Oxford continue bad run

[Ralphy]

That play off match against Exeter was immense.

I remember jumping around the living room when Exeter's penalties went in!

[ReadingRed]

A colleague of mine is in the OU supporters Club and reckons they are in deep, deep financial shit if they don't go up. They overstretched themselves financially last year in an attempt to bounce straight back, so had to cut out their reserve team and almost all their youth setup this season.

They've now got almost nothing they can cut back on next year if they stay down.

[Peter Venkman]

A colleague of mine is in the OU supporters Club and reckons they are in deep, deep financial shit if they don't go up. They overstretched themselves financially last year in an attempt to bounce straight back, so had to cut out their reserve team and almost all their youth setup this season.

They've now got almost nothing they can cut back on next year if they stay down.

I had heard something similar, I hear that they went balls out to get promotion and there will be a full cut back on playing staff and backroom staff if they dont succeed, dodgy times for them

[herthab]

Oh dear, how sad, too bad, never mind.

[Ardiles]

Their attendences have held up well despite dropping out of the League...and as a result, I'm really not sure that promotion to League 2 would provide much of financial boost in any case.  They'e hardly going to attract a new legion of fans by virtue of reaching the dizzy heights of League 2.  And TV money, sponsorship - they're not going to be noticeably better off in League 2 compared with the Conference, are they?

[Spy]

You can put ticket prices up if you move from non league back into the league.

[Langers]

I wanted AFC Wimbledon to go up. 

Me too, i think it's because it would increase the chance of them playng Franchise and hopefully dicking them!

[Bogus Dave]

I think League two teams make quite a lot more in TV and Advertising revenue than the conference, down in no small part to the fact the conference has no TV deal

[Reg Smeeton]

  We were quite fortunate that Capn Bob never got his way and formed the Thames Valley Royals.

  For younger readers who maybe don't know, Robert Maxwell, was then chairman of the Scum, they had 3 or 4 seasons of success, on the back of money Maxwell embezzled from his company's pension funds. 

 He might have been a crook, but he could see the future, and with that in mind wanted to amalgamate both Reading and O*frod, use the funds from the sale of their grounds to build a massive all seater at Didcot.

 I think his Franchise might well have been in a decent position to pick up on the crowd increase of the 90's...we could have had a modern giant, one stop down the line, probably hosting European football.

 Reading fans didn't seem too bothered at the time, they were getting sub 5K crowds, but the Scummers then in the top flight kicked up a bit of a fuss, mind you their crowds weren't all that.

 For example, the lowest post war crowd for a visit of ManUre, about 8K came at the Manor.

 What the Scummers got instead, was Franchise Kassam....shit ground, asset stripped and non league football.
 

[larwood]

Ha ha.Never knew he wanted to build a ground in Didcot.Would have made sense though.

Obviously was aware of the rest of it seeing as i'm an old crone.

[Reg Smeeton]

Ha ha.Never knew he wanted to build a ground in Didcot.Would have made sense though.

Obviously was aware of the rest of it seeing as i'm an old crone.

Old Crone....is your welcome reappearance due to shrubbery purchase, or the start of the cricket season?

[larwood]

I didn't even realise the cricket started today    Lovely weather for it.

I've had time off work and have done enough housework and gardening to last a few months.Thought i'd skulk about on here for a bit.Especially to have a laugh at the pox.Bless them for making our lives an even better place at the moment 

[Reg Smeeton]

I didn't even realise the cricket started today    Lovely weather for it.

I've had time off work and have done enough housework and gardening to last a few months.Thought i'd skulk about on here for a bit.Especially to have a laugh at the pox.Bless them for making our lives an even better place at the moment 

It's the earliest start ever I think....always used to be in about another week or so, with a few looseners against the Toffs of O*Bridge.

In classic ECB style, having produced a report, calling for less cricket, they've had to expand the season to cater for more cricket....mostly of the bish bosh type.  Similarly having decided to scrap 40 over cricket, because nobody else plays it, they've scrapped 50 over cricket, because Sky don't like it...but they like 40...

[oxford_fan]

Their attendences have held up well despite dropping out of the League...and as a result, I'm really not sure that promotion to League 2 would provide much of financial boost in any case.  They'e hardly going to attract a new legion of fans by virtue of reaching the dizzy heights of League 2.  And TV money, sponsorship - they're not going to be noticeably better off in League 2 compared with the Conference, are they?

I don't know, I reckon we'd see a fairly significant number put on our gates and teams down here seem to rarely bring more than 100, so there'd be more away fans too. Would hope the average to go up to close to 7k.

[oxford_fan]

A colleague of mine is in the OU supporters Club and reckons they are in deep, deep financial shit if they don't go up. They overstretched themselves financially last year in an attempt to bounce straight back, so had to cut out their reserve team and almost all their youth setup this season.

They've now got almost nothing they can cut back on next year if they stay down.

That's the first I've heard of this, and bearing in mind that there are plenty of scaremongers on TiU I'm surprised its not been mentioned if true. We were in the shit about a year ago due to a woeful cash flow situation, but that was cleared up and we're now run on a very tight budget (like any club these days).

When you say the supporters club, do you mean OxVox? And we overstretched last year? To "bounce straight back"?

Its true that we don't have a reserve team, though lots of clubs have followed that trend, and there are sufficient games / friendlies around to maintain squad fitness.

Thankfully we have a great chairman in Kelvin Thomas. He's been the catalyst for a massive increase in income for the club.

Though the one rumour I have heard is that he may not be around next season. I'm hoping he is.