Today, DAFC filed its annual accounts for 2022-23 at Companies House and we want to provide some information to supporters about the financial results.
Supporters will see that following the League One winning campaign the club has posted losses in excess of £1 million. Whilst these numbers are obviously disappointing we want to reassure our fans and explain these numbers further.
Playing in League One during season 2022-23 had a profound impact on some of our revenue streams – most notably central distributions from the SPFL which are very considerably smaller than those in the Championship. Away ticket sales were also very low, with the exception of the derby matches against Falkirk.
With the backing of DAFC Fussball GMBH, the club decided to retain a very competitive playing budget to give us the best chance of getting out of League One at the first attempt. Our budget for the year was based, conservatively, on ending the season in a play-off position and securing promotion by way of those additional matches. Ending the season as league champions meant, of course, that we missed out on those additional revenues. Of course, we were delighted to forego those.
In addition to match day income and costs, we continued our investment in our Rosyth training ground, incurring costs particularly around obtaining planning application permission. The first phase is approaching completion and we are excited about sharing more on this project in the coming weeks and months. Similarly, we continued to invest in the Dunfermline Athletic Youth Academy during the 2022-23 season as we strive to keep developing our own young players. We firmly believe that both of these projects will generate long term benefits for the club.
During 2022-23 season, the club saw sizeable increases on inflation-linked costs such as food and beverage and matchday staffing – which we are continuing to address and will still impact us in to season 2023-24.
We do expect to see improvements in the following year’s accounts, albeit we still have a lot of work to do to reduce costs and increase revenues further to achieve a break even position and bring about long term sustainability.
The backing, and long term commitment, from DAFC Fussball GMBH continues and we are hugely grateful for their support. Similarly, we recognise the outstanding backing our supporters continue to give week in, week out.
From attending on match days, purchasing replica kit, attending hospitality to sponsorship packages we don’t take any of this for granted and thank you all for your loyal support. On top of that, the army of volunteers who support so many of the ongoing projects around the club and the members of the Centenary Club who continue to pay their subscriptions are also hugely appreciated.
The club continues to plan for the long term, and to continue to be a club of which every Pars supporter can be proud.
Thank you for your support.
