What happened at the Surgery?
On Saturday, 30 December I held a surgery for supporters in the Princess Royal. I met with seven supporters. I would like to thank all those that came to meet me. The main topics that they raised were:
- Will we bringing new players when the transfer window opens? Part of Scott Fitzgerald’s survival plan is to bring in new players. The board has agreed to initially support this by using money from moving players out to other Clubs and from the Fighting Chance Fund. We will review the position at the next Club board meeting on 5 January.
- With falling attendances because of the team’s poor form, what is the impact on the budget for this season? Our main source of revenue is gate receipts and at the start of the season we budgeted for an average attendances of 6,500. We are currently 1,000 down on that figure which will result in revenue reduction of around £250,000 for the season. For this season we can cover this loss from the additional transfer income we received at the beginning of season. It does mean however that the surplus funds we were planning to use for next season will not be there and mean we will have some tough decisions to make for next season’s budget.
- If we do get relegated what will the impact be on revenue? We see a potential reduction of £500,000 on top of existing loses. In this case costs would have to be further reviewed to take this additional reduction into account.
- What is being done to get more money into the Club? Keith Dickens is working on both generating new sources of revenue and eliminating areas that are losing us cash. This is a substantial task as the Club’s operating loss is around £500,000 per year.
- I was asked a number of questions about the recruitment process for the new manager. Keith Dickens was appointed by the Club board to lead the process with support from David Heath, Ian Jones and myself. It was agreed from the start that any comment about the process / appointment would be made through Keith. I apologise if this was not communicated clearly. This decision was taken to ensure consistency of communication and that we respected the confidentiality of all the candidates. Keith has already commented about the process following Scott’s appointment and if there are any further questions, these should be addressed directly to him. I have discussed this with Keith and he is more than happy to take questions.
- There were a few supporters that said that they thought that the Club being owned by the supporters meant that we could not effectively compete with other Clubs due to a lack of financial resources. In the short term I think they are right. We certainly have no one who wants to give money to the Club to cover our loses. In the medium-term I disagree as the supporter ownership model with a community stadium, which will transform the Club financially, has started to “open doors” for us that were simply closed when the Club was in private hands. The difficulty is managing the short-term losses, as highlighted in the previous questions. This why the board appointed a managing director who must lead the Club, with the support of the board, through some difficult times.
My next surgery in the Princess Royal will be before the home game with Leyton Orient on 13 January between 1.15 - 2.15 pm.
4th January 2007