REVEALED: Portsmouth £12m admission as full cost of Fratton Park work shown in publication of accounts

While the overall project will cost £12m by the time of its January 2024 completion, according to accounts filed at Companies House for the year ending June 30, 2022.

Extensive work to upgrade Fratton Park began in June 2021, initially focused on the upper North Stand.

For the first time, the cost of the scheme is reflected in club accounts, with £4,993,211 spent on improving their 123-year-old home, which is recorded outside – and in addition to – the normal operating profit and loss.

That figure also includes the redevelopment costs of Roko, which was purchased in June 2021 for £3m and detailed in the previous year’s accounts.

The Copnor Road training ground and gym underwent significant improvements and was last summer rebranded as the Pompey Health & Fitness Club, with the ambition of creating a ‘strategic elite football environment for all our football staff’.

According to the report which accompanies the latest accounts, since taking over Pompey in August 2017, Tornante had already made ‘significant investment in the underlying stadium infrastructure some of which required urgent attention’ before current works started.

However, the report goes on to state: ‘... at the start of the financial year resulted in increased tightening of health and safety regulations threatening to reduce our allowable stadium capacity to 10,000, due to structural works required to North, South and Milton Stands.

‘We engaged in detailed discussions with Portsmouth City Council Building Control department, the Heritage & Advisory Board and various supporter organisations, before we commenced on a significant £12m re-development of Fratton Park in June 2021, scheduled to be phased over three years.

‘These works are focused on embodying the history and character of Fratton Park, restoring the truss in the Archibald Leitch-designed South Stand and enhancing the close-knit renowned Fratton Park atmosphere.’

Work consisted of improved access, new concession facilities, increased concourse areas, new seats, new electrical infrastructures and improved facilities for disabled supporters, including a new lift accessible from the North Stand.

In addition, the South Stand was reprofiled ‘.....transforming the structure into one continuous tier providing our supporters with improved sightlines, consistent floor levels and increased concourse space’.

The Pompey Health & Fitness Club made a £900,000 revenue during its opening year since acquisition, although overall it returned a net loss of £100,000.

Improvement work included the installation of a new spa, improvements in the swimming pool areas and changing rooms, and investment in new equipment.

In addition, the Academy have been relocated into new staff offices within the existing gym building, while the player canteen has been refurbished and a new kitchen introduced.

In terms of Fratton Park, the final phase of the £12m project is continuing, with the Milton End expected to be finished by January 2024.

However, chief executive Andy Cullen has revealed up to 1,500 safe standing seats are also earmarked for introduction in the Fratton End.

Pompey’s latest accounts show a deficit of £2.9m, representing a loss over successive seasons, with the impact of coronavirus clear.

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