The owner of Wembley Stadium has announced it made a pre-tax loss of £31m last year and said it could default on finance agreements if wealthy patrons fail to renew their season tickets.

Figures published by Wembley National Stadium, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Football Association, show that the company made an operating profit of nearly £6m in the year to December 31, 2008.

However, the group plunged into the red because of a £26.6m interest bill and £10.9m write-off in bank fees associated with the stadium financing in 2002.

The overall loss was £23m after tax, which actually was an improvement on the previous year’s loss of £36m.

The company said that its business plan had always predicted that it would not break even until five years after the stadium opened in 2007 at a total cost of £757m, after eight years of rising costs and delays.

During the year, management refinanced the business, though it still has debts of more than £320m. The deal cut its interest rate from 7.8% to 6.9% and extended the repayment deadline from 2018 to 2023.

The company added that the new arrangements included cashflow covenants that it expected to achieve but could default on if there is a fall in the number of Club Wembley licence holders, who pay annually for boxes and premium seats.