New beginnings - 25% Truth, 80% Bollocks

[Bob's Orange]

Holloway basically saying he has a new contract

I think that's fair enough. It seems to be working and good to have some kind of continuity. I think as it's been mentioned before player wise for next season we aren't in the worst shape ever either

[theakston2k]

I still can’t believe it’s even up for debate that there is something fishy with the accounts.

Everyone has eyes and can see there for themselves that there is no explainable reason for £1m+ losses. The club has no staff, barely stocks merchandise, the playing budget has been massacred, the stadium barely gets maintained, rent is minimal and the bare minimum is spent on training facilities. There’s no evidence on show that says the club is legitimately spending £6m+ per year.

[Batch]

WTF. This is in contradiction to the AB Q&A isn't it?

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/24951921.swindon-town-shareholders-may-first-choice-buy-club/

Minority shareholders in Swindon Town football club will have first choice on buying more shares if they go up for sale.

https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/gc-media-assets-v2.gc.swindontownfcservices.co.uk/f3f83f60-eea2-11ef-9d41-61946047d66d.pdf

Question 4: Do the minority shareholders of STFC have pre-emption
rights in the event of the club being sold?  

No

[jayohaitchenn]

WTF. This is in contradiction to the AB Q&A isn't it?

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/24951921.swindon-town-shareholders-may-first-choice-buy-club/

https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/gc-media-assets-v2.gc.swindontownfcservices.co.uk/f3f83f60-eea2-11ef-9d41-61946047d66d.pdf

Not necessarily, Clem could be saying he will offer minority shareholders first dibs without it being legally binding?

[Berniman]

If it's true

So that answers that question then..

[Batch]

Not necessarily, Clem could be saying he will offer minority shareholders first dibs without it being legally binding?

The advert are referring to "Articles of Association on Companies House for Swinton Reds 20 Limited"

It needs clearing up

[DV]

Underlying admin expenses haven't increased by that much though?

Still a big unexplained expense though….

[RobertT]

For comparison, Exeter City's Admin expenses were 2.3m in 2023 (L1) and 1.7m in 2022 (L2).  They had higher CoS in 2023 and 2022 as they funded a promotion/L1 campaign.  They appear to report in a similar fashion to us in terms of where they record the players salaries.

Exeter earn similar revenue to us, with a lower customer base.

Exeter also turn a profit, thanks to their player development and transfer policies.

Exeter are fan owned, with investment as well.

We shouldn't look at every club, we should look at ones we want to emulate or surpass.  Exeter are a target of a club we should be able to outstrip, we are miles off at the moment.  They also managed to fund a ground development recently.

I haven't fully vetted my opinion on this next statement, but it does seem like the clubs who present useful financial information are those outwardly seeking investment to improve, or those fan owned/influenced.

[RobertT]

And before some finance expert chimes in, or someone who doesn't like fan owned clubs tells me Exeter are only 17th in L1, I am only using them as an example because we can should be able to outstrip them in business terms.  They do not have unlimited equity being pumped in, or some individual loaning them millions and they are working on smaller crowds and with a facility far more restricted than ours.  They show that better is possible.  I want us to be better than them, and if we are, we should be a very sustainable L1 club with potential to do more.  If all we want to do is compare ourselves to Salford (running on pumped in money) or clubs with accounts that look like ours, then we deserve this shit.

Also, the ownership created this problem for themselves.  It wasn't the fans that said the "new" owner would be more open, would deliver financial information regularly, would invest in the Youth Academy, would invest in the CG, would run the club sustainably, would invest in the business and hire the right people etc.  The only thing they have delivered in 4 years is the CG freehold, using someone else's money and legal work.  I challenge anyone to give me something else of importance that is fundamentally improved now vs pre Covid with Power.

Training Ground - no different
Youth Academy - no different (the goal was working towards L2 status by now), you can get lucky on talent
CG - worse physical state
Staffing - much worse
Football performances - a lot worse (even our current recovery puts us on course for a bad season historically speaking)
Financial transparency - maybe I give them adding a P&L account, but they have not delivered better financial results
Sustainable club - no evidence to support better financial performance
Revenue of 8m - it's shrinking
Reduced debt - we seemingly owe 8m+ (The club never paid off any debt - it used new debt to clear old debt and then added more and owes creditors a shit tonne more).
Fan representation on the Board - nada

To me, we look exactly like the last Power season in charge, structurally.  The only positive for now is that the current side could likely beat that Sheridan one.

[Pookemon]

I still can’t believe it’s even up for debate that there is something fishy with the accounts.

Everyone has eyes and can see there for themselves that there is no explainable reason for £1m+ losses. The club has no staff, barely stocks merchandise, the playing budget has been massacred, the stadium barely gets maintained, rent is minimal and the bare minimum is spent on training facilities. There’s no evidence on show that says the club is legitimately spending £6m+ per year.

It's so poorly run, I'm not surprised it is losing money hand over fist.

Who knows if the 6m is genuine, it's certainly a business that if it spent a little more in key areas it could easily improve its bottom line.   

[horlock07]

Just on this whole no staff thing, from the accounts average number of employees each year...

Year to May 19 130
Year to May 20 99
Year to May 21 79
Year to May 22 128
Year to May 23 214

[Nemo]

We brought catering in house which increased the numbers significantly.

It kinda needs to be FTE or ideally departmental to be any use as a figure.

[Batch]

How many of those are zero hours coaches, etc.

It can be very misleading

[RobertT]

That staff includes all the matchday people - my recent visit suggested quite a number of people in blue tabards.  We did also bring catering in from Centerplate, so none of those would have counted as employees in prior years.

[Pookemon]

Just on this whole no staff thing, from the accounts average number of employees each year...

Year to May 19 130
Year to May 20 99
Year to May 21 79
Year to May 22 128
Year to May 23 214

You've got to ignore 20 and 21.  Covid fucked everything up.  Catering brought in house by Rob Angus not sure of date but 22-23 seems probable