WARRINGTON Wolves' £750,000 loss in one year highlights again the need for their new home in the town's planned super stadium, which is still in the hands of the Government for a go-ahead decision.

The substantial loss, revealed this week in the club's financial statements for the year ending 1999, came in the first year of a new era following a 1998 takeover and took the club's overall debt up to almost £2m.

It is expected that the club will have made similar losses this year and in 2000 and the board of directors believe the only way forward is to have a new stadium with its heightened hospitality and sponsorship opportunities to enable the club to be financially viable at Super League level.

It is not reflected in the profit and loss account in the report, produced for shareholders ahead of the club's annual meeting on Thursday, October 4, that the club's then owners - Greenalls, Warrington Borough Council, Simon Moran and Bill Holroyd - funded the 1999 loss through loans and share capital and it is understood the same happened last year.

This year loan arrangements have been set up with their stadium partners Tesco, Carlsberg-Tetley and Warrington Borough Council in a bid to make ends meet.

The ultimate goal, with the addition of the new stadium, is to break even year by year and club chiefs insist all directors, managers and staff are working hard to reduce costs. As an example, the budget for the playing squad in 2002 is lower than last season although the figures have not been revealed.

Of the £2m total debt at the end of 1999, around half was money owing to the club's owners rather than outside creditors. The cash owed to external bodies was considerably less than the previous year.

1999 was the year in which the sale of the Wilderspool ground was agreed to the council for £1m and the cash was used to pay off bank debts and some other creditors.

But there was a marked increase in administration expenses of almost £800,000, which included the salaries of staff and players being up on the previous year by a little more than £500,000.

It was the first period of former coach Darryl Van de Velde's three-year plan and, with the board's backing and funding, higher contracts were paid out to attract players like former Great Britain international Alan Hunte and Australian pack star Simon Gillies to Wilderspool.

The Wolves also returned to a three-team set-up in that year with the Alliance Under 21s being put together after previously being scrapped for financial reasons.

A £258,000 Inland Revenue demand, which club bosses previously thought had been paid through an intermediary', has been included as an exceptional item on the 1999 profit and loss account although the directors are resisting the claim strongly.

The report shows that £151,061, including Value Added Tax, was paid to Take Action Ltd for Van de Velde's services. The fee includes salary and benefits. Van de Velde, who was replaced as head coach in August this year, had a controlling interest in the company.