Stoke City Completely Debt Free

With all of the publicity surrounding Portsmouth falling into Administration yesterday coupled with reports that debt levels in the Premier League top the rest of Europe put together, some refreshing news has come in light of Stoke City announcing they are 100% external debt free.

Stoke have come on leaps and bounds in recent years and are now an established Premier League team after a brilliant first year in the top flight. 

Stoke have also showed the gulf in money opportunities between the countries top two league with their financial results for their first top tier season.  The accounts have showed that annual turnover has boomed by almost 500% compared with their final season in the Championship.

Last year’s results showed a turnover of £54m, up from just £11m in the previous year, this has meant an annual profit of £503,000.

The Coates Family, owners of Stoke City seem to be representing a more sensible approach to the running of a club that other people currently in the industry and have invested around £17m interest free into the club with a further £24m planned.

“The club has invested heavily to put together a team capable of being capable in the Premier League, but this has come at a heavy cost in respect of the high initial player cost of investment and the consequential ongoing player wage bill," said club chairman Peter Coates.

Further investment in the club’s infrastructure has also been coupled with the investment in playing staff.  This has seen the club’s ground, the Britannia Stadium is now fully owned by the club.  This follows the 51% stake in the ground previously owned by Stoke City (Property) Limited being bought by Stoke City Holdings Group Limited.

The stadium has also been refurbished recently and a state of the art new training complex is said to be ‘taking shape’ at a cost of around £7m. 

Posted at 09:00AM Feb 27, 2010 by Marc Stenton in The Economy  |  Comments[0]