The Scottish Professional Football League has announced a record turnover of £44.3 million in their newly-published annual accounts.
The SPFL’s latest figures show that turnover has risen by £2.4 million, up 6 percent from last year’s previous record high of £41.9 million.
They say the deal is largely driven by the league’s new Sky Sports TV deal, as well as revenue growth from the SPFL’s other domestic and overseas broadcasting agreements.
It’s good news for the clubs too with payments to them increasing to £33.7 million, which is up £2 million from last year. Total group distributions to clubs have reached £37.9 million, up £2.1 million from last year.
The four clubs who competed in the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals and final at Hampden Park have also taken in net gate receipts of £2.1 million.
Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the SPFL, is delighted to see the income grow and pointed to deals with William Hill and Premier Sports as sign of further to come.
He said: “We’re really proud to announce record turnover and fee payments to our member clubs today as we continue to build on the strong income growth and commercial deals in recent years.
“Given the challenging market and economic conditions right now, these encouraging results reinforce the huge popularity of Scottish football, as well as the level of interest this generates with our broadcasters and our increasing roster of partners.
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“In recent months, we’ve agreed a major new title sponsorship deal with William Hill, as well as a new TV contract with Premier Sports. The SPFL has just reported significantly higher attendances per capita than any other European league in a new UEFA report, and whilst we’ll never be complacent, these results give us a strong foundation upon which to further improve our performance.”
Murdoch MacLennan, SPFL chairman, said: “These latest annual results are testament to the hard work and talent of the SPFL’s member clubs and to the efforts of the dedicated team at the SPFL, which works tirelessly on their behalf.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to provide our members with the highest annual distributions in the history of Scottish league football and thank our members for their vigorous support.”
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