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Financial woes

Discussion in 'Bristol Rovers' started by Captain Jack Sparrow, May 31, 2019.

  1. Captain Jack Sparrow

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    Rovers were a few months late with filing their accounts for the 2017/18 season, which had to be in to Companies House by 31st March 2019. Rovers have now sent them in and Companies House have confirmed receipt of them. However, as a result of being so late, there will be a fine to pay! The fine starts at £100 and goes up gradually, depending on the how late is the final submission. Wonder how much 2 months is!

    While waiting for Rovers to get their act together and send in their accounts, Companies House had to issue a 'struck off notice'. This notice is a warning shot to the people who own the company that if they fail to submit their accounts then Companies House will continue with the action to have the company struck off and then legally they won't be allowed to trade because it is a criminal offence to fail to submit your accounts to Companies House.

    Bury, Oldham, and Blackpool were other clubs who did not submitted their accounts on time. They are clubs which we might politely call 'clubs in crisis.' Clubs that have had issues in terms of winding up orders, county court judgements, failure to pay players, so it is not a gang we would like to be part of.There are also 2 Championship clubs who failed to do their accounts on time. They are Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton. Bolton are in administration and Sheffield Wednesday are alleged to have sold their ground to an unusual company by the owner to circumnavigate financial fair play, so both of those clubs have got a cloud over them at the moment.

    To be seen with a list of clubs labelled as a 'crisis club' is very worrying and embarrassing. To me, there are reasons why companies choose not to disclose information and it is never a positive reason. And if we are on a list of 'crisis clubs', it’s easy to conclude we have similar problems as them. So what the hell is going on?

    We now know the accounts have been received and they now have been published. It doesn't look pretty reading! We made losses of over £3.4m for the 2017/18 season and rank as the 6th highest in L1 . That means we were losing £65k a week. This is not sustainable, which is what Wael said he wanted the club to be - sustainable! Now remember this is for 2017/18 season, so the 18/19 season will probably be worse because last season was a bad season and attendances were lower so not much income in as before plus we would have had to pay off DC after sacking him. We are paying out £97 in wages for every £100 that comes through the door and you can't run a normal business like that. Wages increased by 12 per cent and revenue was down by 12 per cent, so you put those two together and you've got a perfect storm of financial problems. You can't carry on with those as trends in the long-term. Again remember this is for 17/18 season, so could be a lot worse now!

    So with this all in mind, maybe this is the true reason why we haven't started our new training ground. Maybe this is why we have nothing planned for a new stadium or to redevelop the Mem. This also backs up what DC said before he left when he said we need to make massive cuts. Coughlan also said a few weeks ago on the Twentyman show that he will need to reduce the amount of staff.

    I am prepared for a season of struggle. It would be a good idea if you do too. Anything better is therefore a bonus but we have a long 12 months ahead of us.
     
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  2. old timer

    old timer Well-Known Member

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    Accounts apparently show we are losing £65000 a week
     
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  3. Captain Jack Sparrow

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    Yep. That's what I put in the 5th paragraph <ok>
     
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  4. Delsy

    Delsy Active Member

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    Who / What the F*** are Dwane Sports and is the Mem now or soon to be worth less than their ‘current commitment ‘ ?

    I am glad I didn’t buy a season ticket, you might not get your monies worth !
     
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  5. years ago

    years ago Active Member

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    The post's articles re Rovers finance shows how little they support us against the pro City reporting
    They not only want to throw the mud but makes sure like many other articles is stays available long after itd news factor
    Surprise today the sports editor has in fact one of the best informed , balanced article this mirror owned paper has put out for a long, long time.
    What is also interesting is that there seem to be quite a lot of 'journalists' named for an article, there does seem too many.
    I always regret that they ignore all other sports than football and rugby, no mention of county cricket or tennis ;let alone local club sports
     
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  6. GreatWesternGas

    GreatWesternGas Well-Known Member

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    I'm afraid I tend to agree with you about the struggle that lies ahead, although I suspect it will go on much longer than the next 12 months. From a purely business point of view, it would seem most advantageous for the owners if we were to drop into league 2, where our wage bill would be greatly reduced (I assume) and as we would hopefully achieve better results in a lower league, attendances would automatically increase. Make no mistake, people will come through the turnstiles to watch a half decent league 2 team win more than they lose, much more readily than shell out hard earned cash every week to watch a struggling league 1 team lose more than they win. It is no way an ideal situation but as it seems fairly obvious that a massive cash injection isn't coming anytime soon, and to be honest, can you blame them? - how long is any business person going to carry on throwing good money after bad, with no sign of any decent return? Realistically, after such a momentous achievement to stay up last season, once again, it seems that rather than build on that momentum, we are destined to struggle for many years to come. As regards the comments re: City's ongoing success, that's only happening because Lansdown has more money than he knows what to do with, and can afford to continually throw it at the club. We aren't anywhere near their fortunate position and probably never will be. In fairness to him, he has invested squillions into the club and facilities, and is no doubt reaping the rewards his investments deserve, through pop concerts, trade fairs and general hospitality packages they offer. I guess for the time being, he's happy to keep chucking his money at them, seeking a massive return if and when they reach the Premiership, but if they fail to do that, one wonders how long he will stay patient before requiring his investment back. That is when their bubble will well and truly be at risk of bursting, meanwhile we will still be plodding along in either of the bottom 2 leagues (or worse). Quite simply, it is what it is, and it's hard to see anything changing for the better for us, for many, many years!
     
