It's crazy how football finance works, and we're not going to pretend to understand it, but when you're faced with headlines like the one we've written here, only to have sat through months of talk of Newcastle United being hamstrung by PSR, it's no wonder fans are left scratching their heads.
Newcastle United have today released their financial results for the year ending June 2024 and in it we've seen some big increases across the board, but none have been more impressive than the 90% increase in commercial revenue.
That's even more impressive when you consider that the club still doesn't have a commercial partner for the training ground, training kit or stadium.
Along with the increase in commercial revenue, Newcastle also posted 32% increase in matchday revenue, which was boosted by the participation in the Champions League last season.
Overall, the club's revenues increased 28%, which is impressive, but Newcastle are still way off the pace of the 'big six' so there'll be no time to sit around and congratulate each other in the boardroom.
CEO Darren Eales released a statement along with the results on the official site saying that the work continues.
"We grew our revenues by 28% in the twelve months to 30 June 2024, with an increase in matchday revenue as well as significantly improved sponsorship deals and a sharper focus on everything we are doing across the club.
"We continue to make significant strides with our commercial deals and matchday offerings as we strengthen the foundations of the long-term project here at Newcastle United."
To give an idea of how far we are off the pace, Liverpool's recently released accounts show that they generated £614m in the same period, which enabled the Reds to spend £386m on wages.
Meanwhile, Manchester City spent £412.6m on wages in their title-winning campaign last season, which is almost double the £218.7m Newcastle United spent.
Wages tend to have a direct correlation to the final league position, and as such it's evident there's a gulf when you are outside of that 'big six' which is being perfectly blocked off by PSR and Associated Party Transaction rules.
As for what these figures all mean in terms of PSR and Newcastle's spending budget for the summer, only time will tell.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
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29 | 42 | 70 |
2 |
![]() |
29 | 29 | 58 |
3 |
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29 | 14 | 54 |
4 |
![]() |
29 | 16 | 49 |
5 |
![]() |
29 | 15 | 48 |
6 |
![]() |
28 | 9 | 47 |
7 |
![]() |
29 | 6 | 47 |
8 |
![]() |
29 | 5 | 45 |
9 |
![]() |
29 | -4 | 45 |
10 |
![]() |
29 | 12 | 44 |
11 |
![]() |
29 | 5 | 41 |
12 |
![]() |
28 | 3 | 39 |
13 |
![]() |
29 | -3 | 37 |
14 |
![]() |
29 | 12 | 34 |
15 |
![]() |
29 | -4 | 34 |
16 |
![]() |
29 | -16 | 34 |
17 |
![]() |
29 | -18 | 26 |
18 |
![]() |
29 | -34 | 17 |
19 |
![]() |
29 | -40 | 17 |
20 |
![]() |
29 | -49 | 9 |