The Dons may soon be debt-free, but a football finance expert does not believe there will be fortunes spent on strengthening manager Derek McInnes’ squad.
The club has agreed a deal with businessman Willie Donald and wife, Elaine, who together own civil engineering firm WM Donald, to reduce net debt by £14.9million.
If the plan is approved at the club’s annual meeting on December 15, the Dons will be in the black for the first time in 21 years.
Charles Barnett, sports partner at accountants BDO, believes it will enable the club to push on with plans to move away from Pittodrie.
He said: “The message for the supporters is this stabilises the club financially at a time when Scottish football is not in a great place. Aberdeen is in a better place as their crowds and turnover are up, but Scottish football is going through a challenging period. This will perhaps allow the club to look at how it will raise investment funds for the proposed new stadium.
“This is predominantly a paper exercise as it moves debt from one side of the balance sheet to equity on the other. There will be money injected into the company as a consequence of that.
“In the previous year the cost of servicing the club’s debt was around £500,000 so clearly in the future there is the opportunity to make that saving each year.
“It doesn’t mean the club are going to start spending huge sums on player recruitment, but it does stabilise the club’s finances and that is certainly a positive.”