The 2016–17 season was Port Vale's 105th season of football in the English Football League, and fourth successive season in EFL League One. Vale finished in 21st place – one point from safety – and were relegated. The season covers the period from 1 July 2016 through to 30 June 2017.

The club underwent a complete transformation of the playing and managerial team, with 16 players coming in (plus two on loan) and 16 players going out over the course of the summer. Ten of the new arrivals came from European leagues outside the UK, and bookmakers predicted the club would be relegated, though chairman Norman Smurthwaite expected the team to push for the play-offs under the stewardship of new manager Bruno Ribeiro. Vale were knocked out of the EFL Cup by League Two side Carlisle United, and they failed to make it out of the group stages of the EFL Trophy as they were unable to score against League Two clubs Doncaster Rovers and Mansfield Town. Ribeiro, the club's first foreign manager, resigned on Boxing Day with the club languishing in 17th-place.

Assistant manager Michael Brown stepped in as caretaker-manager, but was unable to arrest Vale's slide down the table. The club had a poor January transfer window, losing top-scoring loanee striker Alex Jones, star goalkeeper Jak Alnwick, and reigning Player of the Year Anthony Grant. Despite failing to score in six of their final seven games, the fight against relegation went to the last day of the season at Fleetwood Town, but a 0–0 draw was not enough to escape the drop. After relegation was confirmed Smurthwaite announced that he was stepping down as chairman.

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