Town made a loss before tax of £4.3 million in the year to the end of June 2017, the club has announced.

Ahead of this evening’s PLC AGM in the Sir Bobby Robson Suite shareholders were given a sheet outlining the financial highlights of the overall club for the year to June 2017.

The PLC owns 12.5 per cent of Ipswich Town Football Club Co Limited and consists of the club's shareholding prior to the takeover 10 years ago with Marcus Evans owning the other 87.5 per cent.

The club made an operating loss of £7.8 million in the financial year 2016/17, while receiving £4.1 million from player sales.

Most of that came from the £3 million paid by Newcastle for Daryl Murphy, while around £650,000 came from Chelsea for academy striker Charlie Brown and the Blues would also have received top-ups from previous deals such as Aaron Cresswell’s move to West Ham in 2014 with Town due further cash as the left-back hit appearance milestones.

In the previous financial year Town made a gross loss of £3.4 million and an operating loss of £6.6 million, having received only £603,000 from player trading.

The club’s overall debt has grown from £86.51 million to £89.26 million, owed almost entirely to owner Evans’s other companies with MD Ian Milne having previously outlined the position.

“This is no third party debt," he told TWTD in November 2014. “The money that an owner has put into a club, he’s never going to see that back, unless maybe it goes up [to the Premier League]. But even then I doubt he’ll see that return.”

Town’s turnover in 2016/17 was up slightly from £16.28 million in the year to June 2016 to £17.24 million.

The wage bill, by far the club’s biggest outlay, was £17.78 million, up from £16.57 million during the 2015/16 season.

Gate receipts were down from £6.5 million in 2015/16 to £5.13 million last season, while commercial income also dropped slightly, from £4.43 million to £4.35 million.

The average attendance was down from 18,959 in 2015/16 to 16,980 last season, while season ticket sales were also lower at 12,022 in 2016/17 from 14,017 the previous year with a further drop to around 10,500 ahead of the current campaign.

“Gate receipts were down on last season due to lower attendances,” the highlights document explains. “Also in 2015/16 the club received a significant share of gate from Manchester United in the League Cup which boosted last year’s overall gate receipts.

“Commercial revenue was slightly lower than 2015/16 due to reduced match day catering and merchandise sales although this was partly offset from the successful Elton John concert in June.

“Football League income was higher than last year due to an increase in both the basic award distribution and solidarity payments via the Premier League.”

Regarding costs, it adds: “Direct costs increased from £19.7 million in 2015/16 to £21.4 million due mainly to player wages, medical costs and associated agent fees as further funds were invested in the first-team squad and our academy.

“Administrative expenses decreased from £2.4 million to £2.3 million in the season 2016/17 as a result of general cost savings.”

The financial highlights can be found in full on the club site here.

Photo: Action Images

lightingblue added 09:41 - Dec 12 Don't expect much in January. In all defence to McCarthy and Evans they've tried their best on limited resources. We could so easily end up like what Portsmouth have done. It's a battle i should imagine to try and keep the club even in the championship. I can't imagine many other super rich wanting to invest in Ipswich. It's not a trendy place.
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Bergholtblue added 13:44 - Dec 12 So that is another £4m that our, so called tight fisted, owner has to plough into the club just to keep us afloat. Yet still people are not happy. Some of you need a reality check. Look at Blackpool, Bolton, Wigan, Portsmouth, Coventry, et al, all of whom have been in the Premier League, even won FA cups, and look where they are now. Whilst I cannot say I admire our brand of football at the moment I will say that I think MM has done a fantastic job of keeping us where we are given his resources. And the reason that MM had limited resources is probably that ME thinks that £90 m in debt is about the limit. The days of spending multi-millions on superstars like Priskin and Chopra are long gone. What these figures show us are that we have become a selling club, so expect goings as well as comings in the January window.

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blueconscience added 15:15 - Dec 12 That's the cost of not going for promotion
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Kikapu added 15:32 - Dec 12 Yeh, it's always easier to gamble with someone else's money, blueconsience.
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Seasider added 17:30 - Dec 12 Blue 75.Agree that the empty seats need filling. The figures mentioned in the above report show a steady decline year on year. I wonder what would happen if Mick the Marvellous goes,do you not think attendances would increase;and the attendees would pay unlike the schools and charities.
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Rensham added 17:33 - Dec 12 How about a ground share with Colchester Utd at the Weston Homes Community Stadium? That would save a load of cash.
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tractorboybig added 18:31 - Dec 12 Now . are we going backwards? what ever evans reason, with out him we would be a non league club
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Daleyitfc added 19:39 - Dec 12 It's important to squash this 'Evans saved the club' nonsense once and for all : when my fellow shareholders did the 'turkeys voting for Christmas' thing 10 years ago (myself and Bryan Knights alone voted against the Evans takeover), the club was in a stable financial position essentially breaking even each year, after repaying existing loan interest ; and Jim Magilton was in charge of the team, not doing fantastically but, as it turns out, doing a whole lot better than the 3 goons that followed him. Chances are, without the Evans takeover, we'd now be a Premier League club ... and my investment would be worth what I paid for it, not the 1/8th of that amount that is now left after the rest was used to 'bribe' the Marcus Evans Group into buying the club.

