HOW CAN THE CLUB NOW PAY FOR THE 2010/11 SEASON??

SCENARIO - It's August 2010 = the start of 2010/11 season - We are still in the championship, There has been no buyer as yet, Joe has gone on a free, and, we have spent 11,000 season ticket holders worth of revenue 8 months earlier (on a HMRC debt or players or both).

QUESTION - How do we fund the 2010/11 season with seemingly only two revenue streams.....
= Our additional gate over and above the 11k STs already sold and spent (lets say a further 10k walk up)
= Our squad

Question - How has this happened to us? Is it all down to the 'demon' Sam Hammam and the noose that was/is the Langston debt?
Answer - A RESOUNDING NO

Why No? - Apparently, the current regime has paid £0 towards the Langston debt since taking the club on in 2006.
All they have paid is legal fees of allegedly something in the region of '£200k to c£400k', depending on who you wish to believe. The actual debt itself and interest has been untouched up to now. This point should therefore not be forgotten.

So, The new regime took over 3 years ago, and have allegedly spent c.£200k-400k on legal fees relating to Langston in a THREE year period. This £sum is the sort of money that doesn't even beat a first team players salary for ONE year, never mind THREE.....(and let's not even begin to get started on the payouts to Fowler for a 12 game season and JFH's wages - for the season he played and errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......the 'verbal agreement' season that he didn't!!).

So, the existing board have in effect had a clean operating slate minus allegedly c.£200-£400k in legal costs, the rest of the last 3 years is seemingly down to their management of the stadium build, the playing squad and the revenue streams.

Therefore, if we NOW only make money from transfers and gate receipts (as allegedly all hospitality, catering, stadium 'room' event rental etc has been sold off) then we are in an 'interesting' position given the club has already sold circa half of our average 09/10 attendance in season tickets for NEXT SEASON 9 months before it actually starts.

Let's also not forget that these STs have also been sold at LAST seasons prices, AND with a guarantee to those c11,000 that they can renew for a further FOUR years at LAST SEASONS PRICE too! In addition, with a sizeable proportion being via Zebra interest free, this means we will lose a % in commission (eg - potentially Zebra buy a £300 ST customer off us for say £270??, so they make their profit margin on the 0% deal offered). So, it really doesn't take a genius to work out that we are putting ourselves in a very precarious position in years to come from a revenue stream perspective by operating in the way we are as a club currently....

Who knows how this will play out - If I was TG or VT and part of the Malaysian set up, I'd be using all of the above to negotiate a killer deal to purchase the club, as there is no trump card seemingly left in the club's hand.

However, If the Malaysians, or any other potential invester does not surface soon, it appears our ability to drive operating revenue from 2010/11 on will be errrrrrr 'somewhat limited' if you look at the Scenario flagged at the start of this post.

I hope Mr Ridsdale plays a blinder and gets everything sorted as he has stated in seeking our trust at this time - I'm not sure where we'll be if it doesn't happen though. Feb 1st will tell us the answer........

Peter

I have bought me season ticket, but using up next year's revenue was always my biggest fear. it looks like this regime took Sam's dream and made it happen by giving most of it away?

What has happened to the dream of a self financing football club, surely we didn't give the most valuable assets away? and don't forget Risdale on Talk Sport a few months back announcing that we will be dept free within months? What happened with that scenario?

Good Post Pete.

CCFC Worcester - Excellant post - lets all keep our fingers crossed and hope - Once again !!

Spot on mate.

Good Post Pete.

Hey Steve, good to see you're on here - Worcestershire is getting well represented on this 'proper' message board...

Peter

Peter, I have only just got in, I will read Your post tom, Nite mate

Spot on mate.

CCFC Worcester - Excellant post - lets all keep our fingers crossed and hope - Once again !!

Chaps - At this stage, frankly I'm sick of hearing that the 'mess' we are CURRENTLY in is down to the "previous regime" when it comes to our poor funding position....

Interestingly I also put my original post above on the MM board just to gauge the reaction and interest - However, it seemed to fall behind 'Traffic Cops' and 'Snow' based posts...........not to mention a thread on global warming So lots of CCFC issues being heavily debated on there tonight then

Peter

Peter, I have only just got in, I will read Your post tom, Nite mate

Nice one Annis, I'm snowed in up here, so catch up with you in the morning if you're on?

Peter

Spot on mate.

CCFC Worcester - Excellant post - lets all keep our fingers crossed and hope - Once again !!

Chaps - At this stage, frankly I'm sick of hearing that the 'mess' we are CURRENTLY in is down to the "previous regime" when it comes to our poor funding position....

Interestingly I also put my original post above on the MM board just to gauge the reaction and interest - However, it seemed to fall behind 'Traffic Cops' and 'Snow' based posts...........not to mention a thread on global warming So lots of CCFC issues being heavily debated on there tonight then

Peter

Yes and the 'club staff' posters on there.

