Publication on the penultimate day of 2024 of West Ham’s accounts covering the 2023/24 season was a spit-out-your-tea moment for fan groups. As bold as brass the accounts said: ‘Fans are the lifeblood of our club and are always foremost in our decision making. We have a board objective around putting our fans first in our decision-making recognising our custodianship.’
The reality has been the club slashing concession tickets with zero consultation with fans. The blame for this attack on those who can least afford it was the need to meet stringent Premier League rules. The club could not afford the discounted tickets, it said.
The accounts read differently: ‘The club continues to comply with Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules and expects to do so in the future as the new Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) rules are introduced in the forthcoming years,’ the accounts read.
The numbers make clear there is absolutely no reason to kill off concessions. In short, the club had a record year, pocketing its highest ever turnover and turning a handsome profit. Turnover was up £33m (14%) from £237m to £270m, and the club turned around an £18m loss the previous year into a £57m pre-tax profit – a £75m improvement (selling Declan Rice helped enormously).
There was a big uptick in operating costs, mainly to do with ‘player amortisation’, which is a way of accounting for the value of players. Wages grew 18% as the number employed grew from 790 to 881. But the most expensive director – not named but certainly Lady Karren Brady – saw her purse bulge by an extra 6% (£80,000).
Her total package was an eye-watering £1.437m. That’s where all the money saved from concessions will go. Here’s some more of the fiction contained within the official accounts:
‘The objective going forward is for the club to continue to create an environment and mentality built around the core values that our supporters cherish – hard work, desire, youth, team spirit, togetherness excitement and all for our fans at home and across the world – qualities that underpin our identity on and off the pitch.
‘The loyalty displayed by the club’s fanbase, indicated by the high level of season ticket renewals for the 2024-25 season, gives us one of the highest numbers of season ticket holders in London and the Premier League, putting the club in a strong position as we move forward.
‘Despite our recent success, in line with our values and commitment to our community, the club continues to offer the cheapest adult season ticket and one of the cheapest junior season tickets in the Premier League, which is aligned to our objective to make London Stadium accessible to all and to support our local community with affordable family football in the heart of the capital.’
Let’s just pause a moment to reflect on that. The club won’t share ticketing data with fan groups, so we have to do the sums ourselves. Fan groups reckon there are only 264 seats available in the cheapest seating band. Only one of them is ever available on general sale, suggesting the rest are already sold as season tickets.
The accounts make the grand claim: ‘A family of four (two adults and two under-18s) could attend all Premier League home fixtures for £47.78 per match.’ Theoretically that might be true, but 264 seats out of a 62,500 capacity makes it an exaggerated claim. There are lies, damn lies and West Ham ticket price statistics.
Fan groups have been using the previous year’s accounts to argue with the club that with ticket sales accounting for just 17.3% of income there is no need to cut concessions. The new accounts show ticketing income to be even less important. Match receipts rose by 9% to £44.6m but this was just 16.5% of total income, as broadcasting income rose significantly.
The accounts show broadcasting revenue 13% higher at £167m, commercial income 19% higher at £41.9m, and retail income 25% higher at £16.1m. The accounts state that the match income reflected ‘the higher attendances in the UEL and generally higher match by match income driven by the growth of the Ticket Exchange, while maintaining accessible prices for supporters’.
The number of tickets sold on the heavily criticised Ticket Exchange are not included in this set of accounts. Last year the accounts said there had been just 3,682 resales on the official channel. Many more sell on unofficial sites and Facebook channels.
Again, fan groups have submitted several suggestions for improvements to the Ticket Exchange – to pay in real money not ‘club cash’, for example. It appears that what we say goes in one ear and out the other. West Ham’s accounts say: ‘We aim to give every one of our fans a voice.’ Yes, but will you listen?
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