Finances: Glaws in good health, says report

Whatever some supporters might think about Gloucester’s playing strength both at the end of last season and as the start of a new season approaches, it appears the club is in tip-top health from a financial point of view. With many pundits predicting that at least one Premiership club could face financial collapse in 2009-10, it appears that if that does happen, it won’t happen to Glaws.

The club’s Financial Director Peter Darnbrough says Glaws have turned a big loss into a health profit in the space of a year.
The club is one of the most profitable in the Guinness premiership, with a turnover of about £3m and Darnbrough says that the building of the new stand and it’s use for the first time last season is a basic foundation of that happy situation.

He told the Citizen that a loss of £410,000 in 2007 had been turned into a £587,000 profit in 2008, and that turnaround of £1m was owed largely to the income generated by the new stand.
He said: "The latest accounts demonstrate we have turned around by almost £1 million from a loss to a profit. This is essential to repay the cost of the new facilities.
"Overall the club is much more fundamentally robust than it ever has been. The building of the new stand is central to that.
"The average attendances since it went up are greater than the total capacity beforehand. That shows the decision to build was correct."
He added that plans to redevelop the Shed at Kingsholm will now go ahead as scheduled.
The club debt stand at £8m, but with Kingsholm valued at £almost 21m that is regarded as manageable in this day and age and had gone up from £5.6m because of the cost of the new stand, which now generates income for the club on non-match days.