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Post by gasincider on Apr 7, 2017 22:07:41 GMT
If we can't break even on 9300 average attendances when our budget is bottom ten and we spend very little enhancing the mem there is something very wrong somewhere. Is that something illegal? We spent £250,000 around the Mem in the summer, bought Partington for £100k, employ 50% more people i.e. Physios, finance advisors, new office base at Cribbs training ground, meals after training, etc etc etc. With many loanees, if they are played we get them for nowt. If they don't play we have to agree a formula regarding their pay which could mean we pay their full salary. Ive probably missed a lot of obvious expenditure, but that lot was off the top of my head. To my mind, the most encouraging aspect of all this is that to commit to this level of expenditure, there must be a rational business plan moving forward to make it sustainable. I can only think of one way of justifying it, and it entails a new stadium. Just thought of another expense. Our chairman will be costing about £100k pa. That is the going rate. Not to mention the other directors who will be paid similar amounts. This is what happens when you start to put a professional team in place. So I'm not surprised at our potential losses. It's the UWE or bust as far as I can see, but must admit to being more confident than I have for a while. Hope it's not misplaced.
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Post by c4h10 on Apr 7, 2017 22:25:44 GMT
And so the stadium speculation starts....again
Its as regular as a period, and just as frustrating
Is that why everybody is on about ST's? Oh, I've just realised - you mean season tickets. Silly me!
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Post by Topper Gas on Apr 7, 2017 23:01:15 GMT
Is that something illegal? We spent £250,000 around the Mem in the summer, bought Partington for £100k, employ 50% more people i.e. Physios, finance advisors, new office base at Cribbs training ground, meals after training, etc etc etc. With many loanees, if they are played we get them for nowt. If they don't play we have to agree a formula regarding their pay which could mean we pay their full salary. Ive probably missed a lot of obvious expenditure, but that lot was off the top of my head. To my mind, the most encouraging aspect of all this is that to commit to this level of expenditure, there must be a rational business plan moving forward to make it sustainable. I can only think of one way of justifying it, and it entails a new stadium. Just thought of another expense. Our chairman will be costing about £100k pa. That is the going rate. Not to mention the other directors who will be paid similar amounts. This is what happens when you start to put a professional team in place. So I'm not surprised at our potential losses. It's the UWE or bust as far as I can see, but must admit to being more confident than I have for a while. Hope it's not misplaced. Haven't most of the Directors moved on already, or only sound like part timers, to suggest they are costing £100K's is pushing it a bit?
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Post by Dr Gas on Apr 8, 2017 5:25:35 GMT
Just thought of another expense. Our chairman will be costing about £100k pa. That is the going rate. Not to mention the other directors who will be paid similar amounts. This is what happens when you start to put a professional team in place. So I'm not surprised at our potential losses. It's the UWE or bust as far as I can see, but must admit to being more confident than I have for a while. Hope it's not misplaced. Haven't most of the Directors moved on already, or only sound like part timers, to suggest they are costing £100K's is pushing it a bit? Again you have put 2 + 2 together and got 5 I am sure SH is not working for nothing, so £100k p.a. would seem a reasonable rate to assume.
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Post by peterparker on Apr 8, 2017 5:50:29 GMT
Bear in mind T.Watola couldnt count
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2017 7:19:29 GMT
If I understand the original proposal correctly, then we were not proposing to build the stadium on a leasehold basis (i.e. where we would own the stadium for a fixed period of time), but own the stadium while paying a peppercorn ground rent for 125 years for the land it stood on. The commercial value of the lease for the land was around £8m and was to be paid for by UWE getting the stadium naming rights in exchange. Sorry that doesn't really answer your question, but I think it might not apply in our potential situation. I remember my grandmother paying around £2 a year ground rent, for the land her Victorian terraced house stood on. She owned the house. Ground rent and leasehold are two completely different things. Your last statement is not entirely correct. If you own the leasehold on a property you will in most cases have to pay groundrent. This groundrent is normally agreed and specified in the leasehold agreement. In our case we will be the leaseholders and have to pay a groundrent to the UWE.
