Ed Courtney - Plan "B"

[malcanddenny]

Mar 10, 2010 12:17:41 GMT rubachuksrevenge said:

Somehow at this point in the season adding a few more bums on seats isnt going to fill the £70k void that Neil has managed to lose this year as well as all the other £70k+s on previous years.

The Dave Biggar Experiment was never given chance to succeed in my opinion as with so many 2 minute wonders that the club seems to try each season (Commercial Board or Club Phoenix anyone ?)

The Club has cut its costs, dropped down a league and raised attendences (with Mattskis help noted) but still is hemmoraging cash, WHY ?? Where is it going ?? and more importantly can it be stopped ? because in this current economic climate it doesnt take a genuis to work out what is gonna happen to the Phoenix and I along with everyone else who posts on this forum DO NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN..

Spot on ..it was stated between seasons that it takes around £7K a week to run a set up like Phoenix.. does that mean we are only taking around £4K at the gate along with everything else.

NM must be seriously thinking that the end is close as he surely hasn't got a bottomless wallet and clearly the current product is unlikely to EVER create enough income to cover costs.

[karen]

If you can't increase your income, you have to decrease your expenses. Run a tight ship. If you don't you sink.

[mags]

Spot on Karen. We try to tighten our belt every year, but we're still here

[learnedrobb]

Hmmm, something doesn't add up here....

Supposedly it takes about £7k/week to run the Phoenix (that was the figure mooted in the summer), now to make that from gate receipts alone requires 778 people @£9 per head (averaged admission figure based on walk up, advance, concession, and ST per game prices), given the team plays for the full 30 weeks of the season. This gives a total gate reciept of £210,000/season.

Now, if we knock £70k off this we have a figure of £140,000, leaving a gate reciept of £4.6k/week, or 511 paying punters.

Our average attendance is somewhere arounf the 750-800ish mark (all paid from what I gather).

So either the £7k figure is erroneous, or something is seriously wrong. (Of course, these figures are a gross oversimplification of the actual cash flow, and ignore any ancilliary incomes such as sponsorship and merchandise, 50/50. etc). I personally think it is a combination of both.

Stick with me here...

I have heard that the magic figure for the season (ie the amount you could run the team on, including all expenses) is £300k, or £10k per week (which sounds more reasonable when you take everything into account).

Now, if all the clubs income currently gets near to this figure, then I would assume that either a large chunk of the clubs existing debt is being paid off, leaving a shortfall on the +/- for this seasons accounts, or the club has a serious inefficiancy somewhere along the line.

Of course, this is all just speculation, and I may be miles wide of the mark, but it does get you thinking, doesn't it...

[mags]

What about wages, fuel, accommodation, kit, rink fees, ice time, publicity, phone calls, travel and all the other things we have to pay out?

[learnedrobb]

Funnily enough, I did take all that into account.