Jon Benton recalled by Solihull

[pigbag]

Where does Marc Whites fortune come from?

I do wonder if Dorking are living on borrowed time. In the close season they were offering 10 year season tickets, more recently selling bonds paying 10% and now they are offering cut price season tickets for NEXT season. I would worry if our club had to do this.

[edos78]

Nov 19, 2024 12:51:52 GMT pigbag said:

Where does Marc Whites fortune come from?

I do wonder if Dorking are living on borrowed time. In the close season they were offering 10 year season tickets, more recently selling bonds paying 10% and now they are offering cut price season tickets for NEXT season. I would worry if our club had to do this.

I actually don’t think he has a ‘fortune’ in the conventional football owner sense

I believe he made some money in the city and setup a marketing agency that still operates out of Dorking’s ground

He’s clearly wealthy enough to put some money in, but what he’s been great at is building a profile and using that to get investment, support and commercial revenue - the long term season tickets and crowd sourced investments are part of that

It may not work, but he’s not a naive football idiot just throwing money around

[jdl]

If NL positions were based on home attendance:

1 Southend United 7,128 1
2 Oldham Athletic 5,768 2
3 York City 5,617 3
4 Scunthorpe United 4,040 NN 1
5 Hartlepool United 3,628 4
6 Torquay United 3,368 NS 1
7 Yeovil Town 3,320 5
8 Sutton United 2,695 6
9 Hereford 2,604 NN 2
10 Aldershot Town 2,575 7
11 Rochdale 2,564 8
12 Kidderminster Harriers 2,301 NN 3
13 Woking 2,273 9
14 Chester 2,266 NN 4
15 Maidstone United 2,139 NS 2
16 Eastleigh 2,107 10
17 South Shields 2,051 NN 5
18 Altrincham 1,992 11
19 Barnet 1,948 12
20 FC Halifax Town 1,903 13
21 Boston United 1,901 14
22 Forest Green Rovers 1,881 15
23 Truro City 1,795 NS 3
24 Wealdstone 1,739 16

1 Scarborough Athletic 1,624 6
2 Dagenham & Redbridge 1,539 NL 17
3 Worthing 1,519 4
4 Ebbsfleet United 1,488 NL 18
5 Darlington 1,476 7
6 Dorking Wanderers 1,471 5
7 St Albans City 1,436 6
8 Bath City 1,386 7
9 Chorley 1,362 8
10 Marine 1,295 9
11 Spennymoor Town 1,282 10
12 Southport 1,198 11
13 Tamworth 1,244 NL 19
14 Maidenhead United 1,239 NL 20
15 Eastbourne Borough 1,127 8
16 Solihull Moors 1,230 NL 21
17 Gateshead 1,205 NL 22
18 AFC Fylde 1,151 NL 23
19 Farnborough 1,112 9
20 King's Lynn Town 1,030 12
21 Braintree Town 1,018 NL 24
22 Tonbridge Angels 1,003 10
23 Weston-super-Mare 988 11
24 Chesham United 976 12

1 Salisbury 954 13
2 Radcliffe 942 13
3 Warrington Town 907 14
4 Slough Town 905 14
5 Weymouth 903 15
6 Enfield Town 860 16
7 Chelmsford City 858 17
8 Hampton & Richmond Borough 852 18
9 Hemel Hempstead Town 752 19
10 Hornchurch 748 20
11 Brackley Town 746 15
12 Boreham Wood 729 21
13 Buxton 692 16
14 Chippenham Town 683 22
15 Leamington 654 17
16 Welling United 616 23
17 Curzon Ashton 571 18
18 Alfreton Town 559 19
19 Needham Market 529 20
20 Aveley 487 24
21 Oxford City 482 21
22 Rushall Olympic 460 22
23 Peterborough Sports 294 23
24 Farsley Celtic 167 24

[headstone]

Haven’t you got some chores to do around the house, jdl?

[Benny]

Attendance is often a product of success or failure, not an ingredient.