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Post by oldgas on Apr 8, 2017 7:57:24 GMT
Any chance of your resume Severncider, rather than this endless speculation?
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Post by peterhooper57 on Apr 8, 2017 8:08:40 GMT
It would be nice to have an update, I am sure we can all take it, we all remember the fiasco when we left Eastville in 86. Even if it is as simple as "we cannot afford it", uninformed people spouting absolute rubbish, has been done to death. By the way I thought Hamer when he rocked up from Swansea City was all about keeping the supporters, engaged, informed, etc ... ?
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Post by daniel300380 on Apr 8, 2017 8:37:15 GMT
It would be nice to have an update, I am sure we can all take it, we all remember the fiasco when we left Eastville in 86. Even if it is as simple as "we cannot afford it", uninformed people spouting absolute rubbish, has been done to death. By the way I thought Hamer when he rocked up from Swansea City was all about keeping the supporters, engaged, informed, etc ... ? Normally I would say there might be a confidentiality agreement in place, or they might think it's better not to get fans hopes up if they are not sure. But if they are telling fans that they speak to, why can't they update all fans??? If they are allowed to discuss it, don't we all want to know??
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Post by STRONG,SECURE, STABLE on Apr 8, 2017 11:03:55 GMT
We need a brand new stadium with full revenue streams to move forward, without sounding like a dick I don't think a lot of our supporters understand that. What I mean is that I often hear 'we don't need a new ground, we don't sell out the Mem' when the clubs match day earnings isn't the main earner. You dont sound like a dick, you are right. But i do think most people just support the football team, then there are the nerds amongst us (me being a mega nerd) who like to look at all the small details, that most miss, dont understand or dont care about. im not ashamed to say i spent two hours trying to find an accurate size comparison between Ours and teds training ground, and im not ashamed to say i tried to work out how many staff in each department etc. but some just dont care and havnt considered that a stadium is an essential revenue provider and that without it we are pushing our limits
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Post by Topper Gas on Apr 8, 2017 11:14:09 GMT
Haven't most of the Directors moved on already, or only sound like part timers, to suggest they are costing £100K's is pushing it a bit? Again you have put 2 + 2 together and got 5 I am sure SH is not working for nothing, so £100k p.a. would seem a reasonable rate to assume. £100K is not £100K's though? You can't blame SH's salary for the club requiring an additional 5K fans every match. Although as PH57 says why can't the club update us properly instead of releasing snippets of info via fans meetings etc.
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Post by Severncider on Apr 8, 2017 12:16:05 GMT
Any chance of your resume Severncider, rather than this endless speculation? There are a lot more important things in my life than BRFC to be honest.
Still, here goes. The delay has been caused by me remembering what was said at the open meeting and what was said to me in private conversations with the two guests.
The AGM was attended by about 45 Gasheads with the principle guests, Steve Hamer and Marcus Stewart. Ken Masters and Jim Chappell were also in attendance.
The first question was "Where's my stadium?". SH went into a long answer covering most aspects of UWE since the takeover. As he pointed out, they have only owned the club for 14 months and they immediately found that the deal proposed between the previous owners and UWE did not meet the expectations/requirements of the new owners, so there clearly had to be a fundamental adjustment of what the new owners wanted/were prepared to accept. During the last three months I have heard how close we were to a deal and how far away we still were. It now appears that UWE clearly believed that it was necessary for UWE to be sold to complete the build, whereas SH confirmed that the build was NOT dependent on the sale of The Mem. Mention was made of a Bond being required to provide security for UWE that the stadium would be built. As I pointed out, that was little difference between us and Sainsbury whereby the £30m+ Sainsbury were going to pay us being placed in an Escrow Account. My interpretation of what SH said was that the provision off a Bond would not be a problem. So how close are we? SH did say that we were nearer than we were 2/3 months ago and he is still hopeful that a deal can be completed by August. Any rumours you hear from Keith Chimp etc are exactly that, wild speculation. In my humble opinion this will go to the wire, although an announcement at the BRFC AGM, provisionally made for 2nd May would be a great bonus.
