Sheffield Wednesday today revealed their accounts for the year ended 31st May 2008 and reported a retained profit for the second year in a row.
The profit of around £2.2M in general terms represents a good achievement, especially considering that the average loss for a Championship club in the previous season was around £3M.
However, the fact that this profit was achieved solely due to the money gained from player sales shows that it not all good news and there may be harder times ahead.
The transfers of the likes of Glenn Whelan and Chris Brunt earned the club in excess of £3M but it is highly debatable whether the club currently have any playing staff that would be able to command such a return, certainly not individually and performance wise the team cannot afford to continually sell off their best players if they are to be competitive.
Furthermore, last season's gate receipts showed an increase of almost 18% on the previous year. The 2009 accounts are not likely to sustain this based on attendances so far. Attendances at Hillsborough are down significantly on the last campaign, during which the worst home league crowd the club recorded was 17,211 against Charlton. There have already been 4 league games with lower gates than this at S6 this season, with the increase in ticket prices unlikely to make up for the loss in numbers in order to maintain the level of growth achieved in 2008.
It is worth noting that the club has a wages to turnover ratio of less than 60%, which is one of the best in the Championship. In an era of overspending and inflated player wage bills, the club should be commended for this as many clubs do not enjoy success that is relative to the high amounts they spend on wages and they may well have to pay for this in the future. On the other hand, having such a prudent approach, whilst understandable given the clubs overall debt, makes it hard to compete in terms of the quality and stature of players that the club is able to attract.