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FromIpswichToPhoenix added 19:45 - Dec 12 There is a glaring red flag here. “This is no third party debt," he told TWTD in November 2014. “The money that an owner has put into a club, he's never going to see that back, unless maybe it goes up [to the Premier League]. But even then I doubt he'll see that return.” No one, NO ONE invests in a losing investment out of the goodness of their heart, no matter how much of a fan you are of something. The only reason you keep an investment that is losing significant money is for the tax write off. ITFC is more valuable to Evans as a failing club. We'll never see the premiere league as Evans would lose his tax benefit.

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braveblue added 20:10 - Dec 12 How much of the less us depreciation and interest payments. Also, how much is due to the drop in attendances thanks to our genius board. Take this out and you will see that this costs Evans nothing.
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cat added 20:32 - Dec 12 So much speculation, assumptions and wasted energy on here, as you can attend as many AGMS as you like, check Companies House or listen to others, but the only ones who know the full facts about a business are the business owners. Better energy would be spent on the lack of entertainment being served up, or falling attendances, as these are things we can see and control respectively. Personally it's lack of entertainment, styles and systems, soon as MM departs I'm purchasing an ST, simply as that.

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heathen66 added 21:35 - Dec 12 When the Loan deals for Lawrence, Willams and Best cost around £3m (previously documented) and for two of them to seldom play, it is not surprising we made a loss. The 2k season ticket holders that walked (and another 2k again this season) mainly due to awful football / entertainment being encouraged by the manager is another £1m deficit per season. However the ones that are dishing this up are contributing to a wage increase of 7.3%. If I was Mr Evans I would be instructing MM to concentrate on the cups too, as this will bring in much needed revenue(Seriously professional sportsmen...tired...really !!!). You never know, a cup run drives enthusiasm in the town and can have a positive effect on the team and in the stands, which is then translated into the league...just a thought !!! It does not look good reading to me, and we need to address the slide before it is not too late. One or two good games a seasonwill not be enough to bring the fan back that has been disillusioned for 2-3 years. The supporter needs to see progress and direction on and off the pitch. This season we have made some good signings in Waghorn, Garner Celina and especially Huws. We have the best GK in the league, but still try to bore the opposition (and us) into submission, and hope to nick something late on (still with 4 defenders and 2 holding Midfielders even though you are 2-0 down). We need direction from the top otherwise it will be another £4.5m loss next year with STs down to under 9k and none of us on here (pro or anti Evans /McCarthy) want to see that.

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blueconscience added 22:26 - Dec 12 Kikapu added 15:32 - Dec 12 Yeh, it's always easier to gamble with someone else's money, blueconsience. He chose to buy the football club, surely he knew he would have to gamble to succeed.
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Fen69 added 02:02 - Dec 13 Read nowt into this, media stated ages ago that any profits liable to tax, so running at a loss every year is perfect for ME to keep ahead of taxman legally. Nothing to see hear move along gents!
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DiamondGezzer added 09:06 - Dec 13 Sorry itfcbam, pressed the wrong button. Agree.
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brittaniaman added 09:51 - Dec 13 Nobody has mentioned how Bournemouth, Huddersfield, Southampton, Watford, all got through to the Premier with very little money ???? Also I think that those teams were in a lower division, while we still were in the championship. Our only glory lately (if you can call it that) is we are the longest serving members in the Championship.
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whosroundisitanyway added 09:59 - Dec 13 Bergholtblue Priskin & Chopra, superstars?????!!!!!! Really? Think maybe you need a reality check!! ;-}
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Guru_of_Ipswich added 10:10 - Dec 13 Brittaniaman, I don't think you can say that Bournemouth went up with little to no money, I believe I am right in the fact they broke ffp by quite a way that season. As for 10 years on we are no further forward quotes from earlier, it's more the speed of other clubs progression which has accelerated much quicker than ours which is the factor, there is unfortunately silly money being spent at the moment for absolute gash players. So we should revel in the fact we can pick up diamonds like Waggy for peanuts. And we need ME a hell of a lot more than some fans think, if we didn't have him (or anybody in that fact) we would basically be out of business. As for Mick, I'm not his greatest fan but nobody can deny to even get us close to thinking we could go up and this season improving our style is a minor miracle. I just wish he would think before he speaks sometimes.

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Pilgrimblue added 20:12 - Dec 13 Agree with you a lot Guru. At the moment Evans is what we've got and he is funding Town. But he's getting free publicity and against his other business he's getting massive tax reduction. I too not keen on Mick and while he's done well in difficult situation, his general manner doesn't do it for me. Arrogance, northern attitude etc may be funny at times but he wont leave it alone and keeps having a dig. He obviously feels he has nothing to lose and maybe this confirms that he's off in May.

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oioihardy added 15:02 - Dec 14 I'm sorry but the people blaming mick for his. How can you bring the man into the topic. He is a manager of a football team. Not the owner of the club. Shut the f*ck up. And support the team. Look where we are in the table. It's a decent position to be in. Getting fed up of these town fans throwing abuse at mick when the story has nothing to do with him.
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