Operating profit hits $3.9M for 2014

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This article was published 08/04/2015 (3302 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers recorded an operating profit of $3.9 million in 2014, the CFL club announced Wednesday morning.

That’s an increase of $1 million on the $2.9 million profit the club recorded in 2013.

While profits were up significantly in 2014 — and so were revenues, which jumped 10.7 per cent — the club still had to withdraw $575,914 from its savings to make its required $4.5-million mortgage payment last year on Investors Group Field.

But even with the withdrawal, the Bombers finished 2014 with an operating reserve of $1.595 million and a total of $7.369 million in the bank — a number that could almost double later this year when the Bombers host the Grey Cup.

Bombers CEO Wade Miller told the Free Press Wednesday the team is budgeting to earn a profit of somewhere between $5 million and $7 million on hosting the Grey Cup in November.

“Hosting the Grey Cup will only add to our surplus and give us financial stability for years to come,” said Miller.

Miller downplayed the fact the Bombers had to draw on their savings in 2014 to make their mortgage payment. He noted the club had several significant “one-time expenses” that won’t be repeated.

While Miller didn’t specify those expenses, a new collective-bargaining agreement signed between the CFL and its players last year required the Bombers to pay signing bonuses of $7,500 per veteran and $1,500 per rookie. That would have added up to somewhere between $300,000 and $350,000 paid out by the Bombers last year which won’t be repeated for the life of the 5-year agreement.

Miller said the club’s expenses and revenues should now stabilize moving forward and the financial picture that emerged from Year 2 at Investors Group Field has him confident the team will have no difficulty making its annual $4.5-million mortgage payment moving forward.

“Absolutely,” said Miller. “And what Investors Group Field allows us to do is to build even further on our surplus moving forward.”

Game revenue in 2014 was $10.01 million, down slightly from $10.27 million in 2013. Season-ticket sales were down last year to 20,150 from 24,000 a year earlier. That decline was expected after record season-ticket sales in 2013 in what was the Bombers’ inaugural season at Investors Group Field.

The season-ticket decline in 2014 was counter-balanced by a significant increase in game-day ticket sales last year thanks to a Bombers team who — while once again missing the playoffs — were at least more competitive on the field at 7-11 than in a 4-14 inaugural season at IGF in 2013.

Miller said season-ticket sales for the 2015 season are ahead of last year’s pace and Grey Cup ticket sales, at this point still restricted to Bombers season-ticket holders, are on target right now.

In the annual report released Wednesday, the Bombers said they expect the “normal range” of season-ticket sales to be 21,500 to 23,000.

Corporate revenue in 2014 soared to $16.7 million in 2014 from $13.9 million in 2013. Much of that increase was thanks to a new TV deal with TSN that pays the Bombers almost triple what they received under the previous deal.

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The team’s operating expenses were up $1.6 million in 2014. The Bombers say almost half the increase — $735,000 — went toward football operations, with much of that going to players’ salaries that rose under the new CBA, which raised the salary cap to $5 million last season.

There was also a $1.1-million jump in stadium-related expenses in 2014. Miller said some of that went to increased utility costs last season, but the bulk of it was simply a $700,000 charge the team put on its books for depreciation.

The Bombers also revealed for the first time how expensive it has become for them just to get their fans to the game. Transportation bottlenecks in and out of the University of Manitoba campus that plagued the Bombers on game days in 2013 were mostly alleviated by better traffic control and a better transit plan last year.

But those game-day improvements didn’t come cheap — four per cent of the Bombers’ expenses in 2014 went toward “game-day transportation.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek

Paul Wiecek
Reporter (retired)

Paul Wiecek was born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End and delivered the Free Press -- 53 papers, Machray Avenue, between Main and Salter Streets -- long before he was first hired as a Free Press reporter in 1989.

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