New stand funding

[pieman1982]

I missed the HW question time at the Gallagher the other night.
Was there any mention of the new stand?
Are we using the funding set aside for that to bulster the player budget?
Not even sure we had any money set aside, but surly was will not be pumping money into both 🤔
Anyone aware or got any info??

[Nick]

No questions asked and nothing said about the new stand.
Not the current priority.

Terry Casey did say that they would have to find money "from the business" to enable Harry to bring in new players.

[jakeyboi]

I think that the directors are fully aware that if they do not give HW a budget for new players we will not survive in this league so wont need a new stand.

[Deleted]

Or to recycle an old gag, keep on playing like this and the seats will be facing the Medway...

[jdl]

I doubt very much if the new stand is even in O&T's thoughts at the moment!

Not much point on an extra 500 seats (or whatever it was) in the NS...

And I imagine any surplus they might have expected this season is going to be wiped out by the cost of getting new players in.

If things work out and we stay up this year, and then manage to settle down as a mid-table club in the following seasons, it's clearly going to cost more in players wages (etc) than was planned/hoped. So, unless gates improve significantly, or we get a really cracking cup run, we'll be lucky to break even each season. Any thoughts of financing new builds out of accumulated surpluses are out, new stands will need additional 'investment' - and, presumably, additional 'investors'.

[Bernie]

Almost makes you wish for the National South or Ryman League days, when we had the overheads of being part time, but the income of a full time club. And people worry relegation will be some kind of disaster, to be avoided at all financial cost.

[Deleted]

The owners seem to think it would be a disaster to be relegated otherwise why did they move to replace Jay and in doing so employ an ambitous young manager.

They have done so being aware of the financial position of the club.

Possibly the new stand has been delayed but is inevitable if the stated ambitions of the club and the manager are to be realised.

[Nick]

The owners must have questioned whether the added 40% spent on players wages over the past 2 seasons was well spent by Jay.

[daveu]

Sept 17, 2018 23:14:13 GMT jdl said:

I doubt very much if the new stand is even in O&T's thoughts at the moment!

Not much point on an extra 500 seats (or whatever it was) in the NS...

And I imagine any surplus they might have expected this season is going to be wiped out by the cost of getting new players in.

If things work out and we stay up this year, and then manage to settle down as a mid-table club in the following seasons, it's clearly going to cost more in players wages (etc) than was planned/hoped. So, unless gates improve significantly, or we get a really cracking cup run, we'll be lucky to break even each season. Any thoughts of financing new builds out of accumulated surpluses are out, new stands will need additional 'investment' - and, presumably, additional 'investors'.

I think the new stand was always going to require new investment. That was one of the drivers behind purchasing the freehold of that strip of land. It's more attractive to potential investors to be buying into something they'll own.

[peanut]

Why even think about a new stand when we haven’t even got a squad to get to the play offs. Something has to change, either give the new man the money to get us up there, then think about a new stand. With this squad we are going down, no goals in 4 games says it all.

[steveh21]

Being relegated would not be a disaster but it is all about momentum. You can keep falling (York City, Stockport) or struggle in league below (Dartford). This is our natural level. The crowds show that we should be looking upwards. The owners want to get into the FL while many fans seem reluctant. Without ambition a football club first stagnates and then falls. We cannot complain about performances on the pitch with one hand and then say we would be happy in NS on the other. Personally I think we are nearing the time when Oliver and Terry need to bring in new money from elsewhere. Most other clubs seem to be doing it.

[peanut]

I don’t think the club does want to go to the football league, because they would of got better players by now. I understand the club running as a business, but I think they are hoping the league to change its mind about 3G. This year is one of the hardest league it has been in years, I think the club are just happy to avoid relegation/ bottom half for a few years. I’ve supported this team for years, London Road days, If it’s players wages they’re worried about I would pay£1/£2 extra a game or go back to part time, you only have to look at the bench, it doesn’t excite you, subs hardly make a difference. I’m not saying go out and sign 11 superstars, but 1/2 a season would be good, a goal scorer is a must and they’re not cheap, unless your Piggott and sell him for next to nothing.

[Bernie]

Assuming attendances didn't fall, £1 extra per game would be about £50,000 income per season. Sounds a lot, but in reality would get swallowed up by wages very quickly. In reality, we know football is a bottomless pit to throw money into.

[jdh80]

The other thing you have to factor in when looking at signing new players is that football players are just like you and me they want a career path they want to sign for a team to win things, like any of us wanting bonus/pay rise, promotion at work.

As players know we can't get promoted then they know that they will have a better chance of success at another team, so the pool of players that firstly jay and now Harry will be able to attract is much smaller than say Ebbsfleet. Then you have to factor in locality we are close to London and as such accommodation (housing) is higher so players would be asking for more money than they would at teams up north where accommodation is much cheaper, so although we might have a bigger budget than a Gateshead or Hartlepool we would be paying a player more than they would be, due to the extra income needs (weighting factor) for living that close to London.

There is also mention on this forum about Gateshead going back to part time, which COULD be another option that the owners are looking at although based on Harrys comments about fitness not sure he would want to change to part time as less time for him to work on team fitness etc, plus with him bringing in the backroom staff he has you can be sure that he wants to have the players around doing a lot more than just fitness training, he comes across as someone who will get players watching video doing analysis of previous performances etc.

[jdl]

It's what I've been saying for a long time - you need more than even our sort of gate income to do well (or even survive) in this league.

The only teams that stand a realistic chance of getting promoted (and staying up - before anyone says "Maclesfield") are ex-League clubs with large gates and League standard infrastructure already in place, or clubs with sugar daddies. The rest of us will typically flirt with the play-offs for a few weeks a season, settle for a mid-table finish (and be glad of it), and spend most seasons looking over our shoulders at the relegation zone.

This is NOT the old Conference and we are no longer 'the Manchester United of non-league' (if we ever were). Our only chance of getting into the league is survival and consolidation - gradually get the ground up to League standard, gradually build up support, and then, one day, find the right manager to get us up on a tight budget. I still believe it's possible, but it's not going to happen very soon. We need to forget the '3 in 4' and accept where we are, and what that means.