Profit up but revenue falls at Thomond

The company that operates the €40m Thomond Park in Limerick increased its operating profit more than threefold last year to €612,000 in spite of revenues reducing by 5% to €2.65m.

Stadium director John Cantwell said yesterday the company is “very happy with the financial performance as we significantly exceeded our budgeted figures”.

Accounts filed with the Companies Office by Thomond Park Stadium Co Ltd show the company recorded a post-tax loss of €992,000 in the year to the end of June last.

However, Mr Cantwell pointed out this includes non-cash depreciation costs of €1.38m and loan interest payments of €227,000 that resulted in the operating profit of €612,000.

This compares to an operating profit of €180,000 before exceptional items in fiscal 2010 — an increase of 240%.

He said that “based on independent research, the direct economic benefits to the local economy from events and matches staged at Thomond Park for the year up to end of Jun 2011 is estimated at over €70m”.

Revenues fell from €2.8m to €2.65m. Mr Cantwell said that while revenue was down last year “this was more than offset by a reduction in our costs”.

Thirteen Munster matches took place at Thomond Park last year compared to 10 the previous year. Mr Cantwell said “there was no impact on the stadium revenues from the failure to make it to the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup” in the financial year.

Mr Cantwell is expecting lower revenues for fiscal 2012 due to there being only one knockout match at Thomond Park this year.

The stadium hosted a JLS concert last June which boosted revenues, but the stadium has been unable to secure an artist this year.

Mr Cantwell said: “The economic climate continues to impact on these type of events and major concerts are only being staged in Dublin this year due to the available population density. We explored many options to stage concerts in 2012, however, none of these proved suitable due to the significant commercial risks involved.”