Five year plan
I was mulling over the concept of the "five year plan" we have . It is fairly obvious to me that we have to accept small squads
and tight budgets at this stage of the game . It has also not been lost on me that to get to the division above and survive ( which I assume is the final objective of the plan ) that money will have to be put into the playing budget at some stage to realistically achieve this . Having not attended any meetings at the club or been privy to the contents of the plan it's self can anyone make comment as to whether increased finances are indeed part of the agenda at some stage ? otherwise how is it hoped things will be achieved ?
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Comments
The budget is what it is at this time - affordable to the club - and Gareth is aware that this has to be worked to.
It is no coincidence that the Trust Share Scheme allows the giving of money over 5 years and indeed it helps to know what we will have coming in from that source over the coming 4 seasons.
This was the best scheme anybody could come up with that enables us to stay as a supporters trust owned club, allowing the supporters themselves to invest into the club. It had to be the Trust that managed the scheme and offered its shares as a Community Benefit Society.
We do hope that more fans will decide to join the Share Scheme and put into the club what they can afford to do so - whilst getting 30% of their money back in tax relief/refund.
I appreciate your feedback but it does not really answer my question. Is promotion and sustainability in the division above part of the "plan" ? if so does the five year plan intend to put us in a position to increase finance to the playing budget which is a fairly obvious requirement to achieve this goal .
Or are you suggesting it would need more fans to contribute and this is in itself part of the plan ?
It's seems during the 5 years the club plans to become sustainable and start generating profit which would allow us to have an increased playing budget for the league above and the share scheme will plug the gap in the meantime
Will we have paid of that leach Hayes by the end of that period?
This must surely be part of the Long Term Economic Plan.
Not ANOTHER 5 year plan PLEASE!!!!!!
The thing about all our plans is that they seem to take us UP at least one division. As a fan with just over 40 years under his belt I have always felt that this was our level. It is appropriate for our fan base and therefore our finance. A leap above might be damaging to our future rather than positive. Five years, ten years, whatever maybe we are already peaking.
I'm happy with a five year plan until such a time as the powers that be mysteriously stop talking about it. At that point you know things are a bit 'off course'.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub OMG ! So you want us to stay in L2 (or lower I presume) for ever... Please please please go and support someone else if that is your attitude (Poxford could probably do with your cash). Every club HAS to have an ambition to get promoted and progress - that's the whole point. Ask any Bradford fan (who can remember) whether or not they should have traded their financially stability for a shot at the big and I bet they would all say yes! History will remember the good times. I hate us being stuck in L2 - it bugs the sh*t out of me. Hoof ball, dull matches, rubbish support etc etc and we only get a mention on Sky Sports News when we play bloody Hartlepool.
Whilst I generally agree with your views on this subject Frijid, hoof ball and dull matches are not confined to League 2 only. The recent Manchester derby was a prime example of a dull match.
@FrijidPink Nice to dream, but realistically our fanbase is never going to generate big enough support at championship level over any sustained period. If you think we could then you don't live in the real world. It would probably take massive overspending again, more debt, I am not saying it would not be nice to get to that place for a year or two, like Yeovil did. But where are they now!
@FrijidPink whilst your little emotional rant made me smile you really do need to enter the real world. How can a club with average gates of just over 3000 hit the heights you want. Well money through the turnstiles clearly won't do it. Selling players is a short-term sugar hit and in recent years has been our survival money not our moving on up money. Or there is the outside investor option. Been there done that.
Financially football is on the verge of armageddon and it will not take much for several clubs to disappear. I would rather be in division 2 than having to start over. And as for enjoyment last season was a blast. I'm afraid me and M3G can remember when our big days were Dulwich Hamlet and Fisher Athletic. Maybe you have been spoilt with your supporting tenure.
Where as I agree the championship is certainly dreamland I do not think division one is . Partly the reason we are only getting 3-3500 home fans is at least in part due to the very fact we are in division 2 . If you look at the likes of Burton surely they are showing the division above is a possibility ? Bury as well ... their fan base is no bigger than ours . You only have to attend half a douzen away matches in this league to realise we have the facilities of a league 1 club and if we go up with finances balanced and the correct way by building the way the club appears to be doing , there is no reason in my opinion as to why we could not become an established league 1 club . We would get bigger gates and we have a population in the town that is big enough. Being happy with languishing in this league is very defeatist in my opinion and apathy is no friend of success .
He didn't say he was happy "languishing" in this league, he said he'd rather not risk our future gambling on getting promoted. And he's absolutely correct
As for whether League 1 is "dreamland" then no, of course it isn't. We were 15 seconds away from it a few months ago.
Not sure there is much evidence that home support would be massively affected by promotion to League 1. Sadly my hoped for Wembley bounce doesnt seem to have materialised either.
I know it is not popular but it is reality that over a long period of time, a clubs performance in the league tables is closely correlated to the level of its income. That does not mean of course that occasionallly clubs will not massively over or underperform - hence our performance last year, the presence of Man City, Birmingham and others in the "third tier" in relatively recent years. We can compete with the likes of Portsmouth and Plymouth now, but in reality the odds are that five years from now they will very likely be in a higher division, as Boirmingham and Man city now are. League 1 is clearly not an unacheivable dream, as Eric says last season proves that. Becoming an established League 1 club with our current structure would be realistically even harder still.
We have made the choice not to go down the "sugar daddy" route. This I believe has broad support from the majority. But for all the benefits of any choice, there are always disadvantages. Clearly if we could spend £500k more per annum on our wagebill, chances of promotion and establishing ourselves in a league above are higher. But that option plainly has sustainability issues as Eric points out. Most of our support is I believe behind the choice we have taken.
That does not mean of course that seasons cannot be enjoyable, last season was perhaps even more enjoyable because of its very unexpectedness. We should strive for a higher level, plan for a higher level, aim for a higher level but understand that the choices we made and the size of the club mean that we can't expect those sort of seasons every year. Rather makes the good ones even more enjoyable when they do come along, don't you think.
As long as we play 442 DevC !
Not ANOTHER 5 year plan PLEASE!!!!!!
nothing wrong with us aiming for league 1 we can manage it there we spend plenty of seasons in league 1 all we need is say afew more supporters turning up i don't see why we cant get in over 5000 we used to seems like alot fans cant be bothered anymore .
if we got prompted would we still be expected to have the same player budget as we have now because we would need to strengthen quite abit to stay in league 1