Fenty Out

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Some of the extra he leant covered losses built up after the tax debt.

£1.5m losses in the years 2010-16 inclusive.

There've been profits in following years but also £400k worth of directors' loans paid back.

Go figure.

This is what really, really winds me up.  Those losses came about because of the poor management of the club on his watch, there's no other reasoning for the losses.  You can argue decreased revenue, you can argue increased costs...they all came about when he was signing the cheques.  

It's the often used example and I fully accept that it's more of an exception than the rule, but Accrington managed success last season, they made a profit and had approx. half of our income levels through the gate. Then of course there's the knock ons beyond ticket sales such as food, drink etc. bought in the ground.  You would imagine that with extra people going through the gate you also have an increase in merchandise plus with a greater captive audience your advertising sales should be better too.

Forget the success on the pitch.  That's never guaranteed, regardless of what you spend.  You can spend loads and spend it badly.  But if a club like Accrington can make a profit, without any player sales of note, we should be absolutely rolling in it.  Instead we've relied on footballing fortune to post a decent profit.  You take away the Bogle sale and what profit have we made in recent years?  

This club is dying with Fenty in charge, dying a slow and painful death.  We have the 9th highest average attendance in the league but if everything is to be believed something like the 17th/18th highest playing budget.  Why?  It's not a perfect science and when you've got clubs like Mansfield who are throwing money at it, you would expect a few anomalies but not to that extent.
We have to scrape around with a relegation battle budget because the club is run like a closed shop.  No lessons are ever learned, I don't mind mistakes but when they're repeated time and time again it's just lazy.  

Fenty has overseen something like 15 years of decline.  I fear that this summer will mark the biggest apathy towards the club in a long, long time.  Even during the dark days of the Conference there was hope and belief we would return.  Now the mood is of total acceptance that the club is heading absolutely nowhere.

It's becoming more and more apparent that the club is run on a shoestring at the minute.  A savvy chairman would use this as  a marketing ploy.    We've got a young and local squad that other clubs would see as a marketing opportunity.  Clifton, Wright, Rose, Pollock, Battersby, Buckley, Vernam (relatively local) and Burrell. should all be on the front of the season ticket packs that should have gone out two months ago.  The new generation, home grown and proud to wear the shirt.  Instead we're going to fall into the summer with total apathy and struggle to break 2,000 season tickets sold.  

A complete review of the club is needed, from top and bottom.  What departments are performing and why aren't they.  What more can we do to sell season tickets, what percentage of our crowd is under a certain age and then over a certain age or how far do they live from the ground?  Do we have a next generation of fans getting an interest in the club from a young age?   Maybe if we managed ticket sales on a system more technical than an A4 lined book we would have this at our finger tips.  

I don't doubt that Fenty has the best interest of the club at heart, or that he genuinely believes he's doing the right thing.  But the hard fact is that he isn't doing the right thing.  He's burying his head in the sand and we're stagnating, at best.  Time to leave John.  Time to let someone else have a go and bring fresh ideas to the table.  

I can sense your passion and frustration. You’re so right about playing budgets aren’t everything. Just look at Notts County, massive budget but bottom. Think Accrington are a great model to look at how they not only survive but prosper.
I must admit , as an Imp, the previous Chairman did much to keep us afloat but we needed some new blood and new ambition to complement the change. You also need a bit of luck like we had in our FA Cup rum and use the money wisely.. good luck for next year

Quoted from rancido

But we spent several seasons in the 3rd Division (N) prior to that, which was the lowest Football League for Northern teams. When you finished bottom of that you had to seek re-election and if you failed you were relegated to non-league.

Point taken Rancido but that's also a bit like saying when there were only two divisions we were t a low ebb by being in the bottom one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Grimsby_Town_F.C._seasons

Looking back to the early to mid fifties we had five seasons in Divison 3 North, three of which we did pretty well and only one where we didn't

I don't know what was going on in the 54-55 season but surely every team at some stage has been down at the bottom so it wasn't as if it was a sustained depressed period ( though to anyone who'd witnessed us in the top flight, maybe it did feel that way    )

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

I'm sure!

Sorry I was being deliberately facetious with the question, I was trying to emphasise that the debt seemed smaller prior to the current boards tenure.

Yeah, I got it.

My point still stands.

Knowing that you've lent some money yet not knowing what the sum repaid to you in the club's accounts constitutes towards that debt is worrying to me. And no, it wasn't explained in the fans forum or AGM either, as he claimed.

Stinks of fish to me.

Quoted from diehardmariner

This is what really, really winds me up.  Those losses came about because of the poor management of the club on his watch, there's no other reasoning for the losses.  You can argue decreased revenue, you can argue increased costs...they all came about when he was signing the cheques.  

Not just signing the cheques but demanding to be in control. Let's not forget he got GIVEN £250,000 worth of shares. When you add that to the extra losses you get to £1.75m. Now how much has he bailed the club out?

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Not just signing the cheques but demanding to be in control. Let's not forget he got GIVEN £250,000 worth of shares. When you add that to the extra losses you get to £1.75m. Now how much has he bailed the club out?

Let’s not forget the 5 million revenue we allegedly lost whilst non league- that would have paid his loans off more than once.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Not just signing the cheques but demanding to be in control. Let's not forget he got GIVEN £250,000 worth of shares. When you add that to the extra losses you get to £1.75m. Now how much has he bailed the club out?

It was £500,000 actually

Quoted from Green27

It was £500,000 actually

Didn’t agree with that tbh

Quoted from Green27

It was £500,000 actually

No. The total of shares give to the Trust by Mike Parker was 500,000. Half of which was given to JF.

Ipswich ST's price out tomorrow they expect to lose £9 million by been relegated,

BUT

I bet they will have some good offers on,

So come on Grimsby plan ahead and get some interest going.