Glyn Kirk/Getty ImagesQPR team owner Tony Fernandes reiterated his committment to the club.

There has been a lot of hoo-ha about the latest financial results for QPR, which were published last week. It's worth taking a look at what the fuss is all about.

The headline figures that the press have been reporting, and commenting on ad nauseum, are the increase in QPR's player wage bill by £29m during 2011-12 and the annual loss of £23m.

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These two figures have been added up and apparently mean that relegation to the Championship will mean that the business model is unsustainable, and as a result, QPR are "doing a Portsmouth/Leeds".

The Guardian wrote:

"If they [QPR] drop into the Championship, having spent a further £20.5m buying the striker Loic Remy and central defender Chris Samba in January, and signing Jermaine Jenas from Spurs, the effect on their finances could be shocking. Relegated clubs will receive parachute payments of £16m for the next two seasons, and £8m for two seasons after that, but their total income will shrink, and QPR's wage bill looks most likely to have increased since the £58m of May 2012."

To be fair, those headline figures don't look healthy. The shortfall has come from the owners. Tony Fernandes, and his partners, have loaned the club £55m, while the Mittals, who own 33% of QPR, lent £27m. A further £10m loan jointly held by Fernandes's company and the Mittals took the owners' total lending to QPR, which is interest free, to £92.5m.

But it is worth noting that the loss before tax is an improvement on the season before, which was £25.4m -- this may suggest that the huge outlay needed to rebuild the first team is beginning to be controlled.

There should be further improvement next season, too, as the number of loan deals the club has done since January to get players who are surplus to requirements begin to show on the books. Rob Hulse's contract will be up at the end of the season, too.

On the flip side, it is also worth noting that none of this January's transfer signings have appeared on the books yet -- the effect of adding Samba and Remy to the wage bill will be interesting and perhaps not as bad as first feared.

Revenue rose dramatically with promotion, while ratio of players' salaries to turnover decreased dramatically. In the Championship that ratio was 183% (spending 83% more on salaries than the club was earning), while in the Premier League -- despite what is considered big spending -- has dropped to 91%.

The business model has been spelt out from the beginning, but it will be expensive. The new owners are setting about completely restructuring a club which has been run as a lower league concern into a Premier League club in the shortest time feasible. As well as building a new squad, the plan includes buffing up the stadium, buying and planning to build a new training complex, restarting a youth academy and, ultimately, building a new stadium.

All this does not come cheap, and it should be little surprise that QPR is being run at a heavy loss. Perhaps it is worth noting that Chelsea has been run at an average pre-tax loss of £73.7m a year for the last eight years. Their poorer benefactor has been more than happy to take up the flak.

Taken in context, too, the wage bill is certainly not as outlandish as the newspapers would have you believe. Everton, much lauded as a club run on a shoestring, had a wage bill of £63m -- £5m more than QPR in the same period, while Fulham (£62m) and Stoke (£53m) also came in higher. Bolton were relegated with a wage bill of £55m, and yet they still seem to be a going concern.

However, the deficit does leave us at the behest of the men who now own QPR; but is that not ever thus in the modern game? The primary concern is that they get cold feet, call in the club's debt to them and leave. So far things are looking OK on that point. While there have been rumours about the Mittals leaving the club virtually from their first involvement, Fernandes has been insistent that he is going nowhere and has been keen to show his support over the months.

Just last week he tweeted: "Not sure how many times I can pledge. But I'm pledging. Ain't going anywhere as long as the fans want me."

That is all fine, but what really needs to happen is for the owners at some stage to emulate Mohamed Al Fayed at Fulham and Dave Whelan at Wigan and convert the debt -- which is currently split between loans and capital injections -- into equity.

If done, it will be the financial equivalent of putting your money where your mouth (or in this case, your Twitter account) is.

Only then can we QPR fans sleep a little easier.

Follow Sean Smith on Twitter @seanshorn

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