We would be a more profitable club in the Conference

[Positively Mad Mark]

In answer to the question, I doubt it and I don't want to find out either.

[Tom]

Do you seriously believe that there is

a) a plethora of million/billionaires out there hunting for failing Div IV sides? And...
b) that we offer anything approaching an attractive proposition to anybody apart from as a vehicle for their ego?

I'm not having a pop, I'm not taking the piss - I simply genuinely believe that the club with our fanbase will never be attractive to the kind of person you seem to want.

You'd be supprised, perhaps not individuals but groups of people. I'm sure there are plenty of fans who have a bit of cash around - How much do you recon it would take to by the club in its current state?

[GrangeParkCobbler]

You'd be supprised, perhaps not individuals but groups of people. I'm sure there are plenty of fans who have a bit of cash around - How much do you recon it would take to by the club in its current state?

I wouldn't be surprised if there were groups and individuals, and I reckon that how much it costs to buy the club really depends on how much of their cash the Cardozas want back! If they wanted £8m the queue to buy would be very very short.....but if they wrote off their entire investment and made the club available for nothing then the queue would of course be much longer!!
As for its "current state"....well, a squad full of freebies, loanees and inexperienced youngsters playing in a stadium that the club doesnt own, doesnt seem worth very much to me at all!!

[Zen Master]

Didn't Yazz say the only way is up ?

 Football and common sense business decisions rarely go hand in hand. The need for sensible book keeping against speculative investment both in playing staff and management is an almost impossible place to be and I am glad that I don't have to. I do however part with a reasonable amount of cash following this lot around the country in tickets, food, petrol and most importantly beer. As a customer I expect to receive a product of reasonable quality that makes it worthwhile attending to witness more often than not.
 Is that too much to ask?
The conference would be a dreadful disaster and I cannot contemplate it financially and competitively.

[derbycobbler]

I can a similar thread when we were struggling in League 1 saying it would be better in League 2 where we would be more competitive and have bigger crowds!

[St Edmundsbury Cobbler]

I can a similar thread when we were struggling in League 1 saying it would be better in League 2 where we would be more competitive and have bigger crowds!

I remember threads proclaiming we were to good to go down around the same time.

[pattcobb]

I for one will never accept relegation as inevitable.And to suggest so just shows how far we have actually fallen.

I will never give up my support.

I will never stop believing until its over.

I simply will not except defeat in any way shape or form.

This is the football club that i f***ing love and i will not give up hope.

And no i haven`t missed the point of the thread,relegation is not an option.

f*** the Posh  Cobblers Till I Die

Of course the fact we are talking about this on a thread means that relegation is very much "an option". It would be disaster.

[pattcobb]

I don't... But then I'm only basing my opinion on a decline in investment. A lack of vision when choosing managerial staff. Record debt, and of course the minor fact that we look to be heading towards the conference sooner of later.. Albeit "illinformed" according to you....

Where as you are the oracle of such things, and no doubt will counter my point with a plethora information suggesting that the contrary is indeed the case....

Just for the record. I remain optimistic that there is not a concerted effort see us in the conference. I am merely suggesting that it does now, and has done for some years to me, appear to be inevitable.

For what it's worth I agree with your post, so in fact you are not "ill informed" or no more than me or anyone else! And the evidence presents a strong case!
I don't believe that the Cardoza's want us relegated, but I do believe they are cr*pping themselves with every bad result that comes along. The season financially would appear to be going quite well - couple of cup runs, young saleable players coming though, crowds on the whole staying quite good (minus me at the moment of course!) They will be worried that we will go down, but more worried because they will have to speculate to stay up and soon! Getting us out of trouble will however make a big hole in any extra cash this season has realised!

[tcobb]

 I posted on the old forum that Mr Cardoza would not be bothered at all about relegation and that when the club were in the conference he could then have a case against the council. That post  was made at Christmas and we were in league 1.
A lot of people have seen the writing on the wall for a while,it now seems alot more are starting to see it also. Cardozas record of appointing managers is very poor,  then putting them on long term contracts for no reason at all.
 The Marquis is heading in the right direction by calling for the Cardozas to put the club up for sale, it is the only way forward.

[SteveRiches]

I posted on the old forum that Mr Cardoza would not be bothered at all about relegation and that when the club were in the conference he could then have a case against the council. That post  was made at Christmas and we were in league 1.
A lot of people have seen the writing on the wall for a while,it now seems alot more are starting to see it also. Cardozas record of appointing managers is very poor,  then putting them on long term contracts for no reason at all.
 The Marquis is heading in the right direction by calling for the Cardozas to put the club up for sale, it is the only way forward.

How would being in the Conference give the chairman any case against the council? And please explain how putting the club up for sale would be the only way forward? There are many ways forward, including the one of current financial stability. Also, businesses which are based on share ownership are always theoretically up for sale, anyone can make an offer for the shares. So what?
Explain yourself.

[Tyler]

The club have usually used the line of 'no redevelopment and this town WILL lose league football status' and a relegation would confirm that, i personally find it hard to believe DC would sacrifice League status for the sake ofproving a point to Church and his cronies

[GrangeParkCobbler]

How would being in the Conference give the chairman any case against the council? And please explain how putting the club up for sale would be the only way forward? There are many ways forward, including the one of current financial stability. Also, businesses which are based on share ownership are always theoretically up for sale, anyone can make an offer for the shares. So what?
Explain yourself.

