Hibernian FC Finances

Can we start a new thread discussing the situation as it relates to our own club? There’s a lot about the comedy finances at our near neighbours but not so much relating to our own financial position. We need to be careful what we celebrate, considering our previous history of laughing at our closest rival’s relegation only to follow them down the rabbit hole a few weeks later.

One does assume that we are in a relatively heathy position at the moment, having not overspent on anything but until the 2020 season’s accounts are published we won’t really know how high our wage bill is.

In relation to HFC’s finances, various points for discussion would be:

1. Why haven’t our accounts for 2019 been filed yet?
2. Is our wage bill high this year?
3. What charges are held over the assets of the club?

Aside from Celtic I am assuming we are the second healthiest club (financially) in Scotland. Can anyone refute this?

Point 3 is the most worrying for me. Are we likely to get caught up in the financial turmoil in the USA and get taken down by a stray charge over the stadium/training centre?

We have not even had one home game missed yet. In total it’s likely to be about £1m lost if we start next season on time. Scottish cup income may only be delayed. We should be able to cope so long as next season starts on time. We won’t know that until summer.


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Originally Posted by Ozyhibby

We have not even had one home game missed yet. In total it’s likely to be about £1m lost if we start next season on time. Scottish cup income may only be delayed. We should be able to cope so long as next season starts on time. We won’t know that until summer.


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We were meant to play St Johnstone (I think) at home last Saturday.

Any club who immediately put it to cut 50pct of all staff costs or start offering redundancies was living on the edge

Other clubs might go the same way but I'm really surprised hearts have moved so quickly

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Originally Posted by Ozyhibby

We have not even had one home game missed yet. In total it’s likely to be about £1m lost if we start next season on time. Scottish cup income may only be delayed. We should be able to cope so long as next season starts on time. We won’t know that until summer.


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Pretty much how I see it but not easy to be clear based on accounts numbers that are just moment in time figures, we will definitely have less now in my view.

Unknown is financial support from the owner and how he might provide or raise those funds if needed. I think we're probably in as good a place as we can be compared to most others and given the sudden and dramatic change in events

Dig in and get on with it tends to be our way, hopefully that continues.

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Budge stating they will lose £500,000 from the Scottish Cup semi not being played is being a tad misleading. Scottish Cup money is not budgeted for at the start of a financial year so is not lost income. Any money you receive from a cup run will be a bonus to the budget.

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Originally Posted by GordonHFC

Budge stating they will lose £500,000 from the Scottish Cup semi not being played is being a tad misleading. Scottish Cup money is not budgeted for at the start of a financial year so is not lost income. Any money you receive from a cup run will be a bonus to the budget.

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Depends what they budgeted for I guess. :greengrin

Would be ambitious to have done that though, at the start of the year at least.

I think we used to (maybe still do) budget for the QF of each cup each year.

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Originally Posted by GordonHFC

Budge stating they will lose £500,000 from the Scottish Cup semi not being played is being a tad misleading. Scottish Cup money is not budgeted for at the start of a financial year so is not lost income. Any money you receive from a cup run will be a bonus to the budget.

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Yep, they've been overspending and spending what they haven't got, we would hopefully seen the unbudgeted income here as a welcome bonus to invest in future plans that were already there. Not blowing it against existing and probably concealed overspending.

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Assuming this season is ended early - won't the club have a contractual liability to refund ST holders for the 4/5 games that they've paid for but were cancelled? (Not saying most would want a refund - but in accounting terms it would affect the bottom line).

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Originally Posted by Callum_62

Any club who immediately put it to cut 50pct of all staff costs or start offering redundancies was living on the edge

Other clubs might go the same way but I'm really surprised hearts have moved so quickly

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My immediate thought was where is the FOH money going?

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Originally Posted by Moulin Yarns

My immediate thought was where is the FOH money going?

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I thought they would have millions in funds ready to plough in but apparently not, apparently they hand the funds over to Budge every month and are skint too. Crazy ****.

Hasnt FOH put in nearly 9 million quid?

