HUDDERSFIELD Town have announced a £5.7m loss for their promotion season.

In the third full year of Dean Hoyle’s chairmanship, spending increased to £8.09m on the playing side and culminated in the step up to the Championship.

The figures for the 2011-12 campaign do not include the £8m sale of Jordan Rhodes to Blackburn Rovers and reveal Town’s total turnover dropped by £600,000 to £7.39m.

Hoyle’s own contribution rose yet again to over £3m while there was over £1m of capital expenditure investment, primarily on the Canalside training complex.

The chairman emphasised Town must plan sensibly for the future, within new financial guidelines for the game.

Town must be run with realistic expectations, financial prudence and sound business practices, while always seeking to be innovative and not just ‘one of the pack’.

He explained: “It was a memorable 2011-12 season and it ended on the best possible note with the fantastic achievement of promotion to the Championship.

“That success marked a major step forward for the club on the field and creates many new opportunities for the future.

“Getting the club back on track is a long-term job. Lots of hard work and money has been spent on getting us to this point but the club must stand on its own feet. We need to start doing things differently.

“The combination of lower losses from Financial Fair Play rules, our own improved commercial trading plus cash from player trading mean this is becoming a more realistic prospect.”

Turnover was hit by the fact Town made less from Cup competitions last season than the previous.

For a fourth consecutive year, recurring turnover was up 11% at £6.52m, driven by a 34% increase in commercial income.

Town made £2.36m profit from player sales – including Lee Peltier and Anthony Pilkington – while there were additions of new player transfers of £2.2m (2010/11: £829,000).

The club, who lost a total of £4.1m the previous season, when they lost in the play-off final, believe they have performed strongly in the transfer market, with total asset value of registrations at £2m – considerably below resale value.

Town’s rent and other contributions payable to the stadium company, KSDL, increased £8,000 to £838,000 (excluding stewarding).

Chief executive Nigel Clibbens said the loss of £5.7m had been expected and planned. It was largely down to one-off promotion bonuses, plus contract termination costs for the previous management team headed by Lee Clark.

Large recurring losses – and continued significant shareholder support (from Hoyle) – are unsustainable, he explained.

“Dean Hoyle’s continuing funding for the transfers of new players, football expenditure and long-term investment in projects like Canalside has once again been very significant, but critically this has been accompanied by promotion. Championship football is very important to the sustainability of this club,” said Clibbens.

“We must be successful on and off the field, so the continued growth of the club’s own recurring income – and further improvements in its ability to pay-its-way from everyday business operating activity – is encouraging.

“This is especially noteworthy in such tough economic times for our supporters, and also after a prolonged stay in League I.

“For the first time, our long-term improving trading has been supplemented by significant income from player trading. Promotion plus these combined effects point towards financial viability and sustainability for the club.”

Clibbens added that stadium costs continued to be a heavy drain on the club.

“On-the-field promotion, together with further long term improvements made off-the-field during the ‘New Era’ (under Hoyle), has provided a solid platform for 2012/13 and future years,” said Clibbens.

“The hard work goes on every day right across our community in a tough climate, where we will not take any supporter for granted.

“We cannot compete financially in the Championship by seeking success based on spending more money.

“We must go down a different route, but this takes time. We are building and developing our own approach with strong values and a clear philosophy; we have a clear vision of what we want to be.

“We are long-term advocates of the need to change the finances of football and wholeheartedly welcome ‘Financial Fair Play’, which we believe is consistent with our own long-term strategy and the interests of the wider game.

“Looking forward, even though we will benefit financially from promotion, we expect 2012-13 to be a challenging year commercially for the club as we adjust to life in the Championship.

“We forecast (underlying recurring) income will increase by around £4m to around £11m, with a £3.5m rise in underlying contribution (from the chairman). However, in the short term, this will be matched by modest increases in our football expenditure as we seek to compete on the field.

“Operating losses will be incurred again, but defrayed by record profits on player trading following the sale of Jordan Rhodes in August 2012.”

Former Huddersfield Town manager Lee Clark working under tough conditions at Birmingham City: Click here to read