|
Post by Tom Bowen on Feb 10, 2023 10:00:08 GMT
Seems like another Bury situation here.
The club is in serious financial trouble, with financial difficulties meaning they haven't been able to pay employees' wages and other players' wages since 2019. They also had a double relegation and now sit 6th in the National League. Regardless of the league position, they are not in a good place.
They had tax debts of nearly £500K in 2020 which was thankfully sorted.
Stan Collymore, former Southend player, offered to buy the club but was unsuccessful. He still offered to help out the club for free. After negotiations he was announced as the club's senior football strategist.
In September just gone, the club missed a payment to HMRC and was placed under a transfer embargo. Shirt sponsors withdrew and fans protested, particularly against club chairman Ron Martin claiming his 'utter ineptitude of running the club properly'. Due to the missed payment, HMRC ordered a winding up petition that would eventually (after being adjourned in November) be heard on January 18th (thus keeping the transfer embargo in place). However the hearing was adjourned again until March 1st.
Players and other staff remain unpaid for the last few months as well as overdue companies House statements from April 2021.
Bury and Bolton Wanderers suffered a few years ago, only one of which survived. I hope that this can all be resolved.
|
|
|
Post by hawleybootboy on Feb 10, 2023 16:45:32 GMT
It’s all part of the game plan of the owner who is determined to turn Roots Hall into flats. He claims there is an agreement with a developer to build them a new stadium on the edge of town which will happen soon… Soon being the last 20 years!
There was a bit about it on the Guardian Football Weekly podcast the other day.
|
|
|
Post by beardedavenger on Feb 10, 2023 22:47:18 GMT
I wonder if the football bubble is ever going to burst?
I've been to about 4 Farnborough matches in the last 4 years because I'd rather go beer ticking. Every other day breweries, pubs and bottle shops are folding. So far football had managed to pretty much ignore the financial issues this country faces.
|
|
Admin
Administrator
Posts: 910
|
Post by Admin on Feb 11, 2023 1:07:51 GMT
The breweries, pubs and bottle shops are facing ruin because of COVID, changing habits, dramatic increases in costs and potential customers hurting because their pay has not risen anywhere near inflation. Meanwhile the government goes, yeah, whatever. That's market capitalism for you.
Fortunately for our Club, and others, the stickiness of football fans to spend money actually attending matches has been shown to be pretty much unchanged. Does that mean everything's ok? No, far from it. Costs have gone through the roof, while income is much the same as before. But it does mean the old football dichotomy of owner/directors at this level choosing to cover some or all of their losses in the hope of achieving glory or getting something back when they finally bail out lives on. The equation hasn't changed.
|
|
|
Post by borobob on Feb 11, 2023 10:03:24 GMT
Agree that pubs have lost out through changing habits, the biggest of those being the increased coverage and clamp down of the drink driving laws, and the ban on smoking in public places, both of which are anti social and worthy causes for banning in my personal view, although others may disagree, and I support their decision s to continue, but also to face up to the consequences when problems arise.
That and Covid, plus the current financial situation has lead to the hostelry sector probably more than any other, but on the obverse side, I find that most restaurants, and fast food outlets seem to be having a boom time, as does the take away industry.
On a separate agenda, my wife and I visited Marks and Spencers recently, to find the que to pay right through the store pay lanes, four payment desks fully staffed and people in the que with huge piles of clothes waiting to be served. I looked along the queue and roughly calculated how much money was going across that till, it was hundreds of pounds, maybe thousands, as more customers joined behind us!
That's without the buzzing food hall!
So, yes one sector may be struggling, but others are doing pretty good thank you!
Yes, we are fortunate to be in a fairly affluent area, and we should be grateful, but not everything is as bleak as some like to make out!!
Back to football though and, as long as the upper echelons of the game are seen to be sloshing around ginormous amounts of obscene dosh, there will always be those at the lower end who say I want some of that, and chase the dream.
It will continue until it implodes from the top which, surely, can't be too far away!!! Let's see what happens at the etihad??
|
|