds of what the directors are prepared to put in - that is a LOT of money each year.

[RedJ]

They exchanged debt (where one party owes another money) for equity (a share of ownership and potentially, share of profit).

As there will never be any profit derived from Rovers (or Club Doncaster) then the equity has no value other than as a claim on the underlying assets, which given we do not actually own the stadium are pretty minimal.

So they have effectively gifted the club a load of money, for a load of pointless equity because not only are we not a profitable concern and have few assets but the owners are I think something like 99pc owners of the currently issued share capital anyway.

Short story - they have given us money for free.

Throwback to when Terry Bramall was only in it to line his own pocket (what the f**k was that all about) and only wanted to be part of the club so he could build a hotel/casino/rocket to the moon on car park 3.

[vaya]

They exchanged debt (where one party owes another money) for equity (a share of ownership and potentially, share of profit).

As there will never be any profit derived from Rovers (or Club Doncaster) then the equity has no value other than as a claim on the underlying assets, which given we do not actually own the stadium are pretty minimal.

So they have effectively gifted the club a load of money, for a load of pointless equity because not only are we not a profitable concern and have few assets but the owners are I think something like 99pc owners of the currently issued share capital anyway.

Short story - they have given us money for free.

Throwback to when Terry Bramall was only in it to line his own pocket (what the f**k was that all about) and only wanted to be part of the club so he could build a hotel/casino/rocket to the moon on car park 3.

Let's face it. If there's one sure fire way of making money it's ploughing it into lower league football clubs.

[DonnyOsmond]

Bristol, If you read the report again you'll see that we referenced the loan to equity conversion. The season before last the club wrote off about £12m of debt leaving DRFC pretty much debt free. An incredible amount of money for a club of our size and incredible generosity from our owners.

"equity conversion" - you lost me there!

I may be the only one not immediately and thoroughly understanding all this... Is "equity conversion" where there is a debt and it is written off, or changed to shares?

If that's the case, then we are only "sustainable" because directors (or Club Doncaster?) are effectively gifting us money. £2.5m a year is massive gifting, and obviously appreciated, but I can't see it as "sustainable" any more than someone who has a rich mama and dadda funding their lifestyle is sustainable - I'm assuming I'm not getting it, help me here

Another question - approximately how do we rank amongst say other League 1 clubs in terms of the amount of debt we have year on year (albeit debt that is somehow magically wiped out).

We're financially stable to be a League One team but the extra puts us in the top 6 budget range. If the owners stopped funding us tomorrow the club would be OK and would have a future due to theirs and others (JR, etc) help over the last 15/20 years.

[Filo]

They exchanged debt (where one party owes another money) for equity (a share of ownership and potentially, share of profit).

As there will never be any profit derived from Rovers (or Club Doncaster) then the equity has no value other than as a claim on the underlying assets, which given we do not actually own the stadium are pretty minimal.

So they have effectively gifted the club a load of money, for a load of pointless equity because not only are we not a profitable concern and have few assets but the owners are I think something like 99pc owners of the currently issued share capital anyway.

Short story - they have given us money for free.

Throwback to when Terry Bramall was only in it to line his own pocket (what the f**k was that all about) and only wanted to be part of the club so he could build a hotel/casino/rocket to the moon on car park 3.

Rocket to the moon?

No ambition, Mars should have been a minimum 😀

[silent majority]

They exchanged debt (where one party owes another money) for equity (a share of ownership and potentially, share of profit).

As there will never be any profit derived from Rovers (or Club Doncaster) then the equity has no value other than as a claim on the underlying assets, which given we do not actually own the stadium are pretty minimal.

So they have effectively gifted the club a load of money, for a load of pointless equity because not only are we not a profitable concern and have few assets but the owners are I think something like 99pc owners of the currently issued share capital anyway.

Short story - they have given us money for free.

Throwback to when Terry Bramall was only in it to line his own pocket (what the f**k was that all about) and only wanted to be part of the club so he could build a hotel/casino/rocket to the moon on car park 3.

Yes, there was one particular poster on here who argued vociferously and often that he knew exactly what TB's intentions were because of his 'insider knowledge'. According to him it was all about getting their hands on the land so they could exploit it to be able to make money. I'll not embarrass him by naming him, or his dad, although I'm seriously tempted.

After all I became his target too, not just on here but he would attack me on that Facebook page too, the clown!

[johnny rovers]

They exchanged debt (where one party owes another money) for equity (a share of ownership and potentially, share of profit).

As there will never be any profit derived from Rovers (or Club Doncaster) then the equity has no value other than as a claim on the underlying assets, which given we do not actually own the stadium are pretty minimal.

So they have effectively gifted the club a load of money, for a load of pointless equity because not only are we not a profitable concern and have few assets but the owners are I think something like 99pc owners of the currently issued share capital anyway.

Short story - they have given us money for free.

Throwback to when Terry Bramall was only in it to line his own pocket (what the f**k was that all about) and only wanted to be part of the club so he could build a hotel/casino/rocket to the moon on car park 3.

Yes, there was one particular poster on here who argued vociferously and often that he knew exactly what TB's intentions were because of his 'insider knowledge'. According to him it was all about getting their hands on the land so they could exploit it to be able to make money. I'll not embarrass him by naming him, or his dad, although I'm seriously tempted.

After all I became his target too, not just on here but he would attack me on that Facebook page too, the clown!

He's got form, that's for sure!