Fans forum this evening (Thursday 7th March)

[Admin]

Don’t forget that the club are hosting a fans forum this evening (Thursday 7th March) at the RDA Stadium.
With Steve Smith and Shan Toms available to answer all of your questions, and to talk about the clubs’ ambitions for the future

The event will commence at 7pm sharp.

[blueturkey]

I would love to go, but I have a prior commitment - if any members from this forum are attending, it would be amazing to hear back any reports of what's discussed, and I, and I'm sure a few others, would be really grateful

[woodside78]

what i think i heard...

Commercial (Twinley) - most of the talk was about the challenges of being placