TOM Jones has helped push Gloucester into profit for the second year running.
The Welsh superstar singer's sell-out Kingsholm concert boosted Gloucester's turnover in the tax year 2011/12 – allowing the Cherry and Whites to record a pre-tax profit of £303,000.
Gloucester stabilised their books and returned to the black the previous year, turning a £10,000 profit over the 13-month period they registered in 2010/11.
In the previous financial year Gloucester restructured their loan on the Grandstand, freeing up considerable funds to reinvest into the coaching set-up.
But it is events like concerts and conferences where Gloucester believe they can continue to thrive – ultimately for the good of the team on the field.
The directors' report in this year's accounts reads: "On a like-for-like basis turnover improved by eight per cent, with the major contributors to the additional turnover being concert and bar revenue."
Gloucester are intent on finding ways to make Kingsholm a seven-day-a-week business.
The Cherry and Whites board realise that one home match a fortnight in isolation would leave the ground fallow on a financial front elsewhere.
So the club now use the ground's facilities wherever possible – in the last two years that work has paid dividend, now evident in the financial reports.
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