From what I gather, if we don't get the take over or achieve promotion this season, then we are f*cked!

From what I gather, if we don't get the take over or achieve promotion this season, then we are f*cked!

It doesn't appear that there are a huge number of remaining revenue driving opportunities left does it?

I suppose Ridder would answer by saying there are a number of income streams. Even if we have sold off the catering/hospitiality Compass must still pay us an annual renumeration.

Apparently that is around £1m P/A with bonuses if sales go above a certain level.

Also Birmingham will pay us over £800,000 if they stay in the Premiership (highly likely) due to the terms of the Jerome and Johnson transfers.

The car park brings in almost £500,000 P/A which includes £130 fees and the park and ride scheme.

The Premier League now pays Championship sides £600,000 P/A as part of their TV deals.

The Championship has its own TV deal worth £3m P/A

Sponsorship, executive boxes and Premier Club seating bring in huge amounts which is easily in the millions.

We also sell a player every summer to the value of £5m.

An average walk up crowd will bring in another £3m.

And finally there is nothing stopping the club selling 2011-12 season tickets next October.

No-one would claim the financial situation is 'good' but we would survive and probably better than 80% of other sides in this division who are in a much worse state than we are.

I totally agree with you Tony. I'm a bit tired of the panic and scare mongering when in reality nothing has changed in our circumstances. If anything I would say we are better off now than we were about 6 months ago due to the Langston debt being settled.

This HMRC thing is really a fuss over nothing. The season tickets is just bringing revenue forward by 6 months. Like Tony said, what's to stop the club offering season tickets for 2011/12 next October?

Chill out lads. Everything is average... as always!

I totally agree with you Tony. I'm a bit tired of the panic and scare mongering when in reality nothing has changed in our circumstances. If anything I would say we are better off now than we were about 6 months ago due to the Langston debt being settled.

This HMRC thing is really a fuss over nothing. The season tickets is just bringing revenue forward by 6 months. Like Tony said, what's to stop the club offering season tickets for 2011/12 next October?

Chill out lads. Everything is average... as always!

Not sure I'm actually scare mongering Zabier, it's merely my honest summary view of the reality around the regular scorn directed at Langston/Sam regarding our 'current' position. When in effect the existing regime had had pretty much a clear operating slate to work from bar some legal costs, but have sold on some decent revenue streams whilst clawing in future funds earlier and earlier each season to 'cover' bills - So, in effect using funds for NEXT YEAR to pay for bills from LAST YEAR!!

Remember....we were all, were we not? led to believe that the stadium was our saviour from a stability and funding perspective. I am just flagging that that appears not apparently to be the case.

However, as I have said a number of times already on this board, Peter Ridsdale has asked for our support as he has indicated a number of things will happen this month - I therefore am fully behind him and the club to succeed in their aims to get us 'sorted' on and off the field.

Peter

Be patient Worcester (yes, I'm addressing the whole city here! ).

It's only been 6 months since the stadium opened and it was only 1 month ago that Sam finally signed the debt settlement with Langston.

Things will take time to settle and let's face it, if we're stressing about a £2.7m HMRC bill when we're a Championship club, I can guarantee we're not that bad off. Look at the likes of Portsmouth and Notts County. Even Southampton and Leeds were worse off than us 12 months ago and look at them both now. Yeah, League One but their clubs are still thriving.

Just kick back and relax my friend. Let the board worry about the finances. Let's just enjoy the football.

As usual Peter, an excellent post, I also believe we have fucked our selfs on future revenue and if we dont get promotion this season or new Owners come in, then eventually our club will def go into administration, in the end we will run out of players to sell.

As usual Peter, an excellent post, I also believe we have fucked our selfs on future revenue and if we dont get promotion this season or new Owners come in, then eventually our club will def go into administration, in the end we will run out of players to sell.

Which is another good reason for not investing in CCFC at present.

Future revenues include Blues money (albeit they may leave). Don't forget that for games/event they do that they don't use an arranged DMD for, they have to pay extra - Australia game we charged 100-130k.

Believe the club are also trying to get the licensing for concerts at the stadium? Extra income there.

What we're seeing now is certainly funds from 10k STs being used now - or earmarked to be used now. If pegged at 10k, leaves 5k of ST left to come in later.

It's not great, by the income streams are far greater than at Ninian. PR clearly believes the approach is the short term hit to get us through now, investment clearing debts freeing up credit lines.

As usual Peter, an excellent post, I also believe we have fucked our selfs on future revenue and if we dont get promotion this season or new Owners come in, then eventually our club will def go into administration, in the end we will run out of players to sell.

Which is another good reason for not investing in CCFC at present.

Which is also perversely a good reason for investing in CCFC now.

It's like say Joe Ledley. Sure, contract winding down, but if you're a Prem club really wanting him, would you tie up a deal now, spending money, or leave it to summer when there's an open auction for less money?

Leaving it till the club goes into admin brings in the risk that the administrators will receive a better deal from other interested parties.