Crawley Town/Lower League Finances

Quoted from JK47

https://www.theguardian.com/fo.....uce-agents-influence

Stockwood's latest piece in the Guardian on this topic,

Agents are destroying the game, £280m in 2023 taken out of the football straight into their pockets, what benefits do they bring to football. apart from sorting out contracts for thick footballers.

Quoted from Balthazar Bullitt

If I win the euro lottery, I'll be rebuilding the Winter Gardens first and then we'll see what's left over for Town

That was on my list if I won the euro lottery along with a yearly donation to St Andrews hospice and Once upon a wish and a brand new disabled coach with all travelled expenses covered.

Andy Holt Accrington Chairman doesn't seem too pleased about the potential football regulator deal that's been offered.

Quoted from Mappers

Tweet 1758397626817421654 will appear here...

Andy Holt Accrington Chairman doesn't seem too pleased about the potential football regulator deal that's been offered.

Entirely as expected, unfortunately.

I don't have any faith that the next government which will be in place later this year would do anything different, either.

Expect a further round of consulation, with the can kicked down the road and the Premier clubs getting whatever they want at the end of it.

I think what the last couple of decades have taught us — or what it ought to have taught us — is that we, as fans of a lower league club, need to shift our expectations.

Not saying I'm happy about it, but in order to survive and have a club to support long term, we need to kiss goodbye to any hopes and dreams of playing in the Championship again, because that's clearly not possible without outside resource, and that invites greater threat of debt, and it's not sustainable in the long run.

Our ambition should be to simply compete as well as we can at whatever level we find ourselves at. Clearly, we need to be doing better than 21st in the fourth division, so by no means am I accepting mediocrity.

I'm just saying that while Mansfield, Stockport and the like are enjoying some reasonable level of success, for now, where will they be in 5-10 years if/when their funding changes?

Do their current owners have a succession plan, or is it based solely on the hope that they will be in a higher division, earning larger incomes, when they decide to step away? Because that's a big risk too, especially as more and more clubs are finding investors to fund a push up the leagues.

Not every financially backed club is going to make it up the leagues. Some will fail, and then what? I'd love to know what it's cost Salford to be where they are today.

Don't get me wrong, there are clubs like Accrington and Morecambe who have shown what's possible without outsider investment and to just be a well run club. We can move up the league and make it into L1, but it's going to take a monumental effort.

Football has changed massively since the turn of the century. Being in the fourth division shouldn't be seen as the failure it felt like when we dropped into it in 2004. The finances 20 years on are totally different. I'm also saying we shouldn't be grateful... just that, let's acknowledge the changes that have occurred and adjust what our reasonable expectations should be in this vastly different football landscape.

Quoted from RichMariner

I think what the last couple of decades have taught us — or what it ought to have taught us — is that we, as fans of a lower league club, need to shift our expectations.

Not saying I'm happy about it, but in order to survive and have a club to support long term, we need to kiss goodbye to any hopes and dreams of playing in the Championship again, because that's clearly not possible without outside resource, and that invites greater threat of debt, and it's not sustainable in the long run.

Our ambition should be to simply compete as well as we can at whatever level we find ourselves at. Clearly, we need to be doing better than 21st in the fourth division, so by no means am I accepting mediocrity.

I'm just saying that while Mansfield, Stockport and the like are enjoying some reasonable level of success, for now, where will they be in 5-10 years if/when their funding changes?

Do their current owners have a succession plan, or is it based solely on the hope that they will be in a higher division, earning larger incomes, when they decide to step away? Because that's a big risk too, especially as more and more clubs are finding investors to fund a push up the leagues.

Not every financially backed club is going to make it up the leagues. Some will fail, and then what? I'd love to know what it's cost Salford to be where they are today.

Don't get me wrong, there are clubs like Accrington and Morecambe who have shown what's possible without outsider investment and to just be a well run club. We can move up the league and make it into L1, but it's going to take a monumental effort.

Football has changed massively since the turn of the century. Being in the fourth division shouldn't be seen as the failure it felt like when we dropped into it in 2004. The finances 20 years on are totally different. I'm also saying we shouldn't be grateful... just that, let's acknowledge the changes that have occurred and adjust what our reasonable expectations should be in this vastly different football landscape.

Pretty much what I think .

I think a reasonable expectation is bottom 3rd of league 1 at best without big outside investment . Reaching even that would be good going imo .

Stockport,Mansfield , Wrexham and MK Dons go up FGR go down with 4 minnows down from league 1 and a small nl club with Chesterfield would make the landscape easier on paper at least next season  - providing we stay up.

Even if we got promoted to League One it would be an immense challenge to survive. 4 go down as well it would only be a matter of time. Until we get a new stadium and the extra revenue streams it brings then we're going to be League 2 at best.

Quoted from GrimRob

Even if we got promoted to League One it would be an immense challenge to survive. 4 go down as well it would only be a matter of time. Until we get a new stadium and the extra revenue streams it brings then we're going to be League 2 at best.

Exactly this. As Andy Holt has said for years, running a football club can only be sustained by the very wealthy or some good fortune in player development.

Yes, a new stadium would help if you didn’t accrue massive debt building it. At least a new stadium would generate additional income unlike a new training ground.

When football got (re) invented in 1992 or whenever it was, the game in this country was taken out of the doldrums and booted through its ar5e into the 20th century in record time. Chairman were most often than not local businessmen that had done well and wanted to put back something into their community, or wave their tackle about at. Then came along the Russian oligarchs, the Americans and finally the Middle Eastern businessmen and the community feel went by the wayside.

In came day-trippers and bloggers wanting nothing more than their egotistical foreheads rubbed via likes and followers. Out went the every day bloke that wanted to spend some time with his mates or family because no longer could they afford the biweekly home match cost of upwards of £200 just to watch some blokes that were earning £20k plus a week not even giving a fu(k and wearing gloves because it was only 14c.

We have now, a couple of blokes that take the welfare of our club seriously and are sticking to the rules. Not everyone is going to like what they say or do, that’s patently obvious, but, I somehow can’t foresee us ending up like that sprawling mass of hysteria down the m180.