Up to 2000 the club has cash in the bank and was actually receiving interest on this.
From 2001 to 2005 the club only paid interest on its long-term loan taken out to extend the ground. This was set at £4.5m a year up to 2016.
The graph shows how things started to deteriorate in 2006 and again in 2007. Close to an extra £3m in interest payments were needed in 2007 compared to a couple of years earlier.
It has been calculated that if the amounts paid out in dividends had been used instead to pay off the long-term ground loan then the ground would now be paid for. The directors of the club decided that the money was better in the pockets of the shareholders than being in invested in the future of the club.
