How much would it cost to run the club?

[Keith]

There's a thread on the Facebook Fans page about how much would a fans' takeover cost.

It is actually something I'd wondered about in the past. Could something actually be done?

For example, could we convince 1,500 fans to pay £10 per week by standing order, if this included a season ticket? That would bring in approximately £450,000 per year additional income (over & above 1,500 season ticket sales).

Okay, probably not do-able at that level, but actually, not too far away either.

1,000 fans at £15 per week? Hmm, now that's £65 per month, so getting a bit pricey. Ten pounds per week is like just over two pints, but psychologically, £65 is a lot of money still.

But what if some of the more affluent fans/existing board members etc pledged £5,200 per year, with others on £20 per week, and the majority on £10 per week?

20 @ £100 per week (£104,000)
100 @ £20 per week (£104.000)
800 @ £10 per week (£416,000)

£624,000 income from 920 fans. Still a really tough ask, but it is perhaps getting closer? With over 900 season tickets, general advertising & sponsorship would probably be easier to sell. And if those people felt truly 'involved' then they would be more committed to coming to every match.

One member, one vote, to elect the board from the fans who are paying in. Realistically, the twenty paying £100 per week are most likely to be elected as they would presumably be successful businessmen/women already and therefore most aware of how to run a business.

Obviously, this would assume the club being available to buy for a nominal sum, not millions of pounds! And also existing loans/debts not being excessive or actually written off?

Probably not workable at the moment, but if the opportunity arose, it is possibly not too far away from being achievable either?

[George Dawes]

.. Also the Sponsers boxes bring them down to a realistic price so we can sell them a lot easier. And the match Sponsers box don't bother with it, just have that aswell like a season long Sponsors Box, So then the Commercial Director doesn't have the hassle of phoning the same people up every week.

And the Kiosks, should look to lease them out like we use to at Christie Park.

its a case of simplifying things so it's Management Friendly.

[Christies Child]

Good idea Keith BUT I suspect that over time subscribers will start to decline and that would create a whole lot of issues that could lead us into even further financial problems.

If you recall I did suggest a scheme that would see fans getting involved in a monthly subscription based fund raising scheme but it was quickly knocked back due, if I recall correctly,it being regarded as in direct competition to the clubs existing lottery.....

[Ego Tripping]

This brings out a couple of interesting points for me.
If losses on average have been circa £500k in the last few years and we have circa 1000 hardcore fans then to stem the losses they would need to put in £500 each additionally per year. That’s not going to happen.

Maybe a better way would be to adapt your idea slightly and offer membership of the club and season tickets by monthly direct debit. I’ve seen that clubs in the USA do this and as we are used to paying for everything monthly nowadays it’s surely the way forward.

At current prices £20 a month gets you a standard season ticket in the terrace. Somewhere around £25 to sit down. Obviously more for the posh seats. In all cases cost includes a small fee to cover admin costs. Now take it on a step – an extra £3 a month gets you a shirt, £2 gets you a programme etc etc.

Now I know there are some potential issues with people cancelling payments. However if you start 1st June then 3 payments are taken before we even play a game. This also helps with the cash flow issues that could arise with plus with the amount of fans we have it cant be that time consuming to check

Club membership costs say £5 per month but for that you get ½ price tickets (I need to check the maths here but you get the idea).
The great thing about DD is that it keeps going until you stop it plus you can put prices up if you need to at any point.

[KenH]

Trouble is, it's not just a matter of raising the £500/£600k per year that it's currently losing. Even if that was achieved, we're still no nearer to increasing Jim's player budget, improving the facilities, etc. We'd just stay where we are. So, you'd need to raise even more, maybe a further £250k p.a. to actually improve things, so that's closer to a million per year.

[Christies Child]

For me I'd much prefer a DD scheme to fund my season ticket and other club money raising schemes.

The beauty of it for me is it's affordability; a guaranteed monthly income for the club and far easier on the pocket than having to find the money in one lump sum which will be OK for some but not for others.

An excellent thread to date and the more ideas from fellow fans on how to ease the current financial pressures on OUR club...the better.

[marky No.1]

A lot more than £250,000 more I would say, Ken

A bl@ddy lot of overheads:
£1.2M wages?
Business rates
Insurances, building, risk and playing staff.
Utilities.
Repairs & maintenance.
Goodness knows how much in accommodation and travel for the players.
Laundry.
Advertising
Telephone
Stationery & office equipment.

All that before you have bought the food and the beer.

The list will be endless.

£2.7M last time I looked

[KenH]

A lot more than £250,000 more I would say, Ken

I'm talking on top of current spending to actually start to improve things. The things you mention are already causing the current £600k losses, hence why I think we need a million to fund current losses and improve things, but all on top of current income flows.

[al1]

Just wondering how much income we get from efl/tv monies etc

[George Dawes]

A lot more than £250,000 more I would say, Ken

A bl@ddy lot of overheads:
£1.2M wages?
Business rates
Insurances, building, risk and playing staff.
Utilities.
Repairs & maintenance.
Goodness knows how much in accommodation and travel for the players.
Laundry.
Advertising
Telephone
Stationery & office equipment.

All that before you have bought the food and the beer.

The list will be endless.

£2.7M last time I looked

a lot of these on this list you could do deals with local companies.

