Bristol City have announced their accounts for the 2019-20 season and a large - but not unexpected - loss.
The Robins released a statement on Wednesday morning explaining that the latest accounts included a pre-tax loss of £10.07m.
However, that was always on the cards with COVID-19 affecting football over the last year and no crowds admitted to games.
City said that 'The loss for the year is within the expectations of the Board, reflecting the ongoing investment into the operations of the football club and wider operational infrastructure of the group, including investment in the new training facilities.'
CEO Mark Ashton explained that: “After making a profit for the first time in 2018/19 thanks to the sales of Joe Bryan, Aden Flint, Lloyd Kelly and Bobby Reid it was always going to be a more modest year.
“We traded well, especially with the moves of Adam Webster, Marlon Pack and Josh Brownhill and didn’t overstretch ourselves which has been key to making Bristol City a sustainable business.
“As always, we are indebted to Steve and Maggie Lansdown for their continued investment and financial support.
“We have had no matchday revenue from crowds since March 7 th last year so we are under no illusions that the results for this year will be very sobering and we will have to cut our cloth accordingly.
“Overall we are in a stable financial position, with a team competing at the top end of the Championship, and a new state of the art training ground opening in the Spring that will bring our first team and Academy together for the first time so we have a lot to look forward to.”
The club said that it made a profit on player disposals, ie, transfers and player trading, of £25.59m, which included the sale of Adam Webster to Brighton & Hove Albion, Marlon Pack to Cardiff City and Josh Brownhill to Burnley, while player purchases included Tomas Kalas from Chelsea, Daniel Bentley from Brentford and Ádám Nagy from Bologna.
