"Derby County have today released their accounts for the last financial year which covers the first season the club was out of administration following David Clowes' takeover.
Covering the period until June 30, 2023, Derby reported an operating trading loss of £10.6m out of a bottom line figure of £30.4m. But £19.7m of that amount relates to a statutory write-off of goodwill which is calculated by taking the purchase price of a business and subtracting the difference between the fair market value of assets and liabilities.
Derby's turnover for the 2022/23 season meanwhile was £20.4m, of which £15.1m was driven by ticketing, hospitality and sponsorship. That level of turnover for last season is thought to be only second to Ipswich Town who were subsequently promoted to the Championship.
The accounts also reveal that 20,603 season tickets were sold after the club exited administration with Derby recording an average attendance of 27,259 for the 2022/23 season which was one of the highest in the EFL.
Wages for the period until June 30 were £17.2m but that is a figure which includes all staff from stewards to catering all the way through to players and senior management.
It is understood that Derby's wage bill for the first-team squad last season amounted to £7.3m and that excludes the academy. Under EFL rules, League One clubs, who are in their first year following relegation from the Championship, are allowed to spend 75 per cent of turnover on wages in their first 12 months.
It is known as Salary Cost Management Protocol and Derby's wage bill under this EFL calculation was 42 per cent which underlines Clowes' commitment to running the club sustainably.
Interestingly, Derby made a profit on the disposal of players of £1.6m which is thought to include sell-on clauses that were included in deals for Morgan Whitaker who was sold to Plymouth Argyle by Swansea.
It also includes compensation the club earned for players such as Festy Ebosele and Lee Buchanan who joined Udinese and Werder Bremen respectively. The sale of Krystian Bielik, Jason Knight and Max Bird will not be included until next year's accounts are released.
Derby also had a reported £4.3m cash in the bank at the end of the financial year. The figures also show that Clowes paid a total purchase consideration of £13.2m to Quantuma which covered the running costs of the club during the nine months it was in administration.
Combined with the figure of £19.7m of creditors it had to pay under the EFL rules on exiting administration, Clowes effectively paid £33m to buy Derby when the accounts state it only had £13.1m worth of assets at the time of purchase."