Repairs & maintenance) you could get a local building firm, or Solo Builder looking to expand his business to do repair work for us in exchange for free advertising or Sponsers box

Laundry) again a service for free advertising or Somethng

Stationery & Office equipment) again free advertising or something

Food and Beer) must be our most profitable income, doubling you money at least with beer, and food ie. per pie with what it cost to make or meal could be anything up to 700% profit, can't be running this side of the club at a loss.

[Keith]

If we're losing £500k, then we need an additional £500k on top of existing income, with no increased expenses in order to break even. Therefore [for example] a scheme where the season ticket is included would have to account for the decrease in 'normal' match day income.

The difference between the scheme CC proposed previously is that this (or something similar) shouldn't detract from the lottery.

As I mentioned, what could/should/may happen, is that if we increase the number of people who have a season ticket, then sponsorship & advertising increase too.

The other advantage of such a scheme would be to package it as a 'community club', which may bring more of the ex-fans back. Those people who, in particular after the move from Christie Park, felt that MFC was no longer 'their club', could return as a very real & equal stakeholder.

I like the incremental idea too...
£10 per week gets 'ownership' & season ticket
£12 per week gets 'ownership', season ticket & shirt.
£14 per week gets 'ownership', season ticket, shirt & match day programme.
£16 per week gets 'ownership', season ticket, shirt, match day programme & pie.

A bit like Sky TV's model, where people go for the basic package but then add on movies, sports etc and end up signing up for double!

[mrpotatohead]

A good idea .......costing the fans less, the same 1000 fans all bring a guest each and pay for their guest to watch the match, this gives us our 2500 a game break even figure of attendance , unfortunately dictatorships seem the order of the day when it comes to running most businesses including football clubs , I think another "people's republic of morecambe" is a nice dream though.

[jbcshrimp]

Maybe slightly O/T, but as the thread is concerned with finance into the club has any news come to the fore on a ground sponsor ?

[Christies Child]

Looks as though we will be in the hunt to replace The Bay as sponsors as well seeing that the new station is pulling out of the area, closing the studios and getting rid of all the staff.

The new replacement will be based in Manchester with no doubt all the Sport etc being dominated by the bigger club's.

Just hope that some new radio station can continue with a locally based programming philosophy.

[Bare Grills]

Looks as though we will be in the hunt to replace The Bay as sponsors as well seeing that the new station is pulling out of the area, closing the studios and getting rid of all the staff.

Interesting nugget of information there CC but where did you learn that they are closing the stations and getting rid of all the staff? Not aware that's happened yet but I'm sure the staff will be happy to find out on a football forum.

[mrpotatohead]

well he knows more than the staff them selves...or is it another crystal ball malfunction...which will be followed by the usual u turn!

[Christies Child]

well he knows more than the staff them selves...or is it another crystal ball malfunction...which will be followed by the usual u turn!

Was one of the topics in our usual pre match get together.....as others can confirm.

[Bare Grills]

Which you privately messaged me headed CONFIDENTIAL. Either say nothing publicly or tell all. No I-know-more-than-you crap please.

Update, apparently because no names were mentioned, it's perfectly OK to post gossip & rumour about people's lives as fact. I've disabled PM so if CC has anything further to tell me, it'll have to be here.

[KenH]

Just hope that some new radio station can continue with a locally based programming philosophy.

Beyond Radio is very good. https://www.beyondradio.co.uk. Let's hope the directors are talking to them re sponsorship and match reports etc.

[Bare Grills]

Just hope that some new radio station can continue with a locally based programming philosophy.

Beyond Radio is very good. https://www.beyondradio.co.uk. Let's hope the directors are talking to them re sponsorship and match reports etc.

Good station but lacking funds, they've even got a donate button on their site so while they'd welcome a stand in their name, it would have to be a donation from the club to them. I thought a new general manager would be out there making changes but I see the Trust doing more.

[Bare Grills]

The club should be looking towards companies raising their profile in the area, companies like Stainton's making headway with the new Broadway.

[KenH]

Beyond Radio is very good. https://www.beyondradio.co.uk. Let's hope the directors are talking to them re sponsorship and match reports etc.

Good station but lacking funds, they've even got a donate button on their site so while they'd welcome a stand in their name, it would have to be a donation from the club to them. I thought a new general manager would be out there making changes but I see the Trust doing more.

I was thinking more of working together for the common good, and raising brand awareness of eachother, rather than just wanting them for their money. Such as getting a "team talk" slot and getting post match commentary on their radio in case Heart concentrate on bigger teams. Given the club don't seem to have a relationship with Radio Lancashire, we risk having no local radio coverage at all. How about letting them advertise or sponsor a stand for no cost, in return for them advertising forthcoming fixtures, merchandise, etc?

Just seems a good fit to me - Beyond is a local voluntary/community radio station and Morecambe's football club tries to market itself on it's community credentials and has lots of volunteers. Working together could raise the profile of both.

Rather than just chasing money (which doesn't work), the club needs to do more to engage with the community, get more interest, get more punters through the turnstiles, and that, in turn will lead to more sponsorship etc as sponsors will only pay if they see a return, and they'll only get a return if more people see their name.

Beyond are only new and will be trying to expand and increase their listener base - the sale of The Bay is a gift to them. They'll be open to all kinds of initiatives.

[Morecambe Jack]

It's a nice thought, but what is the reach of Beyond Radio? It's the first I've heard of it. Our commercial team have plenty to be doing to drive our revenue so the Football Club survives before thinking about helping out a community radio station for no immediate return.