Future funding of GTFC - is this possible?

Just floating something here...

In our three Wembley visits I think we've had about 20,000 there.  Some of these were kids so conservatively 10,000 adults.  If reckon we all spent at least £50 to go there (ticket, travel, beer, burger) a lot of money but worth it to be part of an historic day for our team.

In our current situation, I reckon the club needs a cash injection of £0.5m each year.  Some years that comes from cup runs, player sales etc.  Other years it comes from shareholders/ directors.

Is it too far fetched to imagine a supporters trust that got the Wembley goers to contribute up to £50 a year to the running costs of the club?  If there was a surplus the Trust could either pay it back or allow it to be invested into future years.  

Anyway - is this fantasy or possible?

Quoted from LondonMariner43

Just floating something here...

In our three Wembley visits I think we've had about 20,000 there.  Some of these were kids so conservatively 10,000 adults.  If reckon we all spent at least £50 to go there (ticket, travel, beer, burger) a lot of money but worth it to be part of an historic day for our team.

In our current situation, I reckon the club needs a cash injection of £0.5m each year.  Some years that comes from cup runs, player sales etc.  Other years it comes from shareholders/ directors.

Is it too far fetched to imagine a supporters trust that got the Wembley goers to contribute up to £50 a year to the running costs of the club?  If there was a surplus the Trust could either pay it back or allow it to be invested into future years.  

Anyway - is this fantasy or possible?

In good economic times this would be hard to achieve. Given the state of the economy now I suspect this is nigh on impossible. I think this whole share transfer is a kop-out. When the club goes belly-up the supporters trust will get the blame. Game, set and match.

Apparently we have enough business acumen on the board, we just need someone to either wake them up or filter some of their great money making ideas for the great unwashed to lap up.

No business, football club or otherwise, can survive on charity forever. Whether that charity comes from directors, fans or a combination of the two is irrelevant; it's not robust or reliable income. Long term, you need to be breaking even at least.

For anyone wondering why the club needed a new stadium; the answer should now be apparent.

New, purpose built stadiums drive significant extra revenue not only through increased matchday activity (bigger gate receipts, extra food and beer sold etc.) and additional sponsorship but also through ancillary income generated 7 days a week through office space, business facilities, function rooms, hotels, gyms, restaurants and so on. Blundell Park has none of these things to any meaningful degree and so the club's income is limited to declining matchday income (the playing budget gets lowered as income is reduced, the playing squad decreases in quality, performances get worse, so attendances decline and the playing budget gets lowered again - it's a vicious cycle that we'd failed to get out of).

Based on last year's loss of approximately £900,000, to break even we'd realistically have to add at least 3,000 to our average attendance, which frankly isn't going to happen any time soon. Much like the new stadium.

This leaves anyone in charge of the club with a bit of a problem. To keep the club afloat, whoever is in charge has to do one of two things:

1. Indefinately bankroll the club's existance to the tune of roughly £1m / year, just to stay at our current level of expenditure. Unless we somehow miraculously turn things around on the pitch, this doesn't necessarily guarantee any thanks or adjulation from the club's supporters. Just ask John Fenty.

2. Substantially reduce the club's expenditure. It's worth noting that the amount the club lost last year, or would have done if not for directors covering the shortfall, and this season's playing budget are roughly the same figure. The only way to acheive this, then, is presumably to take the club part-time. Part-time in a big way. And for certain, you wouldn't get any thanks for doing that.

Perhaps this explains why both John Fenty and Mike Parker seem incredibly reluctant to take the helm. I'm not so sure there are any complex mind games going on here, more like a game of 'pass the grenade'. I can't see it being long before it goes off...

Short but sweet - how the hell did AFC Wimbledon manage it? we are losing 900,000 a year yet they have gone from nothing through the leagues.

As for expenditure, I wonder how much office staff / shop staff get paid - put them on mininum wage, they can get tax credits anyway.

Accountant? anyone with GTFC at heart want to volunteer whose qualified? do we have one? how much are they paid.

Stick all Management on bare mininum salarys for that level, if they don't like it show them the door.

And yes I read Tim Mickleburgh's article in the Evening Telegraph this evening in regards to staff.

Another top post Poojah.

Could another option be everyone(Fenty, Parker + fans) bankrolling the club to do a Crawley in 1 MASSIVE PUSH IF we think it's worth the risk ?
For whatever reason these £1million budgets haven't done any good.

Obviously there are no guarantees but I just don't see the point fannying about losing £1milllion for 2 years when we could give ourselves a chance by losing £2million in 1 year.

And there's always the option of cutting our cloth and part-time football, playing the youth team etc if it fails.

