RFC annual accounts up to 30th June 2025

[Royals and Racers]

Just published today.
I cannot access them currently on the Companies in the UK website.

[Clyde1998]

link

Headlines (relates to the 2024-25 season):

1. Revenue - £9,805,651 (-£195,897* on 2023-24)
   1. Broadcasting - £2,449,139 (-£673,795)
   2. Matchday - £4,268,177 (+£164,595)
   3. Commercial - £2,986,196 (-£125,223)
   4. Other - £102,138 (-£340,373)
2. Administrative expenses - £14,067,756 (-£2,195,337)
   1. Wages and salaries - £12,407,926 (-£-3,410,031) [wages to turnover: 126.5%]
3. Profit on disposal of player registration - £9,508,267 (+£5,518,484)
4. Operating loss - £3,761,188 (+£9,216,768)
5. Loss for financial year - £3,882,035 (+£9,182,402)
6. Average Attendance - 10,645 (-3,267) [including cup matches?]
7. Season Ticket Holders - 8,069 (+128)

The numbers don't add up. The 'Turnover and other revenue' section lists £10,001,548 as our total revenue for the 2024 accounts, but it adds up to £10,780,446. I'm far from qualified to be commenting too much on them though.

[Brogue]

expalined here

https://huangkad.substack.com/p/reading ... ounts-2425

https://huangkad.substack.com/p/reading ... s-2425-d13

[Sutekh]

So they reveal an improvement, which is all we can realistically hope for - Reading will never be financially self sustaining, just like most of the rest of the clubs in the English professional league system.

[hughsies no.1]

expalined here

https://huangkad.substack.com/p/reading ... ounts-2425

https://huangkad.substack.com/p/reading ... s-2425-d13

Chat GPT is great isn’t it!

[Brogue]

expalined here

https://huangkad.substack.com/p/reading ... ounts-2425

https://huangkad.substack.com/p/reading ... s-2425-d13

Chat GPT is great isn’t it!

Hi hughsie, depends who you ask. But it’s certainly got its fan boys

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Suggests that the £1M a month net input from the new owners is pretty accurate...

Also, LOL at the people who claimed player wages would be half the previous year's figures...

I reckon they will be in the same ballpark for the period to June 2026...

If we aren't promoted, there's some big decisions for the owners in terms of who's sold and who's kept...

[Clyde1998]

Kieran Maguire: https://x.com/KieranMaguire/status/2038 ... 47/photo/1


One positive which sticks out is our EBIT/EDITDA is the lowest level since the final years of the Thais and that had the benefit of parachute payments. Our lowest since 2010-11 without parachute payments otherwise.

This longer term look just shows how well run we were under Madejski.

[Snowflake Royal]

So, in actual fact, we did not lose £10m last season. We do not have to lose £10m every season. We cut the loss to about £3m.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

So, in actual fact, we did not lose £10m last season. We do not have to lose £10m every season. We cut the loss to about £3m.

As long as we sell £10M worth of playing talent each season or increase other revenues in an equivalent manner..

You are correct - but it is being slightly facetious given its clear that a Club of Reading's footprint has a structural loss of around £10M built in....

And remember, Dia's last season saw lots of cost cutting and lay offs - and despite £9.5M of player sales still lost £3M...

[Snowflake Royal]

So, in actual fact, we did not lose £10m last season. We do not have to lose £10m every season. We cut the loss to about £3m.

As long as we sell £10M worth of playing talent each season or increase other revenues in an equivalent manner..

You are correct - but it is being slightly facetious given its clear that a Club of Reading's footprint has a structural loss of around £10M built in....

And remember, Dia's last season saw lots of cost cutting and lay offs - and despite £9.5M of player sales still lost £3M...

Player sales should be something we do every season and built into our business plan.

Wage bill was still way too high though. And I suspect it will be higher if anything this season.

Hopefully we can make the POs and get a nice wedge from that. And then start next season well, playing nore entertaining football to boost attendance by 2-3k.

[Brogue]

So, in actual fact, we did not lose £10m last season. We do not have to lose £10m every season. We cut the loss to about £3m.

As long as we sell £10M worth of playing talent each season or increase other revenues in an equivalent manner..

You are correct - but it is being slightly facetious given its clear that a Club of Reading's footprint has a structural loss of around £10M built in....

And remember, Dia's last season saw lots of cost cutting and lay offs - and despite £9.5M of player sales still lost £3M...

Player sales should be something we do every season and built into our business plan.

Wage bill was still way too high though. And I suspect it will be higher if anything this season.

