bwfc71 you make some nice points BUT you are wrong, the big number is more than frightening it is LETHAL.
The debt is now worth SIX YEARS total income if we spent not one penny on anything else. It's simply not possible for any business to continue to function with that level of debt for any length of time. It is clear that some one off costs such as buying out the Hotel will not be there next year and that the hotel is likely to be listed as an asset next year but let me ask you something. How can it possibly hope to make a profit? It isn't like it's a major tourist destination or even transport hub. Frankly I think this idea of football clubs getting into 'diversification' generally doesn't work. People who can run a football club (and Gartside's ability to do that is doubtful at best) don't necessarily have the ability to run hotels and educational companies. The core business is Football and that is where the whole company will live or die. Frankly reading the numbers and seeing what's been spent where convinces me the latter will happen.
Natasha says no football club will really die but there she is wrong, it happens all the time. Chester City, Luton Town, Wrexham and Aldershot Town being recent examples. Portsmouth are teetering again, Leeds for all their apparent strength are wafer thin on the margins and there are at least a dozen other clubs in the second tier that survive hand to mouth. We should be much stronger than any of them but the mismanagement and utter stupidity shown at boardroom level has left us in a very dangerous position.
Perhaps you might remember the mid to late 80's bwfc71, we barely survived thanks to what at the time was seen as a miracle. We can't rely on a second one and I fear that if we enter administration no one will be interested in giving us the sort of money needed to get us out of it. I truly fear for our club's future, this cannot go on and there's no point saying things will be better next year, the graph makes it clear that since '05 all that has happened is things got worse and there's no reason to believe that will change under the current board and management structure.
The debt is now worth SIX YEARS total income if we spent not one penny on anything else. It's simply not possible for any business to continue to function with that level of debt for any length of time. It is clear that some one off costs such as buying out the Hotel will not be there next year and that the hotel is likely to be listed as an asset next year but let me ask you something. How can it possibly hope to make a profit? It isn't like it's a major tourist destination or even transport hub. Frankly I think this idea of football clubs getting into 'diversification' generally doesn't work. People who can run a football club (and Gartside's ability to do that is doubtful at best) don't necessarily have the ability to run hotels and educational companies. The core business is Football and that is where the whole company will live or die. Frankly reading the numbers and seeing what's been spent where convinces me the latter will happen.
Natasha says no football club will really die but there she is wrong, it happens all the time. Chester City, Luton Town, Wrexham and Aldershot Town being recent examples. Portsmouth are teetering again, Leeds for all their apparent strength are wafer thin on the margins and there are at least a dozen other clubs in the second tier that survive hand to mouth. We should be much stronger than any of them but the mismanagement and utter stupidity shown at boardroom level has left us in a very dangerous position.
Perhaps you might remember the mid to late 80's bwfc71, we barely survived thanks to what at the time was seen as a miracle. We can't rely on a second one and I fear that if we enter administration no one will be interested in giving us the sort of money needed to get us out of it. I truly fear for our club's future, this cannot go on and there's no point saying things will be better next year, the graph makes it clear that since '05 all that has happened is things got worse and there's no reason to believe that will change under the current board and management structure.