So IF we think S&H could do it, should "go for it" on 1 year basis ? (including e.g. 1 year player contracts)

Cos if we go up we'd be £500K better off and THEN we could e.g. slash the budget and try to rely on youth/younger players.  
"How long before we go back down again ?" I hear you say.
Oh ye of little faith...
Clubs who go up have good records in their first year with momentum behind them.
If S&H have what it takes to get promoted they've got a sporting chance of surviving relegation from L2 with us in full support and on a roll.
And when we go up we can MAKE those cuts in case we do go down again - that's the point....

And what's the alternative ? Slide into oblivion anyway ?

If we're honest we all knew in our hearts that long term we had more chance of surviving in L2 than in the BSP.

Would you dig deep into your pocket to finance a Crawley ? I would !
Don't tell me finances are hard - if fans can afford to travel all around the country to support Town  they can afford to save it for a next season promotion push kitty - if everyone got serious we could make it happen with GTST as the driving force behind it.

So I say let's consider a grand plan to ALL pull together and get out of this pisspot league once and for all !!!

Quoted from 1600

Another top post Poojah.

Could another option be everyone(Fenty, Parker + fans) bankrolling the club to do a Crawley in 1 MASSIVE PUSH IF we think it's worth the risk ?
For whatever reason these £1million budgets haven't done any good.

Obviously there are no guarantees but I just don't see the point fannying about losing £1milllion for 2 years when we could give ourselves a chance by losing £2million in 1 year.

And there's always the option of cutting our cloth and part-time football, playing the youth team etc if it fails.

So IF we think S&H could do it, should "go for it" on 1 year basis ? (including e.g. 1 year player contracts)

Cos if we go up we'd be £500K better off and THEN we could e.g. slash the budget and try to rely on youth/younger players.  
"How long before we go back down again ?" I hear you say.
Oh ye of little faith...
Clubs who go up have good records in their first year with momentum behind them.
If S&H have what it takes to get promoted they've got a sporting chance of surviving relegation from L2 with us in full support and on a roll.
And when we go up we can MAKE those cuts in case we do go down again - that's the point....

And what's the alternative ? Slide into oblivion anyway ?

If we're honest we all knew in our hearts that long term we had more chance of surviving in L2 than in the BSP.

Would you dig deep into your pocket to finance a Crawley ? I would !
Don't tell me finances are hard - if fans can afford to travel all around the country to support Town  they can afford to save it for a next season promotion push kitty - if everyone got serious we could make it happen with GTST as the driving force behind it.

So I say let's consider a grand plan to ALL pull together and get out of this pisspot league once and for all !!!

Although it worked for Crawley, A similar philosophy didn't work so well for Bradford (spending to stay in the Premier League) and Leeds (Spending to win the Champion's league).  I'm not sure that Grimsby is as an attractive place to lure players to up sticks and move to from other clubs either.  

By the figures bandied about recently, JF has contributed 2 million over seven years and MP 1.25 in a year and a bit. That's well over 3 million just to take us into the football wilderness of non league. So do our directors/shareholders have the desire or interest in a push for promotion and the finance necessary, I suspect not! We have already had more investment than Crawley in their promotion year and our erstwhile leaders got it wrong big time. As for players we need time to bed those in that will be staying and bring in new players with the athleticism of Green and ability coupled with a desire to further their career prospects not just take a wage n fade away. I would like to see a big push for promotion when the time is right ie after Luton n Fleetwood have finished their spending and we have a straight chance of going up automatically! That said Luton seem to have invested 3 Seasons in a row n only made play offs, maybe it's time for 3 up 3 down ?

Quoted from ticker_1610

By the figures bandied about recently, JF has contributed 2 million over seven years and MP 1.25 in a year and a bit. That's well over 3 million just to take us into the football wilderness of non league. So do our directors/shareholders have the desire or interest in a push for promotion and the finance necessary, I suspect not! We have already had more investment than Crawley in their promotion year and our erstwhile leaders got it wrong big time. As for players we need time to bed those in that will be staying and bring in new players with the athleticism of Green and ability coupled with a desire to further their career prospects not just take a wage n fade away. I would like to see a big push for promotion when the time is right ie after Luton n Fleetwood have finished their spending and we have a straight chance of going up automatically! That said Luton seem to have invested 3 Seasons in a row n only made play offs, maybe it's time for 3 up 3 down ?

Interesting that whilst some suggest we should be pushing the boat out (when we havent got a bucket to peesh in) others think we should be cutting our cloth to a more reasonable level.

I am very much in the cloth cutting section as I see it as the only way we can survive long term (perhaps).

Quoted from BIGChris

Interesting that whilst some suggest we should be pushing the boat out (when we havent got a bucket to peesh in) others think we should be cutting our cloth to a more reasonable level.

I am very much in the cloth cutting section as I see it as the only way we can survive long term (perhaps).

if we dont get out of these league this year or next the cutting cloth alternative will be part time players, for me thats the only way to save money is it not?