A trip to Rangers awaits Aberdeen – but their annual accounts don’t make for pretty reading as the brutal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic hits hard.
Derek McInnes’ side take on Rangers in good spirits, currently sitting third in the Premiership after a strong opening period of games. But off the park, like many, this season has been costly.
Rangers are the hosts for Aberdeen today. (Photo by Scott Baxter/Getty Images)
No fans at Pittodrie and a lack of revenue from that and others as a consequence of no supporters has hit their pockets hard. They aren’t the only ones affected, Rangers posting a loss of £15.9 million for the financial year up to June.
Other clubs like Hearts and Hibs meanwhile have introduced wage deductions and deferrals, Aberdeen forced into their own cost-cutting measures at the start of the season.
Now chairman Dave Cormack has spoken out ahead of the Rangers game. The financial update for the year ending June 30 shows a loss of £2.92m at Pittodrie, up from £1.03m and wages‐to‐turnover ratio has also increased 10%.
Aberdeen have joined the likes of Rangers in taking heavy losses. (Photo by Scott Baxter/Getty Images)
Cormack says this could potentially change the Scottish football landscape: “Despite a further £1.1million cash injection from our investors last month and a record player sale, our financial gap, due to the ongoing pandemic crisis, is widening.
“We are sustaining losses for every home game we play without fans and may be forced to take further, painful measures to ensure the club’s future. At Aberdeen Football Club this could require us being forced to scale back our operations, which would have an impact on the supply chain which depends on our matchday operations.
“I certainly wouldn’t be budgeting for 8,000 Aberdeen fans to buy a season ticket again if there is no plan. How many fans will buy season tickets in Scotland across the board? Who knows? How can you budget for 2,000, 3,000, 4,000?
Tough to take, (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group via Getty Images)
“The other thing is that our normal turnover is about £16million and about £2.2m of that are season ticket holders. It’s also all the other revenue streams that come into play. We’re in a fortunate position where commercially we do really, really well as a club.
“But that also now is hammering us because of the lack of hospitality and commercial income. The message is this: with no plan there will be significant, significant cuts in Scottish clubs starting at the end of the first quarter of 2021.
“This is real for Scottish football and our societies. This is so important right now that this tsunami for Scottish football could really result in the mass reconstruction of clubs.