The council tax payer will have to fork out nearly £8 million for this year's losses at the NEC Group.
The figure of £7.94 million is an improvement on the £8.4 million of 2003/4, with the organisation pledged to try and eliminate the burden entirely over the next decade.
The detailed figures reveal a generally flat performance across the board, with the cyclical nature of the exhibition side knocking turnover.
NEC Group includes the NEC itself, the International Convention Centre and the National Indoor Arena.
It is owned by Birmingham City Council in a link-up with Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In what was described as a "challenging year for the exhibition industry as a whole" turnover of £136.4 million for 2004/05 was down from £149.2 million in the previous year.
Of that, exhibitions was off £9 million.
This was said to be in line with the cycle which included the Motor Show - since lost to London - but not the 'blockbuster' ITMA textile machinery show which figured in 2003/4.
The group, which recently completed the first phase of a £40 million investment programme in the NEC venue designed to encourage new events and exhibitions, reported operating profits before interest and capital charges of £42.6 million, marginally improved.
But, after interest and asset rental charges, the company incurred a deficit of £2.5 million, with a further £5.5 million being set aside for loan repayments.
All reflect in various ways building costs of the venues.
The ICC did particularly well, cutting its operating loss to £ 104,000 from £ 8 8 3 , 0 0 0 i n 2 0 0 3 / 4 . Improved occupancy is being put down to its strong position in the market place.
John Hornby, finance director, said: " These results reflect a satisfactory year for the NEC Group, although once cyclical business is stripped out the underlying position is relatively flat, due to a lack of growth in the exhibition industry.
"Our priority for the long term is to move the business out of the deficit position which it has lived with for 30 years.
" In addition to the investment programme we intend to do this by encouraging innovative launch shows to come to the NEC, increasing the number of shows we put on ourselves through our joint venture with Clarion Events, and by creating a leisure destination, with a regional casino at its heart, on the NEC site that is attractive to business and leisure visitors."
He said the task was to get rid of the deficit whether or not it won the casino battle, and there was an "aggressive business development" plan in place to do exactly that.
