Background
Cork City are owned by Friends of the Rebel Army Society (FORAS) Limited 5449R and unlike the 6 other clubs to date they are not a limited company. Instead they are what is known as an "Industrial & Provident Society" which is like a co-op. FORAS came into being in 2007 but in affect became the club in 2010 when the previous Cork City club were not granted a licence and FORAS entered division 1. FORAS subsequently purchased the name and history of Cork City FC when the old company went into liquidation. In these 3 years covered by the accounts Cork City finished second in the league twice and won the league in 2017. They also won the FAI cup in both 2017 and 2016 and finished runners up in 2015. Like Dundalk the 3 years in focus have been very successful and profitable for the club. Cork City play their home games at Turners Cross which is owned by the Munster FA.
Profit & Loss
One of the interesting things about the legal structure of Cork City is that they have filed full complete accounts with the CRO rather than the abridged accounts that the other clubs have used. A co-op is not a limited company so they cannot apply for the same restrictions on reporting. As a result the P&L section here will be more detailed than others.
In the last 3 years Cork have been profitable for all of them. They have made circa +€400k in profits over those 3 years with each individual year profitable. Given Cork's success on the pitch this is no surprise but very good to see given Cork City have no exceptional income as such.
Revenue:
The revenue growth at Cork City has been very impressive and I imagine they had the highest income in the league in 2017 given the league and cup win, the 2 games in Europe and the big gates from the success. The table below shows their revenue broken out by key area:
Their increase from 2015 to 2017 is very impressive with gate receipts up over +€450k in the 2 seasons to run at +€1.1m in 2017 and prize money/Uefa solidarity money up +€330k. Given I can't compare this revenue to other clubs it is hard to comment on in detail but given my understanding of various club's revenue the numbers here are very impressive. One club in the premier division that is also a co-op is Sligo Rovers, their income for 2017 was €1.05m which shows the gap in resources between the top and middle. (Sligo finished 9th, 1 point off 7th)
In both 2016 and 2017 Cork had decent European runs with 3 games in 2016 and 2 games in 2017. In 2016 Cork should have received €675k from Uefa for their 3 games in the Europa League and in 2017 they would have received €440k as they only had 2 games. This drop would explain why prize money has declined as winning the league was only worth +€60k more than finishing second in 2016.
The attendances at Cork were well up on 2015 and 2016 as they won the league in 2017 with an increase YOY of 80%. Their average match crowd was up nearly 2,000 heads per game which should give a massive lift to income and as you can see it did. http://www.extratime.ie/articles/20256/25-increase-in-attendances-for-league-of-ireland/
I would guess included in other income in 2017 is any transfer fee received for Sean Maguire, the fee was never disclosed but you can see the big increase in this revenue line in 2017. This won't be repeatable in 2018 but prize money from Europe etc will have gone up.
I would guess included in other income in 2017 is any transfer fee received for Sean Maguire, the fee was never disclosed but you can see the big increase in this revenue line in 2017. This won't be repeatable in 2018 but prize money from Europe etc will have gone up.
Overall the revenue story at Cork City is very impressive, they turned good results on the pitch into more people in the ground and improved on their 1 game in Europe in both 2016 & 2017. The 2018 revenue I imagine will again be very strong having banked €820k from their 2 games in Europe along with more domestic prize money and crowds still strong http://www.extratime.ie/articles/21267/league-of-ireland-attendances-2018----the-story-so-far/
Costs:
As Cork City made a profit each season, they have successfully managed their costs to their income. That said costs have also gone up a lot from 2015 to 2017. Cork City provide a lot of detail in their accounts on costs but I am not going to cover these in detail as other clubs don't share this data except Sligo. Costs increased from circa (€1.5m) to (€2.5m) an increase of (€1m).
Of this payroll increased by (€335k). Payroll at Cork City has increased from (€745k) in 2015 to (€1.02m) in 2016 to (€1.1m) in 2017. This is payroll for all area's of the club and given the success in 2017 it is not exceptionally high. Other clubs had figures higher than this in other years and won nothing. Associated with the playing side, transfers increased by circa (€90k) from 2015 to 2017.
The costs of hosting home games and the European travel has increased by (€163k) from 2015 to 2017 but given they had bigger crowds and 1 extra game in Europe this again would not be a surprise.
There are no other surprising cost changes, Cork have all the usual costs associated with running a club from Medical, Training, Rent/Rates, underage team costs, player accommodation, etc and some of these have gone up a bit over the 2 years.
The balance sheet at Cork City is quiet strong given the P&L performance in the last 3 seasons. The club has accumulated profits of +€498k which highlights they were running at break even mostly up to 2014 and have increased reserves by +€406k in the last 3 years.
Cork had +€295k in the bank at Nov'17 and were owed circa +€500k in current debtors. I would imagine some of this is 2017/18 Europa league monies paid after year end.
Cork had current liabilities of circa (€315k) at Nov'17 most of this being trade creditors and monies due in taxation.
As Cork don't own the ground, they have very little fixed assets with their main fixed assets being €50k of motor vehicles.
Of this payroll increased by (€335k). Payroll at Cork City has increased from (€745k) in 2015 to (€1.02m) in 2016 to (€1.1m) in 2017. This is payroll for all area's of the club and given the success in 2017 it is not exceptionally high. Other clubs had figures higher than this in other years and won nothing. Associated with the playing side, transfers increased by circa (€90k) from 2015 to 2017.
The costs of hosting home games and the European travel has increased by (€163k) from 2015 to 2017 but given they had bigger crowds and 1 extra game in Europe this again would not be a surprise.
There are no other surprising cost changes, Cork have all the usual costs associated with running a club from Medical, Training, Rent/Rates, underage team costs, player accommodation, etc and some of these have gone up a bit over the 2 years.
Balance Sheet
The balance sheet at Cork City is quiet strong given the P&L performance in the last 3 seasons. The club has accumulated profits of +€498k which highlights they were running at break even mostly up to 2014 and have increased reserves by +€406k in the last 3 years.
Cork had +€295k in the bank at Nov'17 and were owed circa +€500k in current debtors. I would imagine some of this is 2017/18 Europa league monies paid after year end.
Cork had current liabilities of circa (€315k) at Nov'17 most of this being trade creditors and monies due in taxation.
As Cork don't own the ground, they have very little fixed assets with their main fixed assets being €50k of motor vehicles.
Summary
Cork like Dundalk in their recent 3 years show that success and profits can go together. Cork look a well run club with no exceptional income from a benefactor impacting their numbers. They have made over +€0.4m in the last 3 years and I imagine 2018 will be another strong year. They also have a strong balance sheet with cash in the bank to allow to have a bad year and be able to recover. The current Cork owners have learned the lesson of previous owners and are doing a very good job both on and off the pitch.
However both Cork and Dundalk are making their money from winning the league and cup and associated FAI and Uefa prize money. Between them they have won both the league and cup over these years with Pats in 2014 the last team to interrupt their domination. Will this change in 2018? This success has also driven growth in other income, primarily gates. The challenge for other teams is there is only 1 league and 1 cup to win, if you can't win these you don't get the Uefa money or associated bump in gates etc to improve the P&L. This is why apart from Cork and Dundalk other clubs are either losing money through the P&L (Rovers, Waterford) or having these losses covered to some extent by benefactors (Derry/Pats/Limerick), or not challenging and being in the bottom part of the table.
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