Chelsea news: The Blues have released their accounts for 2021/22 and it only further serves as evidence for Todd Boehly's widescale changes.
With Chelsea's yearly financial accounts being released comes an even clearer image of just how far Todd Boehly has to take the club from an administrative perspective. Although the report, which is yet to be revealed in full thus leaving some details to the imagination for now, shows a rise in key areas it is far from ideal for the new owners.
"The results for the year have been impacted by the sanctions placed on the Club’s previous owner on 10 March 2022," it reads. "As a result of the sanctions, the Club was required to operate within the limitations of a special licence issued by the UK government. These restrictions were in place until the completion of the Club’s sale on 30 May 2022.
"During this period, the Club was restricted in a number of areas including, but not limited to, its ability to sell matchday and season tickets, sell merchandise, accept event bookings, as well as sign contracts with players and commercial sponsorship partners, which collectively resulted in extraordinary expenses and loss of revenue.
"Furthermore, some of these limitations are also expected to have an impact on the financials in the following years due to the long-term impact from restrictions on entering into new contractual arrangements. Towards the end of the sanctioned period, the Club was permitted to sell certain matchday tickets, with the Premier League committing to donate all revenue from these sales to charity."
Clearlake Capital founder Jose Feliciano has made the desire to improve the club's finances and sustainability clear previously, saying: “We think we have an incredible opportunity to double revenue. We think we have one of the best media properties and sport properties in the world where we can get to a £1billion of revenue.”
Given the latest accounts, that would mean more than doubling the revenue of the club, something that appears to be near impossible given Manchester City were ranked as world leaders by Deloitte with an estimated £613m of turnover last year. Even for the best in the game at the current stage, such growth is off-the-scale.
Growth in revenue has been slow but gradual, which makes sense, but for a club that were world and European champions when Boehly took over, it is still below the desired amount. It is noticeable that at LA Dodgers the revenue took a steep rise after just over 18 months for Boehly and his partners in America.
Further to that, between 2012 and 2015 the yearly income for the MLB side went from $245m (£200m) to $438m (£357m). This is an increase of over 56%. In the same time Chelsea went from £283m to £365.9m. Part of the Boehly-Dodgers plan was to majorly revamp the commercial, marketing and matchday revenue for the franchise, it worked and success followed on the field with higher spending than previously capable.
Boehly, however, does. The growth of Chelsea's squad has seen a massively increased spend on wages, an area the club are trying to work on with incentivised contracts. None of this happens overnight though and even next year's accounts won't fully represent the changes that Boehly has planned.
What is evident from looking back at the final set of Abramovich-related accounts is that Boehly was correct when assessing the club and realising that there is plenty to be done behind-the-scenes.
Given the potential exodus this summer it also shows the extent to which Boehly will have to make changes at the club, once more providing proof of just how large the challenge will be.
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