Huddersfield Town’s “remarkable” success in gaining promotion to the Premier League has been hailed in a new report.
The scale of the club’s achievement in winning the Championship play-off final to join English football’s elite is underlined in accountancy firm Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance 2017.
And they Town could net more than £290m if they can survive their first Premier League season
The review analyses the financial health of English clubs and highlights Town’s success in debunking the notion that clubs had to spend heavily to win trophies.
Report author Dan Jones said: “Their 2016-17 play-off final win means Huddersfield Town rejoin the top flight of English football for the first time since 1972.
“This remarkable achievement again demonstrates the opportunity for any Championship club to reach the Premier League, regardless of their budget.
“In the 2015/16 season, Huddersfield’s wage costs were the Championship’s fourth-lowest.”
The report also stressed the rewards for promotion, saying: “The value of promotion to the Premier League continues to grow with both Huddersfield and fellow first-time arrivals Brighton and Hove Albion guaranteed a minimum revenue increase of £170m over the next three seasons.
“This could rise to more than £290m if they survive more than one season and may grow further when the next Premier League broadcast rights cycle commences in 2019-20.”
The review said Town and the other two clubs promoted to the Premier League at the end of last season – Newcastle United and Brighton – generated combined operating profits of £28m in the 2016-17 season – a year after recording a combined operating loss of £47m.
The review also highlighted the success of Leicester City in winning the Premier League title in the 2015-16 season, despite being ranked 15th by wage costs – demonstrating that factors beyond wage spend contribute to clubs’ on-pitch performance.
Mr Jones, partner in Deloitte’s sports business group, said the latest review focused on two “familiar themes” – continued “relentless” revenue growth across Europe’s major leagues, in particular the Premier League, and the commitment of clubs to spend this money on players via transfer fees and wages, again led by English clubs.
The review said TV earnings of £1.9bn in the 2015-16 season accounted for more than half of Premier League clubs’ total revenues. The new broadcasting deal, which came into effect last year, meant overall revenues continued to grow strongly with the share-out for Premier League clubs increasing by 46% to £2.4bn in that season – an average increase of £38m per Premier League club.
Deloitte said it now expected total Premier League clubs’ revenues to top £4.5bn in 2017-18.
