Portsmouth facing seven-figure losses THIS season in face of crisis

Football is planning to return without fans present in an effort to complete the campaign amid the coronavirus outbreak.

And that is going to have an immediate and seismic impact on the Blues’ finances as clubs throughout the game come to terms with the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The News yesterday revealed Pompey are set to scale back their summer recruitment, as chief executive Mark Catlin detailed the dangers of committing to long-term contracts in the present economic climate.

Pompey’s major income arrives from ticket sales, with discussions still continuing over how the 14,500 season-ticket holders will be compensated by not being able to attend games.

Catlin explained how those funds being taken out of Pompey’s budget, along with lost hospitality, sponsorship and matchday revenue will leave a massive financial hole to fill.

He said: ‘Clubs are losing hundreds of thousand if not millions by games being played behind closed doors.

‘If you take in the impact of possible loss of season-ticket revenue it’s definitely a figure of seven-figure plus for Portsmouth in lost revenue.

‘There’s a growing feeling that businesses of all sizes are in trouble.

‘Every owner at different levels at football clubs and in the wide business world are under pressure at the moment - and you can see why.

‘If you take into account the remaining fixtures as a value for that element of season tickets aligned with loss of sponsorship, corporate hospitality and matchday revenue for those four games it’s a seven-figure plus sum.’

There’s been plenty of focus on how Pompey and football all levels are going to tackle the huge challenges which lie ahead in the coming weeks and months.

But Catlin underlined the cold air of uncertainty is being felt in all businesses - and undoubtedly to a more concerning degree in many quarters than is currently being felt at Fratton Park.

He added: ‘Because football is such a public entity and gets played out in public, but for the level and size of a business like Portsmouth Football Club if you equated that to retail or entertainment businesses, it’s relatively small.

‘But because of the impact it has on the community it’s obviously a massive public lens to view businesses through. In the scheme of things it’s not a big business.

‘This is getting replicated across all sectors of the economy, not just in Portsmouth or the country - but the world.’