No wonder the club is losing money ...........

[KenH]

Yes, money is needed, but there's also a lot that could be done that costs nothing but would help stop the rot in terms of losing fans. There are regularly adverse comments about the stewards being over-zealous, phone calls & emails going unanswered, shop hours, etc. Sorting that is easy and costs nothing.

1. Make sure the shop is open during publicised opening hours;
2. Staff need to be more customer-focussed and their customer service skills improved;
3. Someone needs to answer the phone instead of it going to answerphone and then them not ringing you back - by the same token, emails should always be answered;
4. Organise the refreshments staff/workflow so customers are served quicker thus smaller queues;
5. Better communication via more regular updates to Facebook and Twitter and improve the OWS.

[skyecat]

I don't often post on here and only occasionally catch up with what's going on on here, but my take on the club's finances are along the lines of:
If an owner is willing to balance the books season after season to the tune of £600,000 or more (was it £800,000+ last year for Peter McGuigan?) then mathematics state that if we had an extra 500 people through the gate, paying an average of £19 a ticket and then paying an average of £10 per head over the bar, at the concession stands etc, for 23 home games of the season, that would equate to "only" £333,500.
And thats if ALL those 500 were paying adults.
So the owner / board / whoever would still need to write a cheque out at the end of the season.
This still doesn't make the club any money - it just reduces the deficit each season.

I asked someone once, what financial benefit is there to running a football club (unless you're any of the bigger Premiership clubs etc) and the answer came back - none.
Look at rich peoples' play things - yachts, race teams, race horses, football clubs, art collections, charitable donations etc, whichever it is - they know what they're taking on - probable debt, with the gamble that it could be lucrative.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, no matter what we do, no matter how many other people turn up, no matter how much we spend in the shop, no matter how many pints we sup, how many pies we eat, it would have to be amplified by at least 1,000 people weekly before the owner saw any profit. And even then, would they plough the money straight back into the club, or take it out against the investment/loans they put in?

If someone donated £50K this week to the club, it would probably go in the bank offset any immediate bills. Would it open the shop longer? put more gravy or peas on the pies, make a pint cheaper? put a roof over the Omega stand concourse? I don't think so. I don't think it would be wasted, but I don't think that us, the fans, would notice any difference. And if that's £50K we're talking about - how much would be needed before we saw any change?
I may be being a little too pessimistic, but Football is a business now, not a grass roots sport (as far as money is concerned) IMO Sky TV ruined that back in the early 90's and we'll never see those days again.

I have my season ticket and I go to the games, I buy the odd pint, pie and football top, I cheer, applaud and am as downhearted at a loss as the next person, but Morecambe is my team and I support them - BUT am aware that any money I put in the till there is very, very little compared to what is needed to keep a club going / improving.

On that note, the lack of info from the new major share holder (or the old one for that matter) as to what money has been injected/promised/plans have been laid out etc is all very evident of it being "their" club, not ours - and with the kind of money in question, I guess quite rightly so.
So what I / we do with our money, is our business too.

I would say that the football needs to improve firstly, then the town needs to improve financially, the economic climate needs to take an upturn (but I can't see that happening any time soon) and the feelgood factor needs to return to people's everyday lives rather than watching the pennies and seeing everything around you increase except your salary.

All we can hope for is a Chairman / board who are behind the team completely, wealthy and have plans, ideas, strategies and most of all PASSION to move the club forward - without that, we haven't a hope in hell. BUT we CAN cheer our team on though and support them.