West Ham Movin’ On Up the Deloitte Money Table

Deloitte has released their 2017 richest football list and for the second year, West Ham has appeared on the list. Last year, they squeezed in on the bottom to be 20th on the list, and now they have moved up to 18th on the list.

Deloitte estimated that West Ham made 143.8 million pounds last year in revenue, good for 7th in the Premier League and 4th in London behind Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham. West Ham also outpaced perennial Serie A contender Inter Milan, who placed 19th. The team with the most revenue was Manchester United, who broke 500 million in revenue followed by the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images

The news gets better for West Ham, as this list does not take into account the new Premier League Television deal which is worth 8 billion pounds, plus the increased revenue from moving into the London Stadium. While finances bore most football fans, it is good to know that the team is on solid financial footing. A few bad results when the team was in the Championship or failure to win the playoff final at Wembley could have resulted in financial disaster for the club. Look just south of the Thames at Charlton if you want to see what happens when a club drops out of the Premier League and can’t make it back in right away. Even investing money in Championship clubs trying to get them into the Premier League, like QPR has done, does not guarantee any success on or off the pitch.

The Deloitte report that West Ham has increased in revenue follow on the heels of a Forbes report that the team is the 17th most valuable football club in the world, with an estimated worth of $542 million. While fans may be frustrated with the team’s board and management when it comes to the bumpy move to the London Stadium or the transfer policy, it cannot be overstated how much of an impact they have had on the business side of the football club, shepherding West Ham into the elite of European when it comes to money.