The next question, from me, was regarding what we need to do over the next three months to place us in a position to really have a go for promotion next season. MS jumped in to reply and said it was all about recruitment of the right type of players. SH said that there had been a recent discussion with DC about were we need to go regarding this. MS said we need to improve on the type of player we bring in, indicating players need to be comfortable playing at the next level. MS referred to the players we employed when he re-joined, a bunch of ******** who were only there for their pensions. SH said funds would be available, but how much that is we will never know.
Questions were asked about Like James and Ellis Harrison. MS gave an insight on both players. As regards Luke James, he said we are asking LJ to play a different roll up front as opposed to what he has previously played in a deeper position. MS felt sure he will adjust to the role. Regarding Ellis, he said he is a really great bloke on and off the pitch but Ellis has still not mastered the knack of how to "score goals" on a consistent basis. As he is under 24, he is a BRFC player even if his contract expires in June.
The only question on the Training Ground was when would it be functional. SH immediately said the 30th June, which I assume he meant next year before all the facilities were available to all levels of BRFC. MS did add that we now provide cooked hot meals for players at the training ground at lunchtime as he feels that this is important for the players rather than just go home. This apparently is to be extended to breakfast each day of training.
Regarding the current finances. The Accounts for 2015/16 will be available in the next few days and I have no doubt they will show a far worse position than the 2014/15 accounts as this will cover eight months of the old owners and just four months of the new owners. The current finances, in my opinion could be even worse, as despite the increase in attendances and the Chelsea game, we have greatly expanded the Academy, Medical and Media departments and substantial monies have been paid out on improvements in various areas and SH has admitted that estimates for improvement works have surprised him.
There were many other questions but to be honest I did not take notes but if I remember those I will add to this.
I had a good feeling for the future of BRFC at the end of this meeting and am certainly glad that we have new owners that are capable of progressing this club through evolution and not revolution or throwing £5m/£10m into the club with sustainability.
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Post by STRONG,SECURE, STABLE on Apr 8, 2017 12:18:06 GMT
I think this 15k to break even is a load of tosh. There's no way on this earth that expenditure has gone up that much. It does seem an extraordinary jump in outgoings in a relatively short period of time. Would love to know the breakdown of where that money is being spent. Pretty concerning news if true - though I'd be more inclined to believe it if Wael had said it rather than our resident loose cannon Hamer. When the accounts are made public they will appear here: www.endole.co.uk/company/00051828/bristol-rovers-football-club-limited?page=documents (You will need a free account like on most sites these days) Based on the league 2 relegation year and the conference promotion year player and staff expenses = 62-64% admin and goods sold = 14-17% ground and facilities maintenance = 20-22% Very broad areas of expenditure but its all they give In terms of incoming finances these are broken down into 5 areas Match-day (merch,Gates etc) Broadcasting Sponsorship & commercial Prize money Player Sales But im not a financial director and dont know where i can find exact %s
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Post by Topper Gas on Apr 8, 2017 12:25:25 GMT
Any chance of your resume Severncider, rather than this endless speculation? There are a lot more important things in my life than BRFC to be honest.
Still, here goes. The delay has been caused by me remembering what was said at the open meeting and what was said to me in private conversations with the two guests.
The AGM was attended by about 45 Gasheads with the principle guests, Steve Hamer and Marcus Stewart. Ken Masters and Jim Chappell were also in attendance.