Absolutely crazy sums

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Originally Posted by cocteautwin

Can we start a new thread discussing the situation as it relates to our own club? There’s a lot about the comedy finances at our near neighbours but not so much relating to our own financial position. We need to be careful what we celebrate, considering our previous history of laughing at our closest rival’s relegation only to follow them down the rabbit hole a few weeks later.

One does assume that we are in a relatively heathy position at the moment, having not overspent on anything but until the 2020 season’s accounts are published we won’t really know how high our wage bill is.

In relation to HFC’s finances, various points for discussion would be:

1. Why haven’t our accounts for 2019 been filed yet?
2. Is our wage bill high this year?
3. What charges are held over the assets of the club?

Aside from Celtic I am assuming we are the second healthiest club (financially) in Scotland. Can anyone refute this?

Point 3 is the most worrying for me. Are we likely to get caught up in the financial turmoil in the USA and get taken down by a stray charge over the stadium/training centre?

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From the AGM - the accounts have been filed, I think - certainly they've been issued to shareholders and widely reported (they're on the official site, for example - at least a summary is).

Our wage bill was within the 60% wages to turnover recommendation (think we were at 59%, from memory) - higher than previous years but within the healthy limit.

No charges are held over the club unless we borrow, which we haven't.

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Originally Posted by matty_f

From the AGM - the accounts have been filed, I think - certainly they've been issued to shareholders and widely reported (they're on the official site, for example - at least a summary is).

Our wage bill was within the 60% wages to turnover recommendation (think we were at 59%, from memory) - higher than previous years but within the healthy limit.

No charges are held over the club unless we borrow, which we haven't.

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And I presume the money for Villa getting promoted, will be in the next accounts?

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Originally Posted by Liberal Hibby

Assuming this season is ended early - won't the club have a contractual liability to refund ST holders for the 4/5 games that they've paid for but were cancelled? (Not saying most would want a refund - but in accounting terms it would affect the bottom line).

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I'd imagine the club would want to avoid more cash going out as refunds, but appears a valid point re ST holders. Why not they give them free access to Scottish Cup games or pre-season friendlies next season as an acknowledgement or thank you re games missed? I'm not a ST holder, but think their contribution should be recognised/rewarded, if not in £££ terms.

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Originally Posted by Callum_62

Hasnt FOH put in nearly 9 million quid?

Absolutely crazy sums

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Yep. Every penny *****ed away and now they think Budge is ahead of the times with yesterday’s announcement.

I'm not an accountant perhaps one of the lads that are can clarify but I would have thought cash at hand would be separate from the clubs working funds ie in addition to.
I'm sure STF mentioned he was leaving g the club in a very very healthy cash state

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Originally Posted by Moulin Yarns

My immediate thought was where is the FOH money going?

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There has been constant rumours around where exactly that money was been diverted to or part diverted to.

Budge brother in law (hibby) busineee is in better shape than its ever been given the stand work. Estimates like £1.5m to fit out the 4th floor seem high but what do I know 👀

Am I not right in saying that a large proportion of our players wages are bonus related?? Win bonus, clean sheet bonus, goal scoring bonus.. so we would be saving in this regard. Also with the training centre partially closed and the ground not in use surely bills will be getting saved here too??

Granted not enough to break even by any stretch of the imagination but a saving none the less.

I also could be spouting absolute bollox [emoji23]


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Originally Posted by Billy Whizz

And I presume the money for Villa getting promoted, will be in the next accounts?

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I could be wrong but I think it was included in the accounts just published.

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Originally Posted by matty_f

I could be wrong but I think it was included in the accounts just published.

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I don't know for sure as I haven't seen the accounts but I would expect it to be included as it was known to be coming in and arose before the year end. If the cash hadn't been received it would be reflected in debtors.

BTW The accounts haven't been filed at Companies House yet, or at least aren't online. The filing deadline is the end of this month.

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Originally Posted by Liberal Hibby

Assuming this season is ended early - won't the club have a contractual liability to refund ST holders for the 4/5 games that they've paid for but were cancelled? (Not saying most would want a refund - but in accounting terms it would affect the bottom line).