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  7. Wooperts_duck

    Wooperts_duck Well-Known Member
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    Wow ! Really sad to read this thread, and I do hope you can pull through it, and come out the other side stronger.

    Good luck for next season :emoticon-0148-yes:
     
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  8. Captain Jack Sparrow

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    Sometimes I wonder what is the point and think about throwing the towel in and giving up. Just watch a prem game on TV now and again and use my Saturday afternoons on something more worth while. The money in football is stupid. Prem teams can play every single game behind closed doors so have none in attendance and they will still make a profit for that game. Yet they charge ridiculous amount of money for tickets, food/drinks and merchandise. And the money they pass on down to the lower leagues are so small, it doesn't help anyone. For example, we are losing £65k a week. We need to pretty much sell out every game to make up for that and even then we won't make a profit. Unless we get someone in like Lansdown, we will always yo-yo between L1 and L2 and might even end up falling back into non league. May even fall into administration too. So whats the point in putting myself through this pain and stress? I must be a sucker for punishment. Look at our neighbours South of the river. They just sold a player for £13 million plus further add ons to come and this player is a back up at best apparently and played less than 50 games for them. How can a team with our facilities and finances compete with the likes of that in the next league above us? So if we can't compete with the top teams in our league to even think about getting in the championship, how are we to compete in the championship with the amount of money that is spent for back up players at that level? I think now really, there are only 2 leagues in England. Prem and championship. L1 downwards are the new non league. So whats the point in keep chucking our hard earned money away for nothing? Like I said, sucker for punishment.
     
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  9. old timer

    old timer Well-Known Member

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    CJS you would only get bored if you didn't attend the matches besides how would the club survive if we all didn't bother to come out on a wet cold miserable Saturday afternoon.
    We all hoped for better when our new owners took over from Higgs and Co but when we look at the figures maybe we should be grateful they did
     
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  10. Delsy

    Delsy Active Member

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    Because as I suspect like me 'There your team' Captain and when you pick your team you pick them for life and I am pretty much assured that you are not a fair weather supporter so I think you will be there along with the likes of me and half a dozen of my mates standing on the terrace { or behind a rail ! } on some wet and windy November afternoon even if we were competing in the Evo Stik league.
     
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  11. Captain Jack Sparrow

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    Like I said, im a sucker for punishment :(
     
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  12. old timer

    old timer Well-Known Member

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    Your not the only one CJS welcome to the club of the Blue and White Quarter lunatics
     
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  13. old timer

    old timer Well-Known Member

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    Bolton have been deducted 12 points for going into administration they apparently could be followed buy Bury who also have financial problems
     
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  14. Captain Jack Sparrow

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    Easier for us to stay up <whistle>

    Talking about Bolton, our new RB from Bolton - Mark Little, has today posted on twitter that he still haven't been paid by Bolton. Owed a lot of money! Shouldn't be allowed.
     
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  15. old timer

    old timer Well-Known Member

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    Didn't Bury sign Dom Telford maybe we could help them out taking him off their hands in exchange for Stefan Payne and a small fee
     
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  16. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    There are a number of boards in league one who have comments about points deductions and being "helpful" this season. Couldn't happen last season could it.

    Captain Jack you are like me. You go to the match on a Saturday because Saturday is match day. It's my escape with a couple of pints after and a moan about something or other. I would go no matter which league my club were in and I just can't help it. My son started coming with me when he was 6. He's now 43 and still turns up. Mind you I did tell him he was out of the Will if he didn't. We go with a couple of others and they are much the same. What else would you do with your Saturday? Become a plastic and watch Sky? Not the same is it. Whatever your club do you will be there till the day you drop and your ghost will turn up after you've departed. Tis the way of Saturdays.....
     
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  17. Gastronomic

    Gastronomic Well-Known Member

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    Wonder if the attendances in League One will be a bit bigger and boost the coffers next season? I'm not hopeful about hanging onto JCH if the finances are that bad.
     
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  18. Delsy

    Delsy Active Member

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    I expect the Rovers will still get their core 7500 - 8500 for most games { I remember during the Eastville days we used to talk about ' The Faithful 5000' } but it is like all teams I guess if they are playing well and up there challenging more will come through the gates. It just worries me a little if that is the case that the dilapidation that is called the ' Memorial Stadium' will be able to cope !
     
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  19. old timer

    old timer Well-Known Member

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    Bury have to day apparently been handed a 12 point deduction for this coming season
     
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  20. Captain Jack Sparrow

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    So both Bolton and Bury are 12 points behind us already. Unfortunate for their fans of course but as we are 4 wins ahead of them already, its been made easier for us to survive this season. I don't really want to be looking behind our shoulders anyway and hopefully we will be top half all season at least but at least 2 teams are already behind us!
     
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