Quote:
Originally Posted by mab
Taken off podcast... On Friday I had a very frank, open and honest conversation with Warren Eastham CEO of Accrington Stanley regarding the events occurring at the club since he hosted the Fans Forum on Apr 28th.
What was presented then was accurate with regards to the Academy and the Hyndburn Borough Council but everything changed the following Tuesday when a club meeting was held on the budget for next season.
Everything changed then when Andy Holt advised that his financial contribution to the club wouldn't exceed £250,000.
With no income coming in from Coley's this meant expenses far exceeded income so something had to give. Other than first team players salary the Academy was the next biggest expenditure so then it becomes what is the return on investment from the Academy. The income from players sold this past season was £126,000 which is not enough to move the needle really. In March the Academy lost £27,000 and April was set to lose over £30,000.
The next determining factor was how many players would make the first team in the next two seasons or could be sold to justify financing the Academy and the answer was none. There was potential for three players in three to four years to make the first team or be sold for around £1m but only if they reached their full potential and that's a big if. In the meantime losses per month would continue.
With the limited financing from Andy Holt, and you can understand his position, on top of a canceled revenue stream from Coley's something had to give and that was the Academy.
Then in steps HBC, due to public push back, and they offer to help finance the Academy to the tune of £140,000 which sounds good but doesn't cover the losses when you see it is losing over £25,000 per month. Also it doesn't address the main problem and that is the lost revenue from the bar. If HBC had the best interest of the community at heart and really wanted to help the club then agree to put the funds towards a new roof on the main stand so an important source of income can return. Then you could look at keeping the Academy.
It looks like a good move on the part of HBC but in the light of day it was reactionary and it boils down to a political move in response to public pressure and came only after the announcement the Academy was closing.
Regarding contracts, we as fans only see the tip of the iceberg and if a player doesn't sign we have a tendency to blame the club. What we don't know is the player's demands and how it fits the wage structure and the teams budget. When the team can't meet a player's expectations and he leaves fans may look unfavourably at the club when that's not actually the real story.
Social media allows everyone to have an opinion even without having all the facts, yours truly included, and to be fair the club can't respond to each and every person especially when things change on a daily basis.
We need to have faith in the people making the decisions and trust they have the best interests of club at heart.
Accrington Stanley is a community club but first and foremost it's a business and you can't continue to operate when your expenses are more than your income, especially when an important revenue stream is taken away. Offering to partly finance the Academy isn't the answer, sorting out soundproof roof on the facilities is.
Tough decisions have been made over the past two weeks and I have faith in Warren making the right ones.
Tough decisions have to be made or we won't have a club and no one wants a repeat of March 1962.
Cheers
Tony Robinson
On Stanley On !!
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So are you saying the councils figure of 140k is wrong ? because if it is you have to wonder how so seeing as their press release all but said that was the figure the club had given them.
This seems to be a very knee jerk reaction from the club given the timescales involved. I believe AH has a charitable foundation why couldnt he use this to contribute to the losses as that way HMRC would effectively be paying half of it
Another option that several non league clubs use to fund their academies [ dont forget they dont get the 500k towards its running that Accy currently do ] is by the use of funded places where rich parents effectively buy their kids an opportunity to join an academy 4 places at 35k would cover the deficit.
It just seems to me that theres currently no body at the club whos a problem solver or rule bender but to blame the current taxation rises is an absolute pile of you know what when every other business in the country has experienced the same rises as they have and the club has just increased its prices by way more than the rate of increase in the NI rises etc.
As for the Coleys problem theres a simple answer to this thats staring them in the face but it just seems to me that they arent interested in solutions just in prolonging the row with the Labour councillors when theres a way to solve it without either party needing to back down and one which when put to a vote would put the Labour councillors right on the spot Do they want to save Accrington Stanley or not ?