Premier League clubs face multi-million tax hikes over stadiums next year

Football clubs are set to be hit with multi-million tax hikes on their stadiums next year after business rates were shaken up as part of last week’s budget.

The Premier League’s 20 stadiums will face almost £7 million in extra taxes next year after their valuations were pushed higher.

New analysis by real estate specialists at Altus Group has found that the values for Premier League stadia shot almost 50% higher after revaluation levels were confirmed last week.

Business rates – the property tax facing UK businesses – have been revised for the start of the new financial year in April 2023, after previous criticism that they were still based on levels from 2017.

The new shake up has benefited many high street retailers and hotels but moved higher for online retail warehouses and many leisure firms.

It has resulted in a 7.3% increase on average for all non-domestic properties in England, but Premier League stadia will rise by 48.9% for the rateable values, which will increase to £75.66 million from £50.8 million next year.

Aston Villa’s Villa Park was the only stadium to see its valuation fall – dropping by £250,000 – and therefore will see a slight reduction in its next rate payment.

Tottenham Hotspur’s new £1 billion stadium has the highest valuation for business rates of any football ground in the country at £10.28 million.

The Tottenham Hotspur stadium will see its annual business rates bill jump by over £1 million to £4.78 million from April.

Elsewhere, Manchester United’s Old Trafford will see its annual bill jump to £3.74 million from £2.87 million.

Proportionately, the biggest loser under the 2023 revaluation was Leeds United’s Elland Road stadium seeing its value skyrocket 315% whilst Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton & Hove Albion have both seen rises of over 250% on the values of their stadiums.

Robert Hayton, UK president at Altus Group, said: “Valuations of football stadium are complex and take into account not only the size or capacity of the stadium but their quality as well as attendances and income.

“The valuers of the draft lists have clearly downplayed the impact of the pandemic on values given restrictions were still in force on the assessment date with games being played behind closed doors.”