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On the contrary I would happily pay a deposit of say £200 on my next season ticket. That could be deducted from the actual price when football restarts. Almost like becoming a member of Hibs. I do realise that there will be many who can't do this in the current climate but any funds raised can only help our club through extremely difficult times.

Is the financial effects of this really as bad as people think?

I dont think the financial position for us would be too bad unless season ticket holders suddenly wanted partial refunds, which i doubt.

I understand we will lose different streams of income, and of course any loss of revenue is always a concern but i would assume gate receipts would always be the big one. How many walk up fans do we actually have? With season tickets already being paid for, is the loss of this really that big when you consider the operating costs that we will save? Policing etc.

When you also consider a fair chunk of wages will be bonus related , the outgoings in terms of wages will likely already have decreased.

Assuming Hibs lose the income from the remaining four league games (I'm leaving out the Scottish Cup money, as that surely is a bonus), just how much would we actually lose?


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The before the split home games would be (with estimated attendances based on last year's games + current form)

St Johnstone (16,500)
Celtc (20,000)


In addition, we'd be due to play two home games after the split, Let's say:

The Rangers (19,500)
Aberdeen (18,000)

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If you take off the ~13k Season Tickets, that's four games with an average tickets sold of 5.5k per game.

A reasonably large number of those will be concession tickets, and St J and Aberdeen aren't Category A so, let's be generous and say the average cost is £20 per ticket.

That would be £110k per match, or roughly £450k in total.... minus VAT, policing, player bonuses and other costs.

There is not a chance of ST numbers remaining the same. Many families will be facing financial hardship and budgeting will be prioritising food on the table/rents and mortgages and household bills. Many budgets won’t stretch to Season Tickets and match tickets and I’d expect a big drop for next season which will be a concern for the club going forward.
While the clubs finances look to be in decent enough health to ride this out, the finances of those who contribute towards that might well not be.

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Originally Posted by Blurry Face

How much are you estimating we get for corporate hospitality and match day sponsorship?
Or, won’t get.

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I don't know but I don't think that's a major percentage of our match-day income.

Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

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Originally Posted by Carheenlea

There is not a chance of ST numbers remaining the same. Many families will be facing financial hardship and budgeting will be prioritising food on the table/rents and mortgages and household bills. Many budgets won’t stretch to Season Tickets and match tickets and I’d expect a big drop for next season which will be a concern for the club going forward.
While the clubs finances look to be in decent enough health to ride this out, the finances of those who contribute towards that might well not be.

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While that may be the case for many there will also be others who are stuck at home unable to spend their money. Civil servants spring to mind. As Next said, no one buys a new top to sit at home.

They may have surplus cash to put towards a season ticket. I know it's a minority but I am trying to find some positive.

I just hope all of us come through it OK.

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Originally Posted by PatHead

While that may be the case for many there will also be others who are stuck at home unable to spend their money. Civil servants spring to mind. As Next said, no one buys a new top to sit at home.

They may have surplus cash to put towards a season ticket. I know it's a minority but I am trying to find some positive.

I just hope all of us come through it OK.

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I'm quite fortunate in my line of work, that we can continue working at home.

If there's still a club to support next season, I'd happily buy Season Tickets for other people, as it would help both my fellow Hibbies and the club.

I'm far from being rich but I don't mind trying to help out where I can.

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Originally Posted by Keith_M

I'm quite fortunate in my line of work, that we can continue working at home.

If there's still a club to support next season, I'd happily buy Season Tickets for other people, as it would help both my fellow Hibbies and the club.

I'm far from being rich but I don't mind trying to help out where I can.

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I was trying to get into the church hall to work otherwise I'm going to end up divorced or in jail by the time this is over🤣🤣

It was reported a few days ago only one club didn't have insurance.

I think it's now obvious which club that was.

Power has been on the Bounce assuring us Hibs have business interruption insurance.

It's not going to be easy but what I've seen coming from the club is calm and reassuring; the Leeann interview; the Nathan Ring interview; Hibees at home and others suggest we've had a disaster (recovery) plan and it's rolling out rather nicely at the moment.