Warrington Wolves chairman on 'unsustainable' finances

With average home attendances declining in spite of improved performances and revenues going the same way, the financial support of club owner Simon Moran and chairman Stuart Middleton is as critical as ever.

In the second part of his extended Q&A with our Warrington Wolves reporter Matt Turner, Middleton discusses how things sit off the field at The Halliwell Jones Stadium…

READ MORE > Read Part One of our Stuart Middleton Q&A here

MT: It was obviously a successful season on the field but despite that, attendances at home games were down compared to 2023.

Obviously, every game being broadcast live is a factor but is it too simplistic to say it’s the only reason? Is there more the club can be doing to get people through the turnstiles?

SM: We’ve got to try harder. There’s no doubt about it.

It obviously doesn’t help with every game being on Sky, which for me was disappointing because we weren’t told that.

We were told that Sky would produce all the games, the usual 66 live games would be shown on TV and the rest would go behind a paywall and we’d get some revenue, but that obviously didn’t happen.

The TV deal is currently at £1.3million per club. Four years ago, it was over £2million plus TV selection money as well.

That’s around £800,000 straight away and then with crowds going down, it’s not good and we’ve got to do something to get fans coming through the turnstiles because it does make a big difference.

We made a loss of £1.7million this year and that can’t continue. Every Super League club is making a loss of somewhere between one and £2million.

We need more central funding but outside of that, we need to work harder to increase our own turnover and revenues.

We’re looking at a few different things for next year and we’re going to change quite a lot in terms of how we engage with fans and getting them to the game.

I can’t say too much at the moment because it’s still early days, but we’ve got some ideas about getting more fans to come and support us.

We’re doing our bit on the field now and hopefully people are enjoying the games again, but it’s crucial that people don’t just sit at home watching it.

Please come to the games, buy your shirts, your pints and things like that because it shares the burden.

We’re making losses and it’s down to myself and other owners to keep putting the money in, which isn’t sustainable long-term.

Wire's average home crowd in 2024 was 10,065 - a drop of 7.6 per cent on 2023 (Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com)

MT: Like you just touched on there, the club lost £1.7million for the financial year just gone.

Clearly, those losses were expected but as you say, it’s not really sustainable from a purely business perspective to keep making losses like that so how does it change?

SM: It’s not sustainable and if it was a normal business making losses like that, you’d probably recommend closing it down.

But it’s not a normal business, it’s a sports club and we’re fans. We’re passionate about it and we care about it, but I have to be honest and tell people the way it is.

Unless we can get more revenue in and the sport as a whole can get more revenue in, we’re all vulnerable.

I can’t emphasise enough how important it is for people to come and support us.

MT: One thing that has obviously started is the repayment of the loans clubs took out via the Department of Culture, Media and Sport during the Covid pandemic.

How big a dent is that making?

SM: We’ve got to pay it back.

It was a £2million loan to be paid back over 10 years, so it’s £23,000 per month which is a quarter of a million pounds per year going out of the door.

We could do without it, but it is what it is.

Everything is going up – costs, wages, inflationary pressures etc – so there’s a lot of things stacked against us.