Franchise v Swindon Town Matchday thread

[DV]

People need to move away from the thoughts that better attendance = better budget.

A team getting 2k every week with a massive per annum sponsorship deal is going to be better off than a team getting 9k every week with a pitiful per annum sponsorship.

Higher crowds have a knock on effect.
More people to work the turnstiles, more stewards, more police, more cleaning needed after, more maintenance, more St. John’s ambulance on site, more H&S regulations to meet. I dunno, there is some guess work in there but there is no way it’s as straight up as more home fans = more money.

Bradford have probably been getting the best home support in the bottom 2 divisions for the last 20 years and done nothing with it.

I don’t know the Swindon budget. I don’t know how it compares to other teams. I don’t know what we spend. I don’t know what we bring in but I do know it’s never ever gonna be a simplistic as we should have a better budget because we get better attendances.

[Batch]

how dare you try to stop this circular argument NMH.

😬

depends on your definition of competitive I suppose. But basing it on league position in October isn't my way of judging.

on football, it's an interesting 4-6 games coming up. I think without Mansfield and Stockport we'd be looking to take a fair few points.

October was unusually tough and although came up short I don't think it's a true gauge of where we are

[Stef Troll]

You are right that for business reasons there must be a degree of circumspection around the actual details of budgets. But no one has been questioning that.

Clem has taken over the club promising a new era of transparency, in conjunction with the Trust. Since then, without detail being required, he has not been open about paying down debt and/or the ownership of the club and the claim as to the availability of a "competitive budget" has looked liked the trickiest of sales puff.

Anyone can "sell" something by claiming candour and then hiding the reality of their product or service.  Once.  

If Clem's job is to get bums on seats, then how would you read the trends and judge him to date?  

Clem well knows that pitch performance is a factor there.  As is budget. But you can motivate support in other ways to if there is a project, a story, a journey with which people want to get involved.  If it is 100% genuine.

Fans at all levels are financially unrealistic.  And so are many at STFC.  That "surprise" is not a basis on which to defend Clem's stewardship.  I will judge Clem, like all other owners, on where they leave us.  Right now, we are  
emerging from our 2nd (?) worst finish in over 60 years of the 4 tier game, gates are starting to fall and there is a growing lack of trust in Clem.  Perhaps don't blame your customers?

What would you do in Clem position ?  You are owed a few million from Swindon with no realistic way of this being repaid unless we go up a few divisions.

If he put the club on the market nobody will realistically buy the club unless all debts are wiped clean and they can start from a clean slate.

A lot of the above posts slate Clem ownership and what he has done. However I haven’t seen any realistic solutions. People say it’s time for someone else to take over. If I owned a failing business which owed me millions I would be reluctant to give it away from free. That’s his only realistic choice at the moment.

[Jimmy Quinn]

how dare you try to stop this circular argument NMH.

😬

depends on your definition of competitive I suppose. But basing it on league position in October isn't my way of judging.

on football, it's an interesting 4-6 games coming up. I think without Mansfield and Stockport we'd be looking to take a fair few points.

October was unusually tough and although came up short I don't think it's a true gauge of where we are

The thing is we’re just outside the play offs and nicely placed once we get through injuries and suspensions and who knows Flynn may have some money and decent players lined up in January.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Going off on a tangent how fantastic is Stadium MK? Had a slight disagreement with another fan yesterday at the concourse bar yesterday during halftime when he was making it known how soulless it was and how he’d take the County Ground every time because of its ‘character’. I might be in the minority but Stadium MK is everything we should be aiming for. Comfortable padded seats with plenty of legroom not to mention great view wherever you are sat. Stadium MK way too big for the franchise but why wouldn’t you want similar in Swindon?

Its definitely soulless. You'd hope having fans with a bit about them might change that.

I'm personally not a fan of identikit bowls, but in an ideal world we could build half of a similar looking stadium where The Town End and Arkells are now and then knock and rebuild something small and simple on Stratton Bank.

[Batch]

how did Lee power make money rom the club? There's always that option for him

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

The fact that we make losses every year (except for 2022) would indicate that the revenue we generate does not cover the day to day costs. As a result Swindon need to cut overheads accordingly to break even. The easiest way to do this is by reducing wages (hence playing budget).

