That's the way to do it....

Widnes made a loss of £950k in the year ended 30th November 2008 on turnover of close to £1m. This was the first year of the new regime and included significant costs incurred in re-structuring many of the clubs activities. The expenditure (close to £2m) was funded by the £1m turnover and the remainder by money put in by SOC which in those accounts, was not included as turnover.

The results reported yesterday would be for the year ended 30th November 2009, when Widnes average crowd was still 3,900. In addition to this the club shop (and relationship with O'Niells) was fully functioning. The Dream ticket lottery had had a full year running and new sponsorships had been obtained. Costs were cut by the release of several head office staff (Mike Banks, Pat Cluskey etc) aswell as a reduction in first team costs.

It is entirely feasible that Widnes could have achieved a break-even/small profit position on ordinary trading in the twelve month period.

The headline results of £2.5 million "Turnover" and £1 million profit will almost certainly have been achieved by the inclusion in the Turnover of funds injected by SOC (in years one and two) previously carried as Directors loans but now written off as no longer requiring repayment. This would be an "extraordinary" item in the accounts and , though included as "income" in the accounts would not be included as "turnover". However in press releases and reports such as those we have seen in the last day or two, the term "turnover" will have been used disingenuously to "spin" the figures for License bid purposes.

I would suggest the accounts are not incorrect but that the reporting of them is purposefully designed to make the club look better for the forthcoming bid. Not unusual in these days of "Artists impressions" of new stadiums and 5,000 crowds for meaningless games against Batley Bulldogs!