by David Lovett
02/12/02
WREXHAM
chairman Mark Guterman today revealed how he wants to take the club forward in
the wake of plans to cap players’ wages.
He wants Wrexham to make money 52 weeks a year with new facilities at The Racecourse. Those will include conference facilities, possibly a hotel, shops and other business units. A feasibility study is being drawn up.
Guterman’s vision for the future comes in the wake of new proposals by the Football League to bring some financial sanity back into the running of its clubs.
Too many clubs – including Wrexham – are spending too much of turnovers on players’ wages and the Football League want to bring in salary capping.
Guterman and Wrexham chief executive David Rhodes were at the meeting in Oxford to consider capping players’ wages.
Wrexham’s chairman is in general favour of the idea. “Salary capping, in my opinion, is going to happen,” he said. “Clubs have already voted to move on this, possibly by the end of this season, or buy the beginning of next season.
“Basically, the working party on this wants clubs to spend no more than 60 percent of their turnovers on players’ wages in the first year of its introduction, reducing it to 50 percent in the second year.
“If someone has got a longer contract than that dispensations will be brought in, but this is something that has to be looked at.
“We, at Wrexham at the moment are putting 70 percent of our turnover on players’ wages. Last year it was around 80 percent, possibly more.” Wrexham’s turnover in the year ending May 31, 2001, was just under £2.5 million. Wages and salaries in the same period were just under £1.8m.
Guterman added: “If we sold a player, say for £500,000, that can not be included in our turnover income. Also, under the Football League proposals, if a club gets relegated wages will be reduced and similarly they would go up if a club was promoted.
“That’s basically the framework, but what it does mean is we have to build up our turnover and the profitability of our business at Wrexham. That has to be the way forward for the club. We must become commercially successful for 52 weeks of the year. Only clubs who do this will survive - and I want Wrexham very much to be one of those clubs.
“We’ve already got good restaurant facilities at The Racecourse. The Changing Rooms restaurant in the Pryce Griffiths Stand is superb as, indeed, are the facilities on the other side in the Centenary Club.
“But the way forward after salary capping is for the club to have a fully-equipped conference centre to serve the whole of north and mid-Wales. We also need shops, offices and possibly a new hotel here to help boost revenue.”
Guterman also spoke of his passion for Wrexham and how ‘responsive’ he has found supporters since buying out Pryce Griffiths.
He said: “I must say since taking over the club, I have found Wrexham fans to be very responsive to everything to do with their club. I have got a passion for Wrexham Football Club and I want the club to be successful. It is not a third division club and I desperately want promotion this season.”
Guterman is also pleased with the way Denis Smith is managing the club since taking over from Brian Flynn last season. “Denis is building a team,” he said. “I believe we have a very exciting football team to watch. You can see where the manager wants to take us and we rate Denis very highly. We see him as a man of integrity and experience and we are very privileged to have a manager like Denis Smith.”
Guterman also gets the same roller-coaster feeling as fans before every game. “I’ve never had this feeling before that I get here,” he said. “I find myself too nervous to enjoy watching a match but once we have got three points there’s this big adrenalin rush, just like the fans get.”