The first question was "Where's my stadium?". SH went into a long answer covering most aspects of UWE since the takeover. As he pointed out, they have only owned the club for 14 months and they immediately found that the deal proposed between the previous owners and UWE did not meet the expectations/requirements of the new owners, so there clearly had to be a fundamental adjustment of what the new owners wanted/were prepared to accept. During the last three months I have heard how close we were to a deal and how far away we still were. It now appears that UWE clearly believed that it was necessary for UWE to be sold to complete the build, whereas SH confirmed that the build was NOT dependent on the sale of The Mem. Mention was made of a Bond being required to provide security for UWE that the stadium would be built. As I pointed out, that was little difference between us and Sainsbury whereby the £30m+ Sainsbury were going to pay us being placed in an Escrow Account. My interpretation of what SH said was that the provision off a Bond would not be a problem. So how close are we? SH did say that we were nearer than we were 2/3 months ago and he is still hopeful that a deal can be completed by August. Any rumours you hear from Keith Chimp etc are exactly that, wild speculation. In my humble opinion this will go to the wire, although an announcement at the BRFC AGM, provisionally made for 2nd May would be a great bonus.
The next question, from me, was regarding what we need to do over the next three months to place us in a position to really have a go for promotion next season. MS jumped in to reply and said it was all about recruitment of the right type of players. SH said that there had been a recent discussion with DC about were we need to go regarding this. MS said we need to improve on the type of player we bring in, indicating players need to be comfortable playing at the next level. MS referred to the players we employed when he re-joined, a bunch of ******** who were only there for their pensions. SH said funds would be available, but how much that is we will never know.
Questions were asked about Like James and Ellis Harrison. MS gave an insight on both players. As regards Luke James, he said we are asking LJ to play a different roll up front as opposed to what he has previously played in a deeper position. MS felt sure he will adjust to the role. Regarding Ellis, he said he is a really great bloke on and off the pitch but Ellis has still not mastered the knack of how to "score goals" on a consistent basis. As he is under 24, he is a BRFC player even if his contract expires in June.
The only question on the Training Ground was when would it be functional. SH immediately said the 30th June, which I assume he meant next year before all the facilities were available to all levels of BRFC. MS did add that we now provide cooked hot meals for players at the training ground at lunchtime as he feels that this is important for the players rather than just go home. This apparently is to be extended to breakfast each day of training.
Regarding the current finances. The Accounts for 2015/16 will be available in the next few days and I have no doubt they will show a far worse position than the 2014/15 accounts as this will cover eight months of the old owners and just four months of the new owners. The current finances, in my opinion could be even worse, as despite the increase in attendances and the Chelsea game, we have greatly expanded the Academy, Medical and Media departments and substantial monies have been paid out on improvements in various areas and SH has admitted that estimates for improvement works have surprised him.
There were many other questions but to be honest I did not take notes but if I remember those I will add to this.
I had a good feeling for the future of BRFC at the end of this meeting and am certainly glad that we have new owners that are capable of progressing this club through evolution and not revolution or throwing £5m/£10m into the club with sustainability.
Thanks for this, I sense there's a slight typo at the start and you meant to say the deal was dependent on selling the Mem not UWE? What happened to the suggestion about a lease deal now being the preferred option? It's a bit if a joke MS feels EH hasn't learnt to score goals yet then thinks LJ can do a good job! But he's wrong about EH being one of ours as that only applies if we offer him a new contract on his present terms.
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Post by knowall on Apr 8, 2017 12:36:31 GMT
Bear in mind T.Watola couldnt count too many 'o's
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Post by STRONG,SECURE, STABLE on Apr 8, 2017 12:37:06 GMT
Any chance of your resume Severncider, rather than this endless speculation? There are a lot more important things in my life than BRFC to be honest.
Still, here goes. The delay has been caused by me remembering what was said at the open meeting and what was said to me in private conversations with the two guests.
The AGM was attended by about 45 Gasheads with the principle guests, Steve Hamer and Marcus Stewart. Ken Masters and Jim Chappell were also in attendance.
