This echo's my outlook on it...unless the model includes someone with considerable funds to plug the gaps and help kick us on.
Im not going to profess to knowing anywhere near the exact numbers involved, but Id guess that we could run on a playing budget of around 1.2 million 'relatively risk free'. With that amount, you cant afford any hangers on, any expensive permanently injured players, or any 'Kasims'. It all has to click; like it did for Accrington last season. Like you've intimated, you'd also need 3 or 4 gems from the academy playing well for the first team on low wages to help boost up the quality that you cant buy in for peanuts.
From my understanding, theres a handful of clubs at this level that operate with wage budgets under a million quid a season. So I've no doubt that financially we could hold our own, BUT it wouldn't enable us to make any marquee signings.
That said; if the plan involved (gonna sound like Beds here) building the club up and infrastructure up over say a 5 year period to boost the overall income etc, if that meant long term we'd have a much better football club than we do now...surely thats worth looking into in some depth!
Lets face it. The current board have wasted at least 2 million quid in wages over the last 2 seasons that have got us no where, that money could have been spent elsewhere and we'd be no worse off in terms of league position! Hindsight of course.
It also worth noting that in the latter years, Big Dave ran the club pretty much on an even keel financially, and that was paying for 'personal stuff' as well so that proves it could be done. Whether that means additional stuff, like sorting out the East Stand, could be achieved is open to debate at this point.
What I believe the vast majority of us want though is a proper voice in the board room. Moving forward. A proper say, some decent influence into decisions made by the football club. So we have common ground amongst us. I do accept theres a large minority of fans who want to remain 90% plus privately owned at this point, but that has got us absolutely no where and nearly made us go bust on three occasions during the last 30 years or so. And a decaying stadium/infrastructure that has had pretty much zero TLC during that entire time. Its hard to reason with the strongest of opposition to the idea, a bit like a Tory councillor knocking on doors in Moss Side Manchester looking to drum up votes! We will still try though!
My blind estimate was that you would need to raise between 14 and 17 million for that very reason. Thatvestimation didn’t go down as well as I’d hoped if I am honest. I must admit though my evaluation was pretty much in line with yours. My guess is that amount would support the club for 5 - 7 years, fund a reasonable level of redevelopment and support the manager in the transfer market. After that period it would need to be self sustaining and that would immediately put it in a significant minority outside the top 2 divisions. Somewhat of a challenge to say the least. At this point in time I honestly believe we would get nowhere near that figure, but for me establishing what funding we could raise would be the very first stage in the process. Once that figure has been ascertained then the business plan and structure would follow to suit. I.e cut your cloth accordingly. However, no romance with no finance as the song goes. At least that’s my view.