We can't just point towards us making a loss as evidence when Power very clearly was robbing us blind.

[river monster]

Boring post alert….

We have won some games.
We have lost some games.
We have drawn some games.

Therefore, we have been competitive.
Therefore, we have a budget that has enabled us to be competitive.
Therefore, we have a competitive budget.

I agree with this. Surely being 3 points off the playoffs with a game in hand is competitive? It's not like we are 17th or something (yet)  or been on a terrible run of defeats ( like the amazing squads of Bradford,  gillingham and Franchise have been)  just my opinion before I get shot down as a  simpleton happy clapper...


 

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Mike Ashley was supposedly at Reading yesterday. They’ll be down anongst the dead men with us next season.

Fucking hell. The grim reaper.

Although he did manage to sell Newcastle to Saudis.

[Posh Red]

I’d be shocked if Flynn didn’t know what the budget was before he signed on, and he thought it was a competitive budget. Now that was before Wrexham & Notts County started spending relatively big so maybe now not as big as expected.

In his interview on the radio he did say that some clubs were spending silly money and agreed when saying there were probably 7 clubs with bigger budgets than us (including Forest Green & Salford who both are clearly getting smaller crowds than us).

He also said he preferred a smaller squad, but presumably wanted a few more than the 21 we’ve got.
Having 6 players missing yesterday (albeit that includes Devine who has been available even less than Lyden but not Kanu who was effectively Wakeling’s replacement).

[Posh Red]

how did Lee power make money rom the club? There's always that option for him

Because he didn’t pay any bills, Clem is doing that (even if some payments are a bit late)

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

How do you know the composition of our wage structure.?. For all we know we may have a few big earners on substantial wages who aren’t cutting it.

Oh come off it  

Are Morris and Co still being paid by Swindon ?

No finished last month.

Swindon are a loss making league 2 side (just like every other team in our division ). What would you do to increase the playing budget whilst also ensuring the money isn’t just loaned from an investor or Clem ?  Ticket prices are already high and fans would moan if these are increased 

In your opinion what should Swindon do to strengthen the squad and how would you achieve this ?

I'm convinced you're being facetious/trolling.

There are a handful of league two clubs with budgets outside their means. Outside of this only Bradford should be able to compete with us budget wise based on revenue.

Are there any other clubs even close to our stature that can't fill a bench without ripping apart the youth team that you'd like to use as evidence this is par the the course? Are there even any in League Two at all?

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Boring post alert….

We have won some games.
We have lost some games.
We have drawn some games.

Therefore, we have been competitive.
Therefore, we have a budget that has enabled us to be competitive.
Therefore, we have a competitive budget.

Can we please fucking move on!

We won most of our games at the start of the season, before the lack of squad depth became a huge issue.

So no, we can't move on. Not even a little bit.

[Batch]

We won most of our games at the start of the season, before the lack of squad depth became a huge issue.

So no, we can't move on. Not even a little bit.

Flynn was right when he said without injuries and unavailability things would look better.

my question would be, with everyone except devine fit - do we have enough?

my answer is no. we are clearly a striker and a left wing back short, minimum.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

People need to move away from the thoughts that better attendance = better budget.

While we get emotionally blackmailed with threats of further cuts if we don't turn up and turn out, this is plainly unfair to say.

A team getting 2k every week with a massive per annum sponsorship deal is going to be better off than a team getting 9k every week with a pitiful per annum sponsorship.

We're not expecting to compete with the clubs with big sponsorships through rich owners. We're expecting to be the next best outside of this which is fair.

Higher crowds have a knock on effect.
More people to work the turnstiles, more stewards, more police, more cleaning needed after, more maintenance, more St. John’s ambulance on site, more H&S regulations to meet. I dunno, there is some guess work in there but there is no way it’s as straight up as more home fans = more money.

Bradford have probably been getting the best home support in the bottom 2 divisions for the last 20 years and done nothing with it.

Bradford sell season tickets for 4 shillings and a sixpence. So it is relative and there is some level of context that you're missing there.