Brighton’s pre-tax profit fell from £133m to £75m in the last financial year, though Bloom was fully justified in calling this “another healthy profit”. Brighton’s £75m pre-tax profit is the best result in the Premier League to date in 2023/24, just ahead of Manchester City £74m and West Ham £57m. Revenue increased by £18m (9%) from £204m to £222m, which was a new club record, but profit from player sales dropped from £121m to a still more than decent £110m.
In addition, other operating income fell £21m from £25m to £4m, as the prior year included £23m compensation from Chelsea for taking Graham Potter and his support staff, and operating expenses rose £42m (19%) from £220m to £262m.
All there revenue streams were higher, partly due to playing in Europe, led by broadcasting, which rose £9m (6%) from £155m to £164m. There was also decent growth in commercial, up £6m (25%) from £25m to £31m, and match day, up £3m (13%) from £25m to £28m.
In the last two seasons Brighton have registered two of the nine highest profits ever in England. The £75m in 2023/24 is ninth best, while the previous season’s £133m is the second highest ever, only surpassed by Tottenham’s £139m in 2017/18 (driven by Gareth Bale’s big money sale to Real Madrid).
Brighton have posted a profit three years in a row, adding up to a hefty £232m, which marks a major turnaround after the losses arising from many years of investment. In fact, they only managed to generate a profit once in the preceding 13 years.
As a sign of how far Brighton have come, they have the 21st highest revenue in the world, according to the Deloitte Money League. This is their highest ever ranking, two places better than the previous season, putting them ahead of clubs like Napoli, Roma, Eintracht Frankfurt and Benfica.
_Player sales_
Of course, Brighton’s huge profit owed a lot to excellent profit from player sales of £110m, although this was a little lower than the previous year’s £121m. This was mainly thanks to Chelsea, who paid a British transfer record to acquire Moises Caicedo and also bought Robert Sanchez. Premier League clubs have only made more than £100m from player trading on ten occasions, so it is impressive that two these were delivered by Brighton – in each of the last two seasons.
Brighton have now made a staggering £294m from player trading in the last three seasons, which is a dramatic change in their approach, e.g. in the previous eight years their profits from this activity added up to only £29m.
In fact, in the two seasons up to 2022/23, only two clubs in the Premier league generated more player sales profits (just) than Brighton’s £184m, namely Manchester City £189m and Chelsea £186m. The Albion made more money than Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal and Newcastle United combined.
Chief executive Paul Barber explained the importance of player sales to Brighton’s strategy, “The player trading model is one where we think we can punch above our weight with a combination of using our own academy to develop the best possible talent from local resources and by fishing in 'ponds' overseas that other clubs don't tend to look in, let alone fish in.” Profits will be smaller this season, but still very respectable by the standards of most clubs, thanks to the sales of Deniz Undav to Stuttgart, Billy Gilmour to Napoli and Pascal Gross to Borussia Dortmund.
Brighton qualified for Europe for the first time in their history, where they topped their Europa League group involving Marseille, Ajax and AEK Athens, before being eliminated in the last 16 by AS Roma. The Swiss Ramble reckons that this adventure earned them around €22m TV money, comprising €3.6m participation fee, €5.2m prize money, €2.1m UEFA coefficient and an estimated €11.1m TV pool.
Brighton have a 12-year deal with American Express worth £10m a year, covering both shirt sponsorship and stadium naming rights. This is in line with similar deals at Crystal Palace, Fulham and Wolves.
_Wages_
Brighton’s wage bill increased by £18m (15%) from £128m to £146m, which is a new club record, due to new signings (including Ansu Fati’s expensive loan), contract extensions and bonuses for Europa League progress.
This means that wages have grown by around 90% (£68m) from the first season in the Premier League six years ago, while they have more than quadrupled from the £31m in the last season in the Championship (excluding the promotion bonus).
Despite this growth, Brighton’s wage bill of £146m is still in the bottom half of the Premier League. For some perspective, the top five clubs all paid at least twice as much, led by Manchester City £413m, Liverpool £386m and Manchester United £365m.
Brighton broke their transfer record last season with their £122m comfortably surpassing the £78m in 2018/19. Even after this increase, Brighton’s £122m gross spend in 2023/24 was only mid-table in the Premier League. It was obviously miles below Chelsea’s incredible £489m, but it was also a lot less than the rest of the Big Six, most of whom splashed out more than £200m.
Brighton’s gross financial debt decreased by £73m from £373m to £300m, which is all from Tony Bloom in the shape of an interest-free, unsecured loan. Despite the switch to cash generation in the last couple of seasons, Bloom’s contribution to Brighton’s rise should not be understated. In fact, since he became owner in 2009, the club’s £427m available cash has almost entirely come from his pocket with just £37m from operations. This money has largely been used for investment into the stadium and the training ground (£236m) plus player purchases (£155m net).
It’s fair to say that Bloom has been a fantastic owner, not just for his financial support, which was up to half a billion Pounds at its peak, but also for his vision and ability to execute on his plans.
Once again, Brighton have delivered another very good set of financial results, setting a club record for revenue, including new highs for all three revenue streams. In addition, they generated more than £100m from player sales for the second year in a row, leading to another substantial net profit.
This has allowed the club to significantly invest in the squad with over £200m spent on new players this season, which will inevitably lead to an increase in the cost base, but should help solidify the club’s progress on the pitch.
Even after the growth in revenue and wages, Brighton’s budget is still quite low for the top flight, so they will need to continue to outperform.