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Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
By Martin Bull
At both the recent Supporters Club EGM, and the Fan’s Forum Q&A, we were consistently reminded how our club apparently wouldn’t exist without additional funding from some of our board of directors.
We were also rather curiously given a new scapegoat to flog for past financial imprudence; Lennie Lawrence, our director of football in the mid to late 2000s. I must have missed his obituary in the newspaper as the frankly rambling accusations levelled against him smacked more of kicking a dead corpse than a humble acceptance that the board and senior staff simply didn’t set professional budgets or adequately monitor the outcomes of these large spends.
We are now also being told that they need 9,500 people through the turnstiles in order to balance the books, and, as the reality is around 6,500 and set to fall, that the shortfall has been regularly covered by our dear leader in the sky, and a few of his associates.
Not only is that financial analysis extremely simplistic in itself (what about player sales, increased revenue by running the club better, etc?) but more importantly is this really the benchmark we judge a well-run club by? Are they suggesting that if we had crowds of 9,500 then everything would be hunky dory, and we could then positively afford to waste money on sick notes and lardy three-year contracts?
I’m not an accountant, but I can read a set of accounts and I can smell financial imprudence from a mile away. Considering how badly we‘ve done when making a massive loss each year I‘d suggest we can’t do much worse by trying to be financially prudent.
Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate that they try, and that recently several small initiatives recently suggest they have taken on board several of the frustrations us average fans have. But, I want them to sort out this budget once and for all.
I don’t want the board to set a budget that is impossible to be balanced, and then constantly dip their hands in their pockets as a matter of uncontrolled routine.
I don’t want the board to then tell us there wouldn’t be a club without them. This perpetual position of failure is nothing to be proud of; it’s merely a self-fulfilling prophesy if they continue to run the club the way they always have done!
A Machiavellian cynic could even argue that it is a state of domination that is actively encouraged as a method of princely control over the plebeian fans like you and I. ‘Shut up, be happy’ as the rabble rousers Jello Biafra and Ice-T derided.
I don’t want players to be sold and then little of the money re-invested in the team, under the pretext that the losses have been so big in our imprudent playing budget that the player profit needs to go into the pot labelled ‘gaping losses‘.
I don’t want the board to give a Gallic shrug of the shoulders when reminded that we get crowds of 6,500, not 9,500, and will suffer more each time we drop a division.
I don’t want the board to suggest that there is nothing they can do about this financial armageddon, even though it happens EVERY season, with EVERY manager. The reason Einstein’s quote that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” is so over used in the media is precisely because it is so apposite.
I want them to take control of this situation, like they would in any other challenge in life, and to budget for prudence to be asked to come out to play.
I want the board to budget for 6,500 fans (or whatever is now realistic given less away fans…) and then set a playing budget to reflect that. AND stick to it, yet remain flexible if more investment would really make a difference.
Then when the board need to put their hands in their pockets it will be to fund something exceptional, such as a player who will make a real difference to the squad, some training or physio equipment that will improve us, or even capital spending on the training ground and team facilities.
Under this system any ‘windfalls’ from player sales, previous sell-on/add-on clauses, cup runs, and TV coverage, should primarily be invested into the playing budget. It’s a style rather like the performance-related clauses that I have always championed in player contracts. The better you do the more financial reward you get to push onwards.
Thankfully they have, by accident, realised that yet another relegation (our third now whilst at the Mem), the loss of the rugby club, and the legal delays affecting the UWE stadium, has created the perfect storm. This triumvirate of misery will make a MASSIVE difference to our income and therefore something HAS to be done now and Darrell Clarke is ‘on the case‘ when recruiting players. Reduced TV money, no Football League money, no rugby money, various planning and legal costs, less away fans. Not even the yearly first round defeat to a Championship side in the League Cup, or the chance of a decent run in the Football League Trophy. The list is almost endless.
Meanwhile, on the pitch the cabin fever is over and we get to watch REAL football this weekend. Not friendlies where people with too much time on their hands try to scrutinise the inscrutable. REAL football with three points at stake.
I can smell gas, and I can’t wait to cheer the lads on again. Even if we can’t be proud of the way the club has been run, we have many authentic, sincere fans that we can be proud of.
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Martin Bull became a Gashead in 1989 and immediately fell in love with Twerton Park. In 2006 he wrote, photographed and published the first independent book about the artist Banksy. Having been exiled for much of his life, away games have always been special for him; so much so that he is asking for contributions from fellow Rovers fans to a new book he is compiling. To contribute go to:
www.awaythegas.org.uk