The Hotel End

So , Cobblers get beat v Tranmere, but YOU win the euro lottery tonight , £114 million quids. Do you invest in the Cobblers .
How much do you offer KT to p1ss off
What do you spend on the ground
What manager do you bring in
How much do you invest in the team.

Me:- 2 million max to KT
Knock the east down and start again, est 6million, extend south and north, 2 million each
Manager, someone with a decent record
slow investment in team , build up slowly using a mix of youth and experience, perhaps pay extra for a proven Goalscorer and a right winger.

I reckon id still have 100 million to keep me in a decent retirement

I love this hypothetical question...I've even give it previous thought...so heres my blue print!  ;D

1. KT. £1 for the club itself. I wouldn't pay anybody a penny more for it. If the leases/land came into it, which no doubt they would...thats tricky. Id meet up with the council, get some professional advice etc..but that 'deal' would sit in the background for now...

2. Id knock down the East and start again, Id estimate 6 million like you to do a proper job.

3. Id then introduce a scheme. Id announce that we'd run with a 2 million budget with estimated losses of 500k. And if we sold more than 5000 season tickets Id increase that by 1 million quid. Id basically invite the fan base to get on board with me for the dream. Id also say to them 'average me a crowd of over 6500 next season,  and Ill build a large safe terrace behind the goal, capacity 4000. Estimated cost 2 million. Would take the capacity up to around 11000.


*just to add. If KT said 'next season Ill do x, y, z if 5000 season tickets are sold...and the incentives were good, I honestly believe that we'd do it*

*spend at this stage, committed 6 million..increased to 8-10 million, dependent on IF the fans bought tickets and put bums on seats.

4. Manager. Tricky one. But whoever it would be would be on a rolling 6 month contract with 3 month notice period. Id refuse to offer any longer than that. Id pay a good basic to get a good candidate. I do not believe one bit that manager stability = success, I believe the opposite in fact. As soon as they fail, Id get another one in. Max pressure. IF the manager continues to succeed then he'd stay in the job, simples.

5. 500k over break even budget, year on year. And (point 1) Id have a scheme that basically says to the fans and people of Northampton...shove your £ in and Ill happily do the same.

Id also have a scheme where I said to the Supporters (Trust) that Id double whatever they brought to the party funds wise above that 500k with a cap of a million quid on it (per annum)

Essentially, Id look to properly get the locals on board, fans and business community by offering incentives of 'investment' and to show their intent and Id show mine. Cant think of another club that does this 'all out' but its an idea I came up with ages ago for when Im rich!  ;D

I'd build a entirely new ground somewhere else. Leave all this nonsense of building hotels and who owns what land behind!!

Bizarrely i've often "dreamt" along similar lines!!

Reduced admission prices, reduced season ticket prices, and end to undisclosed transfer fees and over inflated food and drink prices! We'd be a local club, run by a fan with other fans on board......and operating with the motto "Giving football back to the fans"........

Here you are then. 06-17-23-25-37-39-45.



Do I have to do everything round here?

A space for the professional local rugby, football and county cricket teams to have their pitches together with the benefit of all year round quality catering, stewarding etc. Sited for ease of attending for all.

Proper shared training facilities.

£1 for the club.
Negotiate with the Saints to buy Franklin’s Garden and create a Northampton Sporting club.

No matchday clashes.
Level Sixfields and develop that sight or mothball it for the megastadium masterplan to be needed
Buy Beacon Bingo and level that when the time is right.

Run a matchday ballot for 10 season ticket holders to be VIP guests each game.
 
A season of free away travel for as many as purchase advance tickets.

Buy Peterborough then run it down so they are always in our shadow.

Sign Bayo regardless of age, weight or ability

Inspired by this thread I had a rare go on the Euromillions last night - and I won!

Do you think KT will accept £3.10?

It's £2.10 more than Drilling and Zen Master are offering, so you have a good chance as things stand! ;D

Sam Hoskins's stock has risen overnight, we could sell him to Man city to raise the funds?

I love this thread and sad though it is, I know exactly how I would divvy out the (now) £123m (!!!) jackpot.

Family and some nice properties would take a lot but there'd be plenty in the bank to live off and who knows, maybe some for a sentimental purchase....

However, I think 2m as a budget is way below what is actually needed.

Sad fact - I once did a bit of a spreadsheet on how much I thought it would cost, just to staff playing staff and management/backroom staff and that alone was close to £3.5m. That didn't include on-costs.

I reckoned gate money would be about £1.5m, so that's a £2m loss straight away.

I never even got to groundstaff, commercial, admin, catering, etc (contracted or otherwise)

Then there's running costs, travel, kit and equipment, etc.

Obviously some of this would be offset by commercial income, TV money, etc but I'm thinking anyone who'd want to get involved would have to set aside and be prepared to lose £10m over 5 or 6 years.

And we haven't even touched a transfer kitty....

