Cardiff Rugby: Welsh region record £2.2m losses in 2021-22 season
- Published
Cardiff are the only one of the four Welsh regional sides to qualify for next season's top tier European Champions Cup
Cardiff Rugby has recorded a loss of £2.2m for the year ending 30 June, 2022, up from £1.6m the previous year.
In accounts filed with Companies House, club chairman Alun Jones said "focus must now shift to the future".
In May, Cardiff chief executive Richard Holland said the club had "cashflow pressures" but they have now received first instalment of the Welsh Rugby Union's (WRU) new financial support.
The region continues to pay off a 20-year £5.5m Covid loan.
"In the last statement... I predicted that we were 'not yet out of the woods'. That prediction proved true," said Jones.
"The ongoing challenges faced by Welsh rugby in its entirety, by the professional game and by us as a professional club and business are well documented.
"We have worked hard with our colleagues at the WRU and other regions to reach a funding framework for the professional game for the next six years.
"We remain eternally grateful for this support, without which our professional game would face dire consequences."
Cardiff's £2.2m loss is up significantly compared to £1.6m in 2020-21, £317,000 in 2019-20 and £405,000 in 2018-19.
This is despite turnover rising from £5.4m in 2020-21 to £13.2m in the latest report.
Earlier in June, WRU acting chief executive Nigel Walker told the Scrum V podcast that the releasing of funds to the cash-strapped teams had "taken way too long".
A new six-year deal between the WRU and the teams was signed in March.
Under the agreement, salary caps will be introduced for the 2023-24 season - £5.2m reducing to £4.5m for the 2024-25 campaign.
Jones added: "While the framework underpins our professional game, we must not relax but rather re-double our efforts to keep making improvements collectively off the field, in order to promote continued improvements on the field."
In December 2021, Cardiff travelled to South Africa for United Rugby Championship (URC) fixtures when the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was identified in the country.
As a result the UK Government placed travel restrictions on inbound travel from South Africa, and 48 Cardiff Rugby employees were stuck in the country on quarantine.
In the Companies House report, Cardiff's club directors said that "the Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a disrupted presence for Cardiff Rugby both on and off the field".
They added: "Whilst we were returning to normality in many aspects, the long-term affects were still being felt and short-term setbacks, such as the Omicron outbreak, would have a significant impact."