West Ham costs rise by ‘25%’ after club-record sale – Stefan Borson
West Ham’s running costs have increased by around 25 per cent after the latest financial accounts have been released at the London Stadium.
That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the east London club have historically been good at keeping their costs down.
West Ham published their accounts for 2023-24 on 30 December, revealing their turnover rose from £236.7million in 2022-23 to a club-record £269.8million.
That was driven by their improved position in the Premier League, having finished ninth in David Moyes’s last season at the London Stadium, as well as higher European income and a £19.4million increase in broadcast revenue to £167million.
West Ham’s matchday revenue grew by £3.7million to £44.6million, while their commercial income was £6.8million higher than 2022-23 at £41.9million.
The London side also managed to go from making a £17.1million loss in 2022-23 to last season recording a £57.2million net profit, which was largely driven by the club-record £105million sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal.
But West Ham’s wage bill surged from £136.9million to £161million, with their operating costs also increasing from £190.7million to £224million.
West Ham costs have increased after inflation rise
Borson suggested it will be interesting to see whether other Premier League clubs have also seen a rise in their operating costs.
He told Football Insider: “There are no real surprises in West Ham’s numbers because it’s a relatively simple situation to model.
“There are no major unusual transactions in there. There has been an interesting increase in their costs. They have been historically really good at keeping their operating costs down.
“The sort of costs we are talking about are the running costs of the club, excluding the wages, so the costs of running the business, the tour to Australia and those sorts of costs.
“They were up by about 25 per cent. Obviously, we have had quite a lot of inflation over the last couple of years, just in the running costs of utility bills and things like this. But a 25 per cent increase is quite a lot.
“What’s interesting about that is what that might mean for some of the other clubs around, and whether that signifies that a lot of football running costs in the next set of accounts that we see are going to be similarly increasing at these 20 per cent rates.
“It is going to make an impact in terms of looking at some of the modelling on some of the clubs as to whether they are going to pass PSR.
“If they have actually had a 20 per cent increase in other operating costs, that’s going to be another hit to their profit and loss.
“That’s going to be quite interesting to see come through.”
In other news, West Ham will accept “huge Arsenal offer for Mohammed Kudus”.
For more West Ham and exclusive news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.