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Old 19-09-2013, 20:40   #10
bdc
Full Member
 

Re: Stanley to close within months ...

Whilst it's not really a surprise that finances are a real struggle, I do have some sympathy for Peter Marsden who is pumping in some of his own money to keep the club going and I know this creates more debt but he has been left holding the baby so to speak. This means he either puts money in or the club goes, a no win situation for anybody in truth.

The gamble taken on reducing season ticket prices was an admirable but very risky decision but unfortunately not enough people have taken it up to make up the shortfall in money from last seasons ticket holders money IMO. The club have taken a gamble on giving out 2 year contracts to established players in the hope that would give us a team that would be aiming higher up the table and this just hasn't happened on the pitch so far.

Things off the pitch have been a major distraction too, with the Rob Heys saga leaving a bad taste in the mouth. The club badly need one person in charge behind the scenes who can put together some proper procedures, structure and policies to put into place to allow the club function in a professional manner and to respond to customers needs such as online ticketing and availability of home shirts and other merchandise. Nothing has been mentioned about the home shirts that were meant to be here by this weekend yet nothing (as far as I'm aware) has been mentioned about it on the website about any updates on the progress of this.

I don't know if they do it but budgets should be in place every season for match staff and non-match operations that should be monitored and reviewed every month to ensure performance is on track with budgets and if it isn't action should be taken to bring it back on track. I think these sort of things haven't been in place and this hasn't resulted in overruns in budget spends and create further increases in debt. If this sort of thing would have been put in place in 2006 we may not have overspent as much as we have.

My main point is that the club has to be run in a way that keeps the club viable and this has to be done through appropriate governance and monitoring that has been lacking for a while. Having fans running the club is not going to help us get an effective business, we need someone independent to run the operations of the lack as if it was a commercial business.

I hope some good things come out of the AGM tomorrow and that the club finds a way to survive but my fear is the only way this will happen is via administration that will ultimately end our stay in the football league but may save the long term future of the club.
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