U.S. Soccer releases 2017 financial information

U.S. Soccer released their annual form 990 on February 20th, over 320 days after the end of their fiscal year. The federation’s fiscal year ends March 31st which means that the tax filing is normally due on August 15th, but multiple extensions were requested resulting in a delivery date of February 15th. Coincidentally or not, that’s five days after the U.S. Soccer presidential election occurred in Orlando.

Unfortunately, the audited financial statements have not been released, which have more detail and commentary to address the results, but some interesting figures are available. As of March 31st, 2017 USSF had $148 million in net assets, up over $50 million from the year prior. Much has been made over the last year about the reported surplus that Sunil Gulati built up over his tenure, and that figure certainly galvanizes that claim. Over $52 million of those assets sit in accounts receivable with $14 million sitting in the opposite accounts payable line. But the key piece of information is that over $110 million is currently in publicly traded securities. The debate over what the best use of those funds should be has been bandied about this past year, and throughout the presidential campaign. Certainly some should be secured for a rainy day, but some should be put toward the true mission of the federation.

USSF reported $152 million in revenue in 2017; keep in mind that fiscal year included the revenue from the Copa America Centenario which took place in the summer of 2016. There was $50 million in contributed revenue claimed for the “Administration of Commercial Rights for Copa America Centenario.” That was the main driver of the roughly $25 million increase in revenue compared with the prior year.

The bulk of the remaining revenues coming from the Program Service revenues which totaled $97.0 million. That included Sponsorship and Royalties (i.e. SUM) at $48.9 million, National Team and Open Cup games at $33.2 million, Membership dues of $10.2 million, coaching school revenue of $1.8 million and $3 million of other.

The federation reported over $106 million in expenses and some might bring about some nausea. Jurgen Klinsmann was paid $3.275 million in taxable compensation. Bruce Arena was paid $400,000 for his partial year at the helm. Jill Ellis was compensated just over $270,000, less than the staff attorney Gregory Fike.

More detail will be revealed as the audited statements are released.