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Old 13th May 2018, 12.30:01   #6-0 (permalink)
Foxy
Part Time ITV4 Pundit


 
Joined: Dec 2011
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Default Re: Some facts - not false news.

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Only Way Is Up View Post
Everyone's dismayed that we're facing another season in the National League, but let's have a little perspective on the way progress is being made, irrespective of some posters who seem to relish spreading gloom and doom, and blame on all and sundry, twisting facts to suit their agenda whatever those might be.

The truth:

Although this was the 10th season in non-league, following relegation under previous ownership at the end of the 2007/8 season, we've been run under fans ownership for fewer years. It was not the Trust's fault - nor the fans fault - that the club was relegated.

The Trust took the Club over on 27th September 2011, making this last season "only" the 7th under fans ownership.

Dean Saunders' unaffordable salary (however much it might have been) was not arranged by the Trust, and he left the Club on 22nd September 2011.

Prior to the Trust taking the Club over, it ran at a loss under the previous owners. The Club owed £2,400,000 when it was put into Administration on 3rd December 2004, with £800,000 owed to the inland revenue.

Debt inherited by the Trust was reduced only by the previous owners selling the Racecourse and Colliers Park to Glyndwr University.

The club has, for nearly all of its history "only" had a lease on the Racecourse. Most will know that it was owned by Border Breweries and then Marstons. In 2002, then-chairman Pryce Griffiths acquired the lease for £750,000 from Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries, plus a £1 per annum peppercorn rent. Then, on 22 June of the same year, new chairman Alex Hamilton acquired the freehold of the Racecourse from the Brewery for a further £300,000 but ON THE SAME DAY he transferred ownership of the ground to one of his own companies, Damens, for a nominal fee. The club was given a year's notice to quit, and the peppercorn rent was increase from £1 to £30,000. The High Court ruled in 2006 that the transfer was inappropriately carried out, and the land then became an asset of the Club's administrator.

Moss and Roberts transferred ownership from Wrexham FC (2006) in 2006 to another of their businesses, Wrexham Village Ltd. By then, the Racecourse had ceased to have any value as an asset to the football club.

The point of detailing all that was to show that long leases CAN have an asset value.

The Trust announced that the Club had made a profit of £11,587 for the 2014/15 season, and that was the first profit recorded by the Club in 15 years!

2 years later, and that profit has grown to £150,000 under the Trust.

Fans' Ownership has, in six years, provided more than £1,000,000 of funding to the club through the Trust.

On another thread, it was claimed that prior to the Trust's ownership of the Club, there were queues forming down Crsipin Lane of investors (aka chancers as it turned out) wanting to buy the club. Where were the GENUINE investors that some fans think are still out there, willing and able to become involved?

And so, the above demonstrates that far from running the club down, the Trust has demonstrated forward planning, taking a loss making concern into profitability, and MOST IMPORTANTLY avoiding the club overextending itself financially while still able to retain its place in the 5th tier of the football pyramid - all due to fans involvement, as supporters and as financial backers and investors too. Although the investments may seem relatively small individually, they are very significant collectively, and have produced a stable club - a solid platform upon which to grow much further.

There has been no risk: no "dodgy investors" who could withdraw their interest without any notice, leaving the club high and dry with player contracts that were unsustainably high.

Fans can have confidence in the future. The rise in the club's fortunes on the pitch might not have been as meteoric as some impatient people want - but rise is what the club is doing, and will continue to do with FANS OWNERSHIP to back it and make it what YOU want it to be.
Sorry but all this, however laudable it is and I agree it is, is meaningless without progress on the pitch. That’s the bottom line and ultimately the only fact that really counts. We are still not even finishing in the play offs, let alone getting promoted. And this is despite the fact that the play offs have been extended down to 7th.
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