[edos78]

Nov 20, 2024 8:23:09 GMT Benny said:

Attendance is often a product of success or failure, not an ingredient.

It’s both, isn’t it?

Even during the terrible last NL season we still averaged 2,142

We are very well supported non-league club which should be a significant advantage - as long as it some with focus and ambition

and that's where I think we fall a little short

[Harry]

Who is lacking in ambition ?
If you implying its the owners, I should think they have given/contributed a billion times more than any of their critics.
Their ambition to take the club from nothing to where we are today is amazing.

[edos78]

Nov 20, 2024 10:31:35 GMT Harry said:

Who is lacking in ambition ?
If you implying its the owners, I should think they have given/contributed a billion times more than any of their critics.
Their ambition to take the club from nothing to where we are today is amazing.

they have been brilliant and every Maidstone fan should be grateful - I am, and I've told them

but that doesn't mean they are completely immune from the occasional question or bit of criticism

given the success we had last year and the platform we have, the recent recruitment and overall squad isn't good enough 

and I don't think anyone knows exactly what our aim is - do we really want promotion, or is it just to stay in the NLS? 

The latter would be disappointing, as there are clubs with less that want more - and I think its leading to apathy from a lot of fans, which affects players and management

you can feel it in the flat atmosphere at games

I hope it changes

[dweezil]

Remember the owners mission statement is that they want the team to be a sustainable National League team - not necessarily winners, but not constantly flip flopping between NL and NLS

Just doesn't feel like the words and actions are aligned at the moment

Speculate to accumulate - better recruitment = better football - bigger attendances, more income to the club

[pwoodstone]

I feel like it’s been said a thousand times and the counter arguments have too. It only takes a few losses and it is all dragged up again.

The owners want to win promotion but will only spend that the club have to do it. They won’t speculate with their own money any more than they have done.

The speculate, better football, more fans argument sounds good but in reality we had all that under Hak and attendances were a bit better and we went up and couldn’t compete, the fair weather fans drifted away and you’re back where you started.

[Sword65]

I would hazard a guess that our playing budget was set against achieving bigger gates than we are currently getting,if so we are losing money with each home game at the moment.

[jdl]

My rearranged table wasn't intended to argue that we ought to be 15th in the NL just because we get decent gates - that would be madness!

It was to point out just how many clubs are above us, despite the fact that they have much lower attendances. So, as gates are usually a club's biggest source of income, that points to the more successful clubs having additional incomes.

These may be perfectly 'legitimate', like renting their ground out to other clubs, but in many (most?) cases, it's simply down to someone pumping money into the club. Again, this isn't particularly wrong (stupid, possibly, but not wrong), but it does create a very uneven playing field.

And clubs like ours, that are trying to live within their means, inevitably lose out.

And certain fans will always see this, not as a commendable approach by solid stewards of the club, but as a failing in ambition or 'investment'.

Alas, we will always have those fans with us.

[dweezil]

Interesting how gate money becomes less of a factor further up you go.

Noticed last year when we played Coventry that their income was 13M for the year, 9M of it from TV

[edos78]

Nov 20, 2024 13:42:33 GMT Sword65 said:

I would hazard a guess that our playing budget was set against achieving bigger gates than we are currently getting,if so we are losing money with each home game at the moment.

I’d be surprised if that was the case - our average attendances have been c.2,150 for the last 3 years

Would our current wage bill be more than last years? We had more experienced players then - and I think more players overall

[pwoodstone]

Nov 20, 2024 13:42:33 GMT Sword65 said:

I would hazard a guess that our playing budget was set against achieving bigger gates than we are currently getting,if so we are losing money with each home game at the moment.

24/25 NLS This Season          2,139

23/24 NLS Last Season          2,131

22/23 NL Relegation Season   2,142

21/22 NLS                            2,458

You may be right Sword but if I have to hazard a guess I'd say they set the budget assuming around 2,100 average attendance. We know they are risk averse