The first question was "Where's my stadium?". SH went into a long answer covering most aspects of UWE since the takeover. As he pointed out, they have only owned the club for 14 months and they immediately found that the deal proposed between the previous owners and UWE did not meet the expectations/requirements of the new owners, so there clearly had to be a fundamental adjustment of what the new owners wanted/were prepared to accept. During the last three months I have heard how close we were to a deal and how far away we still were. It now appears that UWE clearly believed that it was necessary for UWE to be sold to complete the build, whereas SH confirmed that the build was NOT dependent on the sale of The Mem. Mention was made of a Bond being required to provide security for UWE that the stadium would be built. As I pointed out, that was little difference between us and Sainsbury whereby the £30m+ Sainsbury were going to pay us being placed in an Escrow Account. My interpretation of what SH said was that the provision off a Bond would not be a problem. So how close are we? SH did say that we were nearer than we were 2/3 months ago and he is still hopeful that a deal can be completed by August. Any rumours you hear from Keith Chimp etc are exactly that, wild speculation. In my humble opinion this will go to the wire, although an announcement at the BRFC AGM, provisionally made for 2nd May would be a great bonus.
The next question, from me, was regarding what we need to do over the next three months to place us in a position to really have a go for promotion next season. MS jumped in to reply and said it was all about recruitment of the right type of players. SH said that there had been a recent discussion with DC about were we need to go regarding this. MS said we need to improve on the type of player we bring in, indicating players need to be comfortable playing at the next level. MS referred to the players we employed when he re-joined, a bunch of ******** who were only there for their pensions. SH said funds would be available, but how much that is we will never know.
Questions were asked about Like James and Ellis Harrison. MS gave an insight on both players. As regards Luke James, he said we are asking LJ to play a different roll up front as opposed to what he has previously played in a deeper position. MS felt sure he will adjust to the role. Regarding Ellis, he said he is a really great bloke on and off the pitch but Ellis has still not mastered the knack of how to "score goals" on a consistent basis. As he is under 24, he is a BRFC player even if his contract expires in June.
The only question on the Training Ground was when would it be functional. SH immediately said the 30th June, which I assume he meant next year before all the facilities were available to all levels of BRFC. MS did add that we now provide cooked hot meals for players at the training ground at lunchtime as he feels that this is important for the players rather than just go home. This apparently is to be extended to breakfast each day of training.
Regarding the current finances. The Accounts for 2015/16 will be available in the next few days and I have no doubt they will show a far worse position than the 2014/15 accounts as this will cover eight months of the old owners and just four months of the new owners. The current finances, in my opinion could be even worse, as despite the increase in attendances and the Chelsea game, we have greatly expanded the Academy, Medical and Media departments and substantial monies have been paid out on improvements in various areas and SH has admitted that estimates for improvement works have surprised him.
There were many other questions but to be honest I did not take notes but if I remember those I will add to this.
I had a good feeling for the future of BRFC at the end of this meeting and am certainly glad that we have new owners that are capable of progressing this club through evolution and not revolution or throwing £5m/£10m into the club with sustainability.
So Severn i have a few questions: Are you saying that you reckon the 930K loss in 2015 is likely to go up in the 2016 & 2017 accounts? (of course the club wide improvements will have cost a lot and will continue to cost a lot) From what was said are the Al Qadis rich enough to cover that? Is the 15k attendance average really the breakeven figure? is the club pulling in more turnover these days? ie is our turnover likely to be closer to 4-5M that 3.5M in the 2016/2017 accounts do we own the mem or is that now owned by Dwayne sports or the AL Qadi Family? Have our debts been cleared and loans paid off and how will they effect the accounts? How long will it take to compete with the 10-15M (ish) turnover of the Teds? How much of an advantage has the sale of Him and the chelsea game provided financially? Is the new stadium likely? and how will the costs effect the club financially? Do they expect the new stadium to bring in far more bums on seats regardless of the division we play in?
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Post by Severncider on Apr 8, 2017 12:37:37 GMT
Any chance of your resume Severncider, rather than this endless speculation? There are a lot more important things in my life than BRFC to be honest.
Still, here goes. The delay has been caused by me remembering what was said at the open meeting and what was said to me in private conversations with the two guests.
The AGM was attended by about 45 Gasheads with the principle guests, Steve Hamer and Marcus Stewart. Ken Masters and Jim Chappell were also in attendance.
