Wytham Abbey is being listed on the open market for £15 million [...] Adjusted for inflation, the purchase price of the house two years ago now equals £16.2 million.
Remember when one of their justifications was that it's also an investment?
It's not necessarily a loss of a million pounds if many of the events that happened there would have spent money to organise events elsewhere (renting event spaces and accommodation for event attendees can get quite pricey) and would have spent additional time on organising the events, finding venues, setting them up etc (compared to having them at Wytham). For comparison, EA Global events cost in the ballpark of a million pounds per event.