If I had the time or inclination I'd love to mull over a full set of budgets and accounts but for now it's nicer just to dream :)

I recon the playing staff & management are hoping you win, I think our wage bill is closer to £2M and that was pre transfer window. I think the average League 2 budget is around £1M and we were around the £1.2M mark before the "Chinese money".

£1.2m does not go far.

Let's play..... if it were me I'd have 5 tiers of players, 6 if you include loans. Tier 1 would be your stars, tier 5 your youths. you can fill in the gaps

If you have 4 tier 1 players and say 6 of the others down to tier 5, that's a squad of 30, albeit 6 would be your youth players. Arguably that's maybe too many but in theory you wouldn't need loans. And remember, we're going for success here, not heads above water.

So I paid my tier 1s £2400 a week, then next £1800, £1200 and £800 for tier 4. Youths I paid a generous £250. Now I know there's flaws in this - I'm not sure if anyone plays football for £800 a week and if they do, how good they are (most of our squad? lol)

On top of these basics I added a 25% for promotion and a win bonus of 1% per win. So in a good season, players could top up their basics by 50 to 60%

When I totted it up it came to about £2.8m.

Now obviously, a crap season saves you money but if i were going at it, I'd be going for success

Regards management, I had a manager on £2k a week, then an assistant on £1250, another coach on a grand and a physio and a scout on a grand each too. Same bonuses were applied to these too. a successful season would mean those five cost just over £500k

So there's your £3.5m

No individual bonuses for appearances or goalscoring, just team bonuses for wins and promotion.

I'm not sure how realistic any of this is but it's my money, my club , so this is how it is lol

Unofficial wages for last season, there seems to be quite a gap between Leagues 1 and 2

 https://www.footy.com/footballers-vs-the-fans/

Accrington Stanley operated on a budget of £15k a week last season.

The age old merry go round of who has what budgets...I see Port Vale reckon their budget is 10th in League Two. Always a little mystified that many claim figures are not released, others differ in opinion!

Our budget is less than 50% of what it should be for a long time established league club playing in such a large town.
I would rather see some steady improvements throughout, showing year on year growth which attracts all  the clubs fans, local well wishers and local buisneses getting on board with being associated with a proud progressive and successful team.
Having a shed load of cash lashed at Sixfields would be great but would need to involve all and sundry to give that special bond that has been missing, imo, between town and club for 5 decades now.

I'd look at sponsoring the shirt or a couple of matchdays but invest in the bottomless pit that is NTFC or any other football club? No thank you.

I’d buy Oak Island AND DIG A PROPER FOOKING HOLE. Find the treasure and premiere league here we come.

I'd put the money in an account Howard Grossman didn't have access to.

I would use a lottery win to be a catalyst NOT a total solution to the future of NTFC.

If fans were told that any money invested by them would be tripled by the lottery win (up to a set limit) then I believe hundreds of supporters would be engaged into our future.

Personally I believe plans for a 15,000 stadium (with corners built in), Hotel, Conference Centre and training ground should be the target.

Sounds pretty much like Franklin’s Gardens

Tight b*****d!  ;D

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."

I would remain anonymous at all costs.

Yes, I would put money in to NTFC but I would not take a role on the board and certainly wouldn't put myself out there for the kind of flak that KT, James W etc must get.

'Red sky at night...Coventry's taking a beating'

Stopping off at Patterson's Spade Mill on the way there?

I'd pay whatever it cost and the first thing I'd do is to ban beds cobbler for life

I would buy the club with a plan to run it my own way for 2 years then sell it on finance free payments to the right buyers who would be fellow Cobblers fans.

I would let Premier League and Championship teams use the club to develop their young players, as well as putting a decent academy set up in place to gobble up the beet local talent.

I would have a core of 5 proven League 2 players just because some mature heads are needed to guide the young players, none over 30 years old though.

I would probably move ground and get somewhere that is more sustainable long term yet up to date, somewhere where we could expand onto for community classes, the FA looks nicely at community clubs and even if its stuff that aint football related,

The hope would be that when I sell it to other Cobblers fans they will be able to start with something that they can build on rather than something that will gobble up their money just to keep it alive with very little enjoyment.

Where would you move it to? I can't really think of anywhere that has better land and levels of access than Sixfields off the top of my head

Next to IKEA at J15.................oh no the Council cocked that up as well!!!!

no they didnt

I suggest you speak to our previous MP!

It was South Northamptonshire county council.

Correct........and instead they gave us a load of warehouses....Clipper and Amazon....which make the traffic just as bad as Ikea would have done!

But without the benefits...

The new massive rail central freight thingy thats proposed for M1, J15a will create 8000 jobs, so have the south Northants council redeemed themselves?

Up to £131m tonight....

More loose change burning a hole.....

I think there are enough NIMBYs around to prevent any such development especially when the local MP is lending her support to the vocal opposition action groups.