Lincoln City FC is pleased to release accounts for the financial year ending June 2020.
Average Attendance
Despite the average attendance being marginally below the previous title-winning campaign at the point of season curtailment, The Imps were predicted to surpass the previous year’s average of 9,006 for our first campaign back in the third tier since the 1998/99 season. This projection is further supported by the fact that readers of the92.net also voted LNER Stadium the second-best ground for atmosphere in the country, which is testament to the unbelievable support shown to the first team by our home fans.
Family Excellence Award & Fan Satisfaction
The Imps were proud to scoop up the Family Excellence Award for the second consecutive season with a record high score of 80%. This score demonstrated a significant improvement on the 2018/19 season (73%) and ensured that we were ranked 5th in Sky Bet League One using this measure. The areas which showed strong growth were social media, first impressions, staff engagement and the friendly feel of LNER Stadium. Achieving this award is recognition of the hard work put in by all team members behind the scenes at Lincoln City FC.
The Club was also proud to receive an exceptionally high score in an EFL Survey around supporter satisfaction. Lincoln City was ranked third out of all 72 EFL clubs on the survey with a match day satisfaction score of +53 and 8.6/10 for feeling valued by The Club.
The Impact of Covid-19
Covid-19 presented the Club and the community of Lincoln with enormous challenges but despite the global pandemic, the Club continued to engage with the local community throughout. The Imps contacted supporters daily via email and social media to promote critical communications and guidelines from the health authorities.
Lincoln City FC was overwhelmed by the generous support of season ticket holders, with 80% of the 6,200 fans opting to leave their outstanding season ticket value in the Club by converting this balance to shares.
Lincoln City FC and Lincoln City Foundation continue to be active during the coronavirus pandemic, delivering shopping to the vulnerable, regularly checking up on the wellbeing of supporters and opening up LNER Stadium for supporters to ‘take a break’ following lockdown.
Turnover
The company’s turnover increased significantly from £5.39m in 2018/19 to £6.55m for the 2019/20 financial year primarily as a result of the £1m compensation received for Danny and Nicky Cowley.
The Club’s new League One status resulted in additional EFL distributions and Premier League solidarity funding; an increase of 42% to £2.09m.
Due to the season's unforeseen curtailment, it was inevitable that the turnover relating to gate receipts would be severely affected. The impact resulted in a 20% decrease to £1.87m.
Despite the hurdles previously mentioned, the Commercial Department went from strength-to-strength. Thanks to the strong support of the Club’s sponsors in both sponsorship and hospitality areas, we saw a growth of 13%, which equates to an increase, to £1.37m.
Investment in People
Going into the 2019/20 season, all players retained from the League Two promotion-winning season benefited from salary increases which had been written into their contracts. This promotion to League One represents the main reason for the rise in staff costs.
The winter transfer window saw some significant movement with Zack Elbouzedi, Tayo Edun, Anthony Scully, Max Melbourne and Tom Hopper, all signing permanent deals.
The Club also invested into the company’s infrastructure to improve all areas of operations off the field. These improvements in structure, combined with increased first-team costs, contributed to total staff spend rising from £4.87m in 2018/19 to £5.15m in the 2019/20 year.
Net Performance
The accounts for the 12 months up to 30th June 2020 report a net loss of £0.89m which compares to a net loss of £2.24m in the previous year. The previous year loss also includes a cost of promotion totalling £0.6m.
Aside from the additional core funding received for promotion to League One, the Club also received government grants relating to Covid-19, which offset a portion of the loss pertaining to the season's curtailment.
Although gate receipts reduced by 20%, the critical factor that may not be obvious within these numbers is the £341k of converted to shares by fans who chose to leave the unused portion of their season tickets in the Club. We are incredibly grateful for their generosity which resulted in the Club issuing more than 680k shares to fans and the Red Imps Community Trust.
The Parent Company and private investors continue to support the Club. All contributions from directors and other investors continue to be through equity and these investments together with the shares taken up by fans means an increase of share capital by £1.6m over the financial year.
You can view the annual financial statement by CLICKING HERE.
