Bristol City have announced record losses of £11.8million for the last financial year. Chairman Steve Lansdown insists the latest loss is sustainable but admits the club's current balance sheet is `a mess.` The npower Championship club lost £11,808,085 during the year ended May 31, 2010, almost double the then-record shortfall of £6,565,072 announced 12 months previous. While the losses can be explained in part by the cost of developing City's training headquarters at Failand and funding the new stadium project at Ashton Vale, players' wages again proved the biggest contributory factor in the club's spiralling debt. Turnover was £11,149,882 compared with £11,673,051 the year before, staff costs rose from £10,227,578 to £13,823,516, new stadium project costs amounted to £1,969,718 and City lost £,162,357 on player trading. "I don't want to give the impression that the club is in trouble. I think people realise that most of the funding comes from myself but the balance sheet looks a bit of a mess at the moment because of the push we have made to make the football club more successful," wrote Lansdown in the report. "In the short term the support of the board will see the club through these difficult times; in the longer term, however, it needs to increase its turnover and control its costs."
Source: PA
Source: PA