Borussia Dortmund have announced record revenue of €536 million for the 2017-18 season. The Bundesliga club also posted a net profit of €28.5m, but revenue without transfers dropped by 4.6 percent to €313m.
Coming out of a mediocre season which saw the club crash out early in the German Cup and Champions League, the transfers of Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Arsenal accounted for around €200m.
Total transfers made up for 41 percent of Dortmund's revenue in the 2017-18 season as revenues for match operations, TV rights, merchandise and catering/conference all dropped.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said the club want to break the €500m revenue mark without transfers in the next seven years. "It's our ambition," he said.
In November, the trial against Sergej W, the man who admitted causing an explosion in order to profit from a significant drop in the club shares, is set to come to an end at Dortmund's district court.
Three explosions hit BVB's team bus ahead of a Champions League quarterfinal against Monaco in April 2017. Sergej W has been on trial since December and, over the course of the first half of 2018, several Dortmund players appeared as witnesses.
"It wasn't a good season," Watzke said. "It was the season after the attack. It shaped us. The trial affected the team. There's no formula for the moment when the players face the attacker in the court room. We were disappointed by how brutal the team was criticised [despite the trial].
"Independent of that, we made mistakes too: [finishing with] 55 points. That's not our aspiration."
Following a fourth-placed finish last season, Dortmund kick off the new season under coach Lucien Favre with a home match against RB Leipzig on Sunday having invested in seven new players, including the Bundesliga's marquee signing. Axel Witsel, who returned to Europe from Tianjin Quanjian.
"We've showed courage, and we've already spent over €100m on new players since January," Watzke said.
However, on Sunday, Dortmund will still be without a central striker -- as a loan move for Divock Origi collapsed. Though many of the club's fans have grown impatient over a possible transfer, Watzke said: "We won't be pushed into a transfer.
"It makes no sense to do something so nobody can write we did not try hard enough. That makes no sense."