Hopefully we can make the POs and get a nice wedge from that. And then start next season well, playing nore entertaining football to boost attendance by 2-3k.

Getting bums on seats has to be the priority. Agree completely we should be selling players every season. 9million quids worth is going to be difficult mind.

[tidus_mi2]

As long as we sell £10M worth of playing talent each season or increase other revenues in an equivalent manner..

You are correct - but it is being slightly facetious given its clear that a Club of Reading's footprint has a structural loss of around £10M built in....

And remember, Dia's last season saw lots of cost cutting and lay offs - and despite £9.5M of player sales still lost £3M...

Player sales should be something we do every season and built into our business plan.

Wage bill was still way too high though. And I suspect it will be higher if anything this season.

Hopefully we can make the POs and get a nice wedge from that. And then start next season well, playing nore entertaining football to boost attendance by 2-3k.

Getting bums on seats has to be the priority. Agree completely we should be selling players every season. 9million quids worth is going to be difficult mind.

Absolutely, and the style of play has a massive factor in this, usually a play-off charge results in higher attendances but we're definitely not seeing that.

It does seem that the club is largely run closer to a Championship level but our wages I would say are definitely standard for League One, losing £13m before player purchases/sales isn't great but it isn't horrific either in my opinion.

[Snowflake Royal]

As long as we sell £10M worth of playing talent each season or increase other revenues in an equivalent manner..

You are correct - but it is being slightly facetious given its clear that a Club of Reading's footprint has a structural loss of around £10M built in....

And remember, Dia's last season saw lots of cost cutting and lay offs - and despite £9.5M of player sales still lost £3M...

Player sales should be something we do every season and built into our business plan.

Wage bill was still way too high though. And I suspect it will be higher if anything this season.

Hopefully we can make the POs and get a nice wedge from that. And then start next season well, playing nore entertaining football to boost attendance by 2-3k.

Getting bums on seats has to be the priority. Agree completely we should be selling players every season. 9million quids worth is going to be difficult mind.

Yes, absolutely. But if we can target one player a season for a couple million and maybe a small handfull for a few hundred k each, it's a good step.

But as long as we're in L1, a Cat 1 Academy is unsustainable at about £5m a year.

[Snowflake Royal]

Player sales should be something we do every season and built into our business plan.

Wage bill was still way too high though. And I suspect it will be higher if anything this season.

Hopefully we can make the POs and get a nice wedge from that. And then start next season well, playing nore entertaining football to boost attendance by 2-3k.

Getting bums on seats has to be the priority. Agree completely we should be selling players every season. 9million quids worth is going to be difficult mind.

Absolutely, and the style of play has a massive factor in this, usually a play-off charge results in higher attendances but we're definitely not seeing that.

It does seem that the club is largely run closer to a Championship level but our wages I would say are definitely standard for League One, losing £13m before player purchases/sales isn't great but it isn't horrific either in my opinion.

Our wages are consistently top 7/8 in L1.

[Hound]

As long as Olise keeps getting sold for huge sums every year we’ll be fine

Real challenge now to keep the academy going in some form and keep finding players who we can sell on for good sums. Hopefully we can get full value for them now we are run better. Not sure how Bindon is getting on now but maybe a sell on or add on there at some point

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Given the accounts are end of year June 25 assume the transfer income received is largely Olise to Bayern plus some of the Smith money from Wrexham and any other add ons for previous academy players eg Hyam? Knibbs was sold quite near the start of the season I believe so we'll have his money plus any from Wareham & Craig in this year's numbers.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Reading Today report:

"Player sales for the financial year of 2024/25 year included Sam Smith, Femi Azeez, Tyler Bindon and a sell on clause for Michael Olise."

https://rdg.today/reading-fc-losses-cut ... ts-reveal/

[Linden Jones' Tash]

If:

Matchday - £4,268,177 (+£164,595)

Then we need to at least double that, if not more to make a dent in the losses.

Bigger crowds certainly but potentially also Higher prices?...

The revenue per fan is very low compared to the top end benchmarks...

Still not sure fans could fill the gap even if they wanted to...

[stealthpapes]

usually a play-off charge results in higher attendances but we're definitely not seeing that.

Brogue posted the stats earlier in the year and I didn't think play offs or thereabouts actually made that much of a difference. Promotion did, which raised the question "at what point is a season clearly a title push and not just a play off chase".
Like, there's an extra 1500 on the attendances between 10-11 and 11-12 but we only nudged into contending for title in the last months ... 10-11 is similar to 09-10, when we finished mid-table, but also 14-15 and 15-16 when we were pretty rubbish.

Anyway.

The one thing that was clear was that mediocrity sheds fans.