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Fishy Forum › Fishy Boards › Archive › Stevenage - Gregor Robertson’s view

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Stevenage - Gregor Robertson’s view

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TheRonRaffertyFanClub	August 13, 2019, 12:34pm
Special Brew Drinker Posts: 7,638 Posts Per Day: 1.34 Reputation: 79.65% Rep Score: +43 / -11 Location: Norfolk Approval: +8,658 Gold Stars: 23	Now I know Stevenage is not flavour of the month with anyone on the Fishy but Gregor’s piece in the Times revealed some home truths about running a club in the lower divisions. His interview with the owner was quite revealing. Can’t do a link to the Times so it will have to be cut and paste. Fifty-two of the 72 Football League clubs ended 2017-18 in the red. Wages and losses are rising at a rate that is far outpacing income. Phil Wallace, owner of the League Two club Stevenage, makes a stark assessment. “If something doesn’t happen soon, then many of these lower-league clubs will not exist one day,” he says. Wallace is well placed to make that judgment. Stevenage have been transformed since the chief executive of the Lamex Food Group bought the Hertfordshire club two decades ago. They were promoted to the EFL for the first time in 2010 and followed that by going up, under Graham Westley, their former manager, to League One, in 2011. In 2012, they reached the League One play-off semi-finals and, despite dropping back down to League Two in 2014, Stevenage have established themselves as a fixture of the Football League over the past decade. Yet running a football club sustainably, Wallace says, is a “constant battle”. Stevenage were one of only eight League Two clubs to turn a small profit in 2017-18, thanks largely to the sale of Ben Wilmot, the academy-developed defender, to Watford. Yet Stevenage “probably lose money three years out of four”, according to the owner. As with most clubs, Wallace says, Stevenage have pretty much exhausted all available income streams. “All of us are out in our communities, in local schools, giving free tickets away, doing everything we can to drive attendances to our community clubs — and we can’t put ticket prices up to increase our income,” he says. “Then, if you accept that we’re probably not going to be able to depress wages for staff and players, then that future looks quite bleak, doesn’t it?” Stevenage, moreover, have not been afraid to think outside the box. This summer, they sold more than £300,000 of club shares through Tifosy, the sports investment platform co-founded by Gianluca Vialli, the former Chelsea and Italy striker, to invest directly into the first-team playing budget. Shareholders enjoy voting rights, would receive a 25 per cent dividend upon promotion to League One, and a further 75 per cent dividend should they get into the Championship. “Over 150 people are now part-owners of the football club who have the ability to share in our success,” Wallace says. “It wasn’t an exercise in me divesting myself of the club; it was an exercise to bring money in that we could use to directly improve the football budget, and to reward those [investors] if we were successful.” In 2017, Stevenage became the first club in English football to offer a bond, also using Tifosy, to fund the development of a new stand at the Lamex Stadium. More than 200 fans raised £600,000, investing between £500 and £25,000. The 1,500-seat North Stand opens next month. Having missed out on the League Two play-offs by one point last season with a playing budget of £1.6 million, slightly below the £1.8 million League Two average, 12 new players have arrived this summer along with Mark Sampson, the former England women’s head coach, and David Oldfield, a former Leicester City midfielder, as assistants to Dino Maamria, the manager. “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty."
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bedders78	August 13, 2019, 12:51pm
Snakebite drinker Posts: 406 Posts Per Day: 0.14 Reputation: 68.04% Rep Score: +3 / -3 Approval: +827 Gold Stars: 12	£600k buys you a 1.5k seater stand, that's sobering Grim Outlook exile
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Mariner Timsky	August 13, 2019, 1:01pm
Cocktail Drinker Posts: 1,753 Posts Per Day: 0.42 Reputation: 86.91% Rep Score: +5 / 0 Location: Northampton Approval: +1,533 Gold Stars: 4	" playing budget of £1.6 million, slightly below the £1.8 million League Two average" I wonder what the playing budget for GTFC is Stand Up For The Mariners!!!!! Stand Up For The Mariners!!!!!
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TheRealJohnLewis	August 13, 2019, 1:18pm
Fine Wine Drinker Posts: 1,250 Posts Per Day: 0.30 Reputation: 67.36% Rep Score: +13 / -8 Approval: +2,308 Gold Stars: 39	Quoted from Mariner Timsky " playing budget of £1.6 million, slightly below the £1.8 million League Two average" I wonder what the playing budget for GTFC is We had a total wage expenditure of £2.36m, but this is for 69 full time, 27 part-time and 123 matchday staff.  There's nothing in the accounts directly attributed to just players.
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Madeleymariner	August 13, 2019, 3:16pm
Vodka Drinker Posts: 6,040 Posts Per Day: 1.01 Reputation: 64.28% Rep Score: +23 / -15 Approval: +3,050 Gold Stars: 49	A quick recce up assuming 29 f/t staff aren't players we certainly didnt have an above average playing budget and I assumed staff wages nearly all based on minimum wage,
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TheRonRaffertyFanClub	August 13, 2019, 3:34pm
Special Brew Drinker Posts: 7,638 Posts Per Day: 1.34 Reputation: 79.65% Rep Score: +43 / -11 Location: Norfolk Approval: +8,658 Gold Stars: 23	Quoted from Madeleymariner A quick recce up assuming 29 f/t staff aren't players we certainly didnt have an above average playing budget and I assumed staff wages nearly all based on minimum wage, This is the Accrington story which includes the wages business. We can compare them the GTFC in 2015/16/17. http://priceoffootball.com/tag/accrington-stanley/ “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty."
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The Boys Paddock	August 13, 2019, 10:37pm
Beer Drinker Posts: 136 Posts Per Day: 0.07 Reputation: 51.7% Rep Score: +0 / -5 Approval: -964	shithouse of a club...intercourse em
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marinerdazza	August 13, 2019, 11:05pm
Cocktail Drinker Posts: 1,885 Posts Per Day: 0.90 Reputation: 77.57% Rep Score: +6 / -2 Approval: +4,843 Gold Stars: 82	Quoted from The Boys Paddock shithouse of a club...intercourse em I find it difficult to argue with this sentiment tbf,
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