The first question was "Where's my stadium?". SH went into a long answer covering most aspects of UWE since the takeover. As he pointed out, they have only owned the club for 14 months and they immediately found that the deal proposed between the previous owners and UWE did not meet the expectations/requirements of the new owners, so there clearly had to be a fundamental adjustment of what the new owners wanted/were prepared to accept. During the last three months I have heard how close we were to a deal and how far away we still were. It now appears that UWE clearly believed that it was necessary for UWE to be sold to complete the build, whereas SH confirmed that the build was NOT dependent on the sale of The Mem. Mention was made of a Bond being required to provide security for UWE that the stadium would be built. As I pointed out, that was little difference between us and Sainsbury whereby the £30m+ Sainsbury were going to pay us being placed in an Escrow Account. My interpretation of what SH said was that the provision off a Bond would not be a problem. So how close are we? SH did say that we were nearer than we were 2/3 months ago and he is still hopeful that a deal can be completed by August. Any rumours you hear from Keith Chimp etc are exactly that, wild speculation. In my humble opinion this will go to the wire, although an announcement at the BRFC AGM, provisionally made for 2nd May would be a great bonus.
The next question, from me, was regarding what we need to do over the next three months to place us in a position to really have a go for promotion next season. MS jumped in to reply and said it was all about recruitment of the right type of players. SH said that there had been a recent discussion with DC about were we need to go regarding this. MS said we need to improve on the type of player we bring in, indicating players need to be comfortable playing at the next level. MS referred to the players we employed when he re-joined, a bunch of ******** who were only there for their pensions. SH said funds would be available, but how much that is we will never know.
Questions were asked about Like James and Ellis Harrison. MS gave an insight on both players. As regards Luke James, he said we are asking LJ to play a different roll up front as opposed to what he has previously played in a deeper position. MS felt sure he will adjust to the role. Regarding Ellis, he said he is a really great bloke on and off the pitch but Ellis has still not mastered the knack of how to "score goals" on a consistent basis. As he is under 24, he is a BRFC player even if his contract expires in June.
The only question on the Training Ground was when would it be functional. SH immediately said the 30th June, which I assume he meant next year before all the facilities were available to all levels of BRFC. MS did add that we now provide cooked hot meals for players at the training ground at lunchtime as he feels that this is important for the players rather than just go home. This apparently is to be extended to breakfast each day of training.
Regarding the current finances. The Accounts for 2015/16 will be available in the next few days and I have no doubt they will show a far worse position than the 2014/15 accounts as this will cover eight months of the old owners and just four months of the new owners. The current finances, in my opinion could be even worse, as despite the increase in attendances and the Chelsea game, we have greatly expanded the Academy, Medical and Media departments and substantial monies have been paid out on improvements in various areas and SH has admitted that estimates for improvement works have surprised him.
There were many other questions but to be honest I did not take notes but if I remember those I will add to this.
I had a good feeling for the future of BRFC at the end of this meeting and am certainly glad that we have new owners that are capable of progressing this club through evolution and not revolution or throwing £5m/£10m into the club with sustainability.
The 2015/16 Accounts are now available here
2015/16 Accounts
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Post by Severncider on Apr 8, 2017 12:59:54 GMT
There are a lot more important things in my life than BRFC to be honest.
Still, here goes. The delay has been caused by me remembering what was said at the open meeting and what was said to me in private conversations with the two guests.
The AGM was attended by about 45 Gasheads with the principle guests, Steve Hamer and Marcus Stewart. Ken Masters and Jim Chappell were also in attendance.
