Financial Stability

I will start this post saying I'm neither a Fentyista or a Fenty out person. I've spent my more formative years as a supporter with Fenty at the helm so I'm really none the wiser to others.

I know he gets a lot of heat on here (And for good reasons) but I do think that personally he's done a job in making sure we havent ceased to be as a club, or gone into administration. I only bring this up after seeing other clubs like Bury cease to be, clubs like Oldham and Macclesfield in danger of being wound up and the likes of Lincoln and Scunny publishing rather substantial losses. Now again I'm sure plenty of people will point to multiple relegations, dropping out the league as things to aim against JF and yes the last couple of decades have been difficult for us Town supporters but I for one am glad that we still have a club and that we operate in a way that keeps us sustainable.

Just because he runs the club sustainably doesnt mean he has had to, or has the right to treat the fans et all with such disdain. I think we could all get behind a figurehead who wants to run the club sustainably whilst working with the supporters, investors, media, etc so all feel valued.
That hasnt been his way and the club has suffered as a result.

At this very moment in time, with Olly being the face of the club, things are improving. Hopefully that will continue but its hard to whitewash over 20yrs of pretty much the polar opposite.

IMO of course.  

I appreciate you may just be interested in starting up a conversation Oly but haven't we been through all this a thousand times before? Personally I neither want to drag up all Fenty's misdemeanours nor sing his praises, apart from belatedly accepting Ollie into the job once he offered to buy his way into the club with a 100k sweetener!.

Just my two-pennies worth, I'm happy to sit back and enjoy the ride in this present moment for now without pulling up any negative conoctations.

I think just looking at what is happening to other clubs around us has made me a little more grateful for what we have.

Quoted from Oly1987

I think just looking at what is happening to other clubs around us has made me a little more grateful for what we have.

There are two ways of looking at it.

There is also an element of "you reap what you sow". Bury and Oldham have spent way beyond their means, with squads of players that are simply unsustainable, and inevitably, it's bitten them on the ar$e. Macclesfield simply don't have the fans to sustain a league side without someone pumping money in, ala Salford and Forest Green.

Hopefully FFP will go some way to stopping clubs getting too far into financial straits but we know there are ways around that, so some clubs will still get into difficulties.

It’s a conversation that will never go away, particularly whilst Fenty remains at the helm.

Grimsby Town being sustainable is arguably a false dichotomy anyway...whilst the club can tick over nicely and has made profit, albeit small, we are under the stranglehold of one man...a man who has overseen the worst period in the clubs history, a man who has sown disdain and held contempt for fans. Overseen the coming and going of several managers...the list goes on.

Conversely, whilst some may snigger at Lincoln for instance, whilst an astute Lincoln fan would be mildly cautious, the losses they’ve just posted have come about due to serious investment in infrastructure with additional input in to the squad...and has returned success. The rhetoric of, I’d rather not be in debt than be successful is on the whole nonsense, and actually there can be balance of sustainability and success.

Yes, Lincoln are facing a tough challenge ensuring those new hanger on types still buy their season tickets whilst they’re not being successful per se but it would be churlish to take a swipe at their losses when, as a club, they’re a million miles away from us...

Scunny, on the other hand are a different beast. If you break it down, since Swann took over they have lost around £16m and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. There are similarities between the leadership of our two beloved clubs though...whilst we may not have an unsustainable wage bill, we have an owner who for long periods proposed the building of a stadium in a completely inappropriate space because there were wider financial benefits for him...Swann did the same along with battling fans, infiltrating message boards and the like.

Either way, football is often nonsensical and even when clubs go bang...nothing changes, even when people say it will. The financial rules of the leagues, particularly the EFL are clearly not fit for purpose but do any of us see them changing anytime soon?

Not that old canard Oly. Besides. We’ve been run sustainably since the Trust got on the board. Before that we were losing money and were unsuccessful on the pitch.

I genuinely think he would like a more harmonious relationship with the fans but his pig headiness and I would argue arrogance hinders things. He clearly cares passionately about the club, but this is a man who is not used to having his authority questioned or scrutinised, hence the occasional strop/outburst. This does not excuse the archaic manner in which areas such as marketing/PR/ticketing has been run.

Mr Fenty was a successful businessman so we should be financially sustainable, he is also a conservative politician. The later explains his lack of compassion for the fans. Simple.

Quoted from 28195

Mr Fenty was a successful businessman so we should be financially sustainable, he is also a conservative politician. The later explains his lack of compassion for the fans. Simple.

Some may view that as harsh, but I personally concur. He wants to be liked/respected but it always seems to be one step forward and two back.