Bath Rugby debts topped £32m before Dyson investment as club makes £2.8m loss
Bath Rugby’s debts to its owner reached £32m in their triumphant Prem Rugby season before billionaire Sir James Dyson purchased 50 per cent of the club.
The West Country club last week announced a deal that saw the hoover magnate take an equal stake in the club alongside long-time funder Bruce Craig. The deal reportedly saw a significant chunk of the club’s debt paid off.
And accounts filed with Companies House revealed that those debts to Craig, in the form of an interest-free loan, rose by £2.2m to £32.3m in the year to 30 June 2025.
The hefty financial burden has cast a shadow over the club in recent years, with reliance on a sole benefactor becoming increasingly unsustainable. The net present value of the loan, after a discount of over £4m, sat at £28m.
Bath Rugby’s £32m debt owed to Craig, who purchased 100 per cent of the club in 2010, was registered in accounts that showed a loss of £2.8m, down from a £3.7m loss in the preceding financial year.
Bath, Dyson and… beavers
The club also owes the Department of Culture, Media and Sport – who had to give their approval this year to Dyson’s part-takeover – £4m in Covid-19 related loans, with the next payment due this month.
These figures come before Dyson – whose family net worth is estimated to be above £20bn according to The Sunday Times Rich List – invested in the club which currently holds the Prem Rugby and EPCR Challenge Cup titles. Bath also won the Prem Rugby Cup last season but failed in their defence of the title.
The report states that “the club is committed to becoming financially sustainable and everyone at the club recognises the importance of this goal”.
Bath’s training ground – the Grade II listed in Somerset – is now home to a family of beavers, the financial accounts add, while the club has been “enhancing grazing land and developing bee hives for natural pollination”.