The first question was "Where's my stadium?". SH went into a long answer covering most aspects of UWE since the takeover. As he pointed out, they have only owned the club for 14 months and they immediately found that the deal proposed between the previous owners and UWE did not meet the expectations/requirements of the new owners, so there clearly had to be a fundamental adjustment of what the new owners wanted/were prepared to accept. During the last three months I have heard how close we were to a deal and how far away we still were. It now appears that UWE clearly believed that it was necessary for UWE to be sold to complete the build, whereas SH confirmed that the build was NOT dependent on the sale of The Mem. Mention was made of a Bond being required to provide security for UWE that the stadium would be built. As I pointed out, that was little difference between us and Sainsbury whereby the £30m+ Sainsbury were going to pay us being placed in an Escrow Account. My interpretation of what SH said was that the provision off a Bond would not be a problem. So how close are we? SH did say that we were nearer than we were 2/3 months ago and he is still hopeful that a deal can be completed by August. Any rumours you hear from Keith Chimp etc are exactly that, wild speculation. In my humble opinion this will go to the wire, although an announcement at the BRFC AGM, provisionally made for 2nd May would be a great bonus.
The next question, from me, was regarding what we need to do over the next three months to place us in a position to really have a go for promotion next season. MS jumped in to reply and said it was all about recruitment of the right type of players. SH said that there had been a recent discussion with DC about were we need to go regarding this. MS said we need to improve on the type of player we bring in, indicating players need to be comfortable playing at the next level. MS referred to the players we employed when he re-joined, a bunch of ******** who were only there for their pensions. SH said funds would be available, but how much that is we will never know.
Questions were asked about Like James and Ellis Harrison. MS gave an insight on both players. As regards Luke James, he said we are asking LJ to play a different roll up front as opposed to what he has previously played in a deeper position. MS felt sure he will adjust to the role. Regarding Ellis, he said he is a really great bloke on and off the pitch but Ellis has still not mastered the knack of how to "score goals" on a consistent basis. As he is under 24, he is a BRFC player even if his contract expires in June.
The only question on the Training Ground was when would it be functional. SH immediately said the 30th June, which I assume he meant next year before all the facilities were available to all levels of BRFC. MS did add that we now provide cooked hot meals for players at the training ground at lunchtime as he feels that this is important for the players rather than just go home. This apparently is to be extended to breakfast each day of training.
Regarding the current finances. The Accounts for 2015/16 will be available in the next few days and I have no doubt they will show a far worse position than the 2014/15 accounts as this will cover eight months of the old owners and just four months of the new owners. The current finances, in my opinion could be even worse, as despite the increase in attendances and the Chelsea game, we have greatly expanded the Academy, Medical and Media departments and substantial monies have been paid out on improvements in various areas and SH has admitted that estimates for improvement works have surprised him.
There were many other questions but to be honest I did not take notes but if I remember those I will add to this.
I had a good feeling for the future of BRFC at the end of this meeting and am certainly glad that we have new owners that are capable of progressing this club through evolution and not revolution or throwing £5m/£10m into the club with sustainability.
Thanks for this, I sense there's a slight typo at the start and you meant to say the deal was dependent on selling the Mem not UWE? What happened to the suggestion about a lease deal now being the preferred option? It's a bit if a joke MS feels EH hasn't learnt to score goals yet then thinks LJ can do a good job! But he's wrong about EH being one of ours as that only applies if we offer him a new contract on his present terms. UWE were under the impression that the sale of The Mem was dependent on building UWE, as I assume was the case with the previous owners.
The new owners do NOT need to sell The Mem to progress the build of UWE. There must have sufficient capital and/or investors to finance this themselves.
The question of BRFC owning the land as opposed to leasing it now seems to be a thing of the past.
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Post by Severncider on Apr 8, 2017 13:02:10 GMT
There are a lot more important things in my life than BRFC to be honest.
Still, here goes. The delay has been caused by me remembering what was said at the open meeting and what was said to me in private conversations with the two guests.
The AGM was attended by about 45 Gasheads with the principle guests, Steve Hamer and Marcus Stewart. Ken Masters and Jim Chappell were also in attendance.
