HUDDERSFIELD Town will celebrate the 100th anniversary of their first league championship victory in 2023-24, the first of three consecutive triumphs that made the club the toast of the 1920s.
As time passes, it seems remarkable that Huddersfield should have won a hat-trick of successes, especially as since world war two, the Terriers have spent just 11 years in the top flight. The 2023-24 season will be their fifth consecutive campaign in the Championship after relegation in 2019.
The club has just released its 2021-22 financials for a season that ended with Huddersfield being beaten in the play-off final by Nottingham Forest at Wembley. They finished third in the league table, one place above Forest. The momentum somewhat evaporated in 2022-23, with a final placing of 18th.
The 2021-22 season was Huddersfield’s third with parachute payments, which had gone from £ 42 million in 2019-20 to around £ 15 million in 2021-22. This obviously impacted on the club’s total revenues. Income for the season totalled £ 30.8 million, a 31% drop on 2020-21, which was a year that saw matchday income decimated by the pandemic. It is clear to see the importance of those parachute payments.
In 2021-22, matchday revenues totalled £ 5.3 million, three times the amount accrued in 2020-21. In fact, this figure was higher than both the recent Premier League seasons. Broadcasting totalled £ 21.4 million, a fraction of what the club was earning in 2018 and 2019, when Huddersfield received over £ 200 million across the two years. The commercial revenue stream generated £ 4.1 million, better than the past two financial years but less than half of 2019 and 2018.
The club made a pre-tax loss of £ 3.8 million, not calamitous compared to most clubs in the Championship, but also an indication of their relatively modest financial position. Huddersfield have made a loss in seven of the last 10 years, the highest being the £ 19.6 million lost in 2017.
One area that needs improvement is the profit made on player sales. In 2021-22, this was less than a million pounds, but in the previous five years, the club made almost £ 40 million on the disposal of players. Understandably, since relegation in 2019, Huddersfield have been chipping away at their wage bill, and in 2021-22, this amounted to £ 20.3 million, around a third of the amount paid in each of the two Premier years. The wage-to-income ratio was 66%, the highest since 2017 when it peaked at 138%. In the Championship in 2021-22, 16 of the 24 clubs had a ratio over 100%.
The club also has a low level of cash, just £ 1.3 million, but net debt has come down from 2019 when it was £ 63 million to £ 41.7 million.
Huddersfield’s position is clearly less precarious than many of their rivals, but without the parachute payments, the club would have been more exposed in a difficult period. They are now owned by Kevin Nagle, the owner of Sacramento Republic FC, but this was a relatively recent development. This ended a period of uncertainty that began when Dean Hoyle sold a 75% stake to Pure Consultancy Ltd in 2019, but the owner of that company saw his main business interests placed into administration. This meant Hoyle had to return to the club and he provided cash to see them through what might have been a major crisis. By March 2023, Hoyle had 100% of the club’s shares in his possession. Generously, he also wrote off £ 40 million owed to him by Huddersfield Town.
In February 2023, Neil Warnock (74) came out of retirement to manage Huddersfield, his 11th different current Football League club. Twenty players have been released in the close season but the Terriers are hoping to improve on 2022-23.
GAME OF THE PEOPLE 