Courier Tomorrow

[Paul Dainty]

Ahead of an article in The Courier tomorrow , I feel that I should inform supporters in advance of the current financial situation at the club and the position of the board and management.
Firstly , we are trying to maintain our current level of expenditure with our management and players salaries. However , the following facts are serious concerns for the immediate future of the club:

Sponsorship is £20000 short of target due to the withdrawl of our main sponsor in October.

Early exits from the FA Cup and Trophy lost £7000 of income.

Only one league game in November (29/11 vs Fleet) and salaries of £14000 gross to pay

We have found it extremely difficult to attract significant sponsorship and the wages of the players are currently been covered by the Directors but this cannot continue.
I discussed the situation with Alan this week and he is very reluctant to accept an across the board reduction in players/management wages.
It is so frustrating that the club is in its best position , we have an excellent Manager , we all desperately want promotion and this is still our aim .
The reason for the Courier article is an attempt to publicise this problem in an attempt to attract sponsorship and we are all working towards this aim.
I sincerely hope we can resolve this and get back on track in our quest to win the league but I needed you all to be informed of the situation ahead of tomorrow.

[dengal]

As you can imagine Paul it is very disappointing to read this having had the best start to a season that we have probably ever had (certainly in my 20+ years of watching). Two questions immediatley spring to mind:
1. Did you budget for an FA Cup run before the draw was made and if so, is this wise (easy to say I know with hindsight). If it was after the draw was made Lewes was a very tough draw and the budget in my mind should have been revised accordingly.
2. You have stated in the past that the exisitng sponsor was to withdraw in November, did you budget for this or did you just back the marketing team to gain another sponsor ?
From what you have said it would appear that Alan would be reluctant to reduce the playing budget and that would presumably make him consider his position which would be a huge loss.
And, as much as it pains me to say it, I would certainly review the number of games that I attended (home and away) as I , like you and your fellow directors would not want to pour money down the drain. I sincerely hope that it doesn't come to that.
At least you have the guts to post on the forum/courier whereas previous chairmen would have never spoken to anyone outside of the boardroom.

[banburymike]

Just wondering......
The £14000 on wages is that a month or year?

[KatieKate]

I bloody well 'ope it is a year....it might be something like a a quater....

[Linnet]

It sounds like 14k to pay out for the month of November.
It doesn't help clubs with the scheduled league fixtures when only one match in a month is at home. Even then the game could be postponed.

[banburymike]

Surley it cant be a quarter.. you wouldn't pay wages 3 months in arrears?

It sounds like Novembers wages to be paid at the end of the month

If it is........... riding for a fall springs to mind!
Don't get me wrong.. You've got a cracking side and look nailed on for the league... but at what cost?

[Dan]

Obviously I can't really say too much but I can say the wages are considerably less than £14k for a month.

There is however another article about this, on Ceefax page 394 with more "Walker threatens to quit" headlines.

[Paul Dainty]

I can update you with the current situation :

As yet no main sponsor or part sponsor has been found but we are still trying to resolve the situation before the weekend

We do not want Alan to leave the club but he has stated that the overall budget cuts proposed are 'untenable' .

The current budget is as declared previously is £14000 per month but these are GROSS wages not net . We set this budget on the understanding that our main sponsor would back us and we did have this assurance but circumstances changed . Also, we budgetted for success in either round 1 of the FA Cup and 2 rounds of the Trophy or vice versa and we did not think this was unreasonable. The disappointment I felt after the Marlow game was immense as this really brought the situation to a critical point as cash and further gates from this competion would have given us some more time , albeit not much.

I will update you if any more develops over the next few days but the club will survive this crisis and we are still absolutely 100% wanting promotion this year .

[psp]

a little bit concerned that their is no talk of compromise on budget. would of thought that pride in achievment would have carried some weight.

[Daffy]

(message deleted)

[charlieangel]

nws=daffy .

[Dan]

Cheers Charlie. Your detective qualities have been noted.

I recognised the e-mail address of "Daffy" for a previous poster under the name of "Angeleyes", so both of those users have also been banned.

It's a bit disappointing that one troublemaker has to waste their own time and my time but I will continue to remove their efforts and the message should get through eventually.

[Stuart]

Since £14000 per month is a considerable sum, would it be proper for supporters to ask how many people are employed full time ?
I'm only asking in order to make sense of the figure. I'm not interested in names.

[samairpics]

:)HI all

Any news on a sponsor yet. also what should we expect in the courier 2moro

[barnetboy]

Not being funny, but you must be the only club I know that budget's for cup runs! That money should a bonus, not something to be relied on.