I'd argue that the model of "current financial stability" does not offer a way forward. I've highlighted the case of Lincoln City before, they were financially stable being one of a handful of clubs to turn in a profit year on year. however, one of the ways they did this was by selling players for good amounts (Jack Hobbs 750k, Gavin Gordon 550k, Gareth Ainsworth 500k to name a few) and buying players for little money or nothing at all, and in the past few years filling their squad with loan players (sound familiar yet?). They are a club whose record transfer fee paid is just £75,000! They are a club who have not made a cash transfer signing for 6 years, and they are also a club who have not been out of the bottom tier of the football league for 12 seasons!

[NTFC Nut]

I'd argue that the model of "current financial stability" does not offer a way forward. I've highlighted the case of Lincoln City before, they were financially stable being one of a handful of clubs to turn in a profit year on year. however, one of the ways they did this was by selling players for good amounts (Jack Hobbs 750k, Gavin Gordon 550k, Gareth Ainsworth 500k to name a few) and buying players for little money or nothing at all, and in the past few years filling their squad with loan players (sound familiar yet?). They are a club whose record transfer fee paid is just £75,000! They are a club who have not made a cash transfer signing for 6 years, and they are also a club who have not been out of the bottom tier of the football league for 12 seasons!

In the last few years they have been continually flirting with non-league football as well.

[Mistical]

I don't think we would be profitable in the Conference, after a season's worth of parachute payment (£100k I believe, which isn't near the amount you get in L2 TV money etc.) all we would have is gate receipts, which may go down. Some of our 4,000 current base might not want to watch non-league football and apart from Luton most clubs that have gone down usually take a year to acclimatise. If we spent a year around mid-table in the Conference our crowds would drop to maybe 3,000? The budget would just keep getting slashed.

[pattcobb]

I don't think we would be profitable in the Conference, after a season's worth of parachute payment (£100k I believe, which isn't near the amount you get in L2 TV money etc.) all we would have is gate receipts, which may go down. Some of our 4,000 current base might not want to watch non-league football and apart from Luton most clubs that have gone down usually take a year to acclimatise. If we spent a year around mid-table in the Conference our crowds would drop to maybe 3,000? The budget would just keep getting slashed.

Also in the first season, we would have two year contracts at league wages to continue paying.

[SteveRiches]

I'd argue that the model of "current financial stability" does not offer a way forward. I've highlighted the case of Lincoln City before, they were financially stable being one of a handful of clubs to turn in a profit year on year. however, one of the ways they did this was by selling players for good amounts (Jack Hobbs 750k, Gavin Gordon 550k, Gareth Ainsworth 500k to name a few) and buying players for little money or nothing at all, and in the past few years filling their squad with loan players (sound familiar yet?). They are a club whose record transfer fee paid is just £75,000! They are a club who have not made a cash transfer signing for 6 years, and they are also a club who have not been out of the bottom tier of the football league for 12 seasons!

If a model of financial stability is NOT the way forward, how is it that a serious number of Premiership clubs are considering it as the only answer to the game's problems? Even Abramovitch wants it to happen. There are strong moves to get a spending cap based on turnover, as soon as possible.

[GrangeParkCobbler]

If a model of financial stability is NOT the way forward, how is it that a serious number of Premiership clubs are considering it as the only answer to the game's problems? Even Abramovitch wants it to happen. There are strong moves to get a spending cap based on turnover, as soon as possible.

Well it depends on what way "forward" you are talking about!!! If you are talking about forward as in moving up the league, moving up the divisions then no, it wont work.......until every team is doing it! Surely even you can see that the current prudence displayed by our board has let to us going backwards not forwards in that respect.
As for your statement about Abramovich....oh really!! He was one of the first people to send football the way it is now!! Have you forgotten the Chelski millions when he turned up? The only reason he's spouting off now is because of Manchester City coming along and doing things even bigger!
I do agree though that some sort of spending cap should be put in place, and certainly a wage cap, both individual and team based. However even that would have pitfalls, for example, Manchester United with their global reach, with money coming in from deals all over the world, would have a far greater cap than Wigan or West Brom...so nothing would really change would it?

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Wage caps are easily breached, club pays wages and has an agreement with a sponsor/third party to pay the rest up to the amount the wages should have been. 

[Insider]

If a model of financial stability is NOT the way forward, how is it that a serious number of Premiership clubs are considering it as the only answer to the game's problems? Even Abramovitch wants it to happen. There are strong moves to get a spending cap based on turnover, as soon as possible.

That's rather disingenuous.  Part of the reason why Abramovich wants to change the rules now is that his own personal wealth has been diminishing and even he cannot compete with a sovereign wealth fund of the sort that's backing Man City.  A case of four legs good, two legs bad.  And some of the newer backers can better match Chelski which has had the effect of levelling the playing field.  Financial stability is also open to interpretation: Rochdale have financial stability and no moneybags backer, but the big difference in their case is that windfall profits from the sale of players (I don't recall them having had a major cup run windfall) have been reinvested in the club.  Whereas here by my reckoning DC has used those windfalls to pay down something like £1.5m of his personal loan over the last three years;  I'd be surprised if the next set of accounts do not show further progression.  Over the last few months he has talked up using the money from the cup runs on bringing in new blood "possibly even for a fee".  And what have we had instead?  The likes of King, a raw recruit rookie kid. 

And if anyone thinks that wages in the BSP are lower, then they obviously haven't seen the money that Crawley and  Fleetwood have been splashing around (and more recently Luton again I hear). 

[EastNpton]

We need

A salary cap tied against the U.K annual average salary: i.e. no more than 15 X average salary

A maximum ticket price for matches preferably 12 pounds League 2, 15 Pounds League 1, 20 pounds Championship, 25 pounds Prem

25-50p "football tax" to go towards a regulatory body to curb the excesses of "free market football".


Yes players salaries will go down but at the moment they are crippling the fans and their clubs with fantasy wages to do a job most would do for 500 quid a week