Season in League One cost Wolves £1.7m loss

Wolves has revealed it made a loss of £1.7m as the team fought its way out of League One, while club management coped with the financial impact of a double relegation.

But it has managed to report a profit on paper of £8.5 million as it used money put aside the year before to shore up its figures, pumping £10.2 million into its accounts to boost its headline profit, newly released details reveal.

The club had put £27.5 million aside the previous season because it was paying Premiership level wages to some players and knew a number would not fetch as much on the open market as Wolves had paid for them after two successive seasons of relegation.

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Wolves described the provision as "made for onerous player contracts and player impairment values".

The latest figures, for the year to the end of May 2014, show turnover increasing by £400,000 to £32.5 million.

This increase was largely due to parachute payments from Wolves' time in the Premier League, which had been boosted by a new three year broadcasting deal with Sky and BT.

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That provided a £2.1m boost but was offset by lower ticket and commercial income as a result of Wolves dropping to English football's third tier.

Less home and away fans attended matches at Molineux compared to the previous campaign, although Wolves still recorded an average of 20,860 home league attendance compared to 21,789 the previous season when they plummeted through the Championship.

With the redeveloped Stan Cullis Stand, Molineux Stadium enjoyed its first 30,000 plus attendance since the early 1990s for its match versus Rotherham United towards the end of the season as the club closed in on promotion and the league title with new head coach Kenny Jackett at the helm.

Wolves said: "This level of support meant that despite the relegation from the Sky Bet Championship the resulting net match receipts were down by only £700,000."

Commercial income also reduced but by £1m as a consequence of lower contracted sponsorship agreements for Sky Bet League One football.

During the 2013-14 financial period, the club purchased first team players, such as Kevin McDonald, Scott Golbourne, James Henry, Michael Jacobs, Nouha Dicko, Kortney Hause and Leon Clarke.

Karl Henry, Leigh Griffiths and Wayne Hennessey were sold and other players were loaned out to other clubs. However, a number of high earning senior players, including Jamie O'Hara and Roger Johnson, did not play for the team yet remained under contract during the season despite best efforts to find them alternative employment.