The first question was "Where's my stadium?". SH went into a long answer covering most aspects of UWE since the takeover. As he pointed out, they have only owned the club for 14 months and they immediately found that the deal proposed between the previous owners and UWE did not meet the expectations/requirements of the new owners, so there clearly had to be a fundamental adjustment of what the new owners wanted/were prepared to accept. During the last three months I have heard how close we were to a deal and how far away we still were. It now appears that UWE clearly believed that it was necessary for UWE to be sold to complete the build, whereas SH confirmed that the build was NOT dependent on the sale of The Mem. Mention was made of a Bond being required to provide security for UWE that the stadium would be built. As I pointed out, that was little difference between us and Sainsbury whereby the £30m+ Sainsbury were going to pay us being placed in an Escrow Account. My interpretation of what SH said was that the provision off a Bond would not be a problem. So how close are we? SH did say that we were nearer than we were 2/3 months ago and he is still hopeful that a deal can be completed by August. Any rumours you hear from Keith Chimp etc are exactly that, wild speculation. In my humble opinion this will go to the wire, although an announcement at the BRFC AGM, provisionally made for 2nd May would be a great bonus.
The next question, from me, was regarding what we need to do over the next three months to place us in a position to really have a go for promotion next season. MS jumped in to reply and said it was all about recruitment of the right type of players. SH said that there had been a recent discussion with DC about were we need to go regarding this. MS said we need to improve on the type of player we bring in, indicating players need to be comfortable playing at the next level. MS referred to the players we employed when he re-joined, a bunch of ******** who were only there for their pensions. SH said funds would be available, but how much that is we will never know.
Questions were asked about Like James and Ellis Harrison. MS gave an insight on both players. As regards Luke James, he said we are asking LJ to play a different roll up front as opposed to what he has previously played in a deeper position. MS felt sure he will adjust to the role. Regarding Ellis, he said he is a really great bloke on and off the pitch but Ellis has still not mastered the knack of how to "score goals" on a consistent basis. As he is under 24, he is a BRFC player even if his contract expires in June.
The only question on the Training Ground was when would it be functional. SH immediately said the 30th June, which I assume he meant next year before all the facilities were available to all levels of BRFC. MS did add that we now provide cooked hot meals for players at the training ground at lunchtime as he feels that this is important for the players rather than just go home. This apparently is to be extended to breakfast each day of training.
Regarding the current finances. The Accounts for 2015/16 will be available in the next few days and I have no doubt they will show a far worse position than the 2014/15 accounts as this will cover eight months of the old owners and just four months of the new owners. The current finances, in my opinion could be even worse, as despite the increase in attendances and the Chelsea game, we have greatly expanded the Academy, Medical and Media departments and substantial monies have been paid out on improvements in various areas and SH has admitted that estimates for improvement works have surprised him.
There were many other questions but to be honest I did not take notes but if I remember those I will add to this.
I had a good feeling for the future of BRFC at the end of this meeting and am certainly glad that we have new owners that are capable of progressing this club through evolution and not revolution or throwing £5m/£10m into the club with sustainability.
So Severn i have a few questions: Are you saying that you reckon the 930K loss in 2015 is likely to go up in the 2016 & 2017 accounts? (of course the club wide improvements will have cost a lot and will continue to cost a lot) From what was said are the Al Qadis rich enough to cover that? Is the 15k attendance average really the breakeven figure? is the club pulling in more turnover these days? ie is our turnover likely to be closer to 4-5M that 3.5M in the 2016/2017 accounts do we own the mem or is that now owned by Dwayne sports or the AL Qadi Family? Have our debts been cleared and loans paid off and how will they effect the accounts? How long will it take to compete with the 10-15M (ish) turnover of the Teds? How much of an advantage has the sale of Him and the chelsea game provided financially? Is the new stadium likely? and how will the costs effect the club financially? Do they expect the new stadium to bring in far more bums on seats regardless of the division we play in? Unable to answer those questions, suggest you direct them to the owner or chairman.
Perhaps they will be asked at the AGM on 2nd May(?)
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Post by Severncider on Apr 8, 2017 17:52:58 GMT
One interesting thing was mentioned by MS regarding loan players.
Apparently some loan players we have/have had are on a loan agreement whereby provided they play, we do not pay their wages. We only pay any wages if they do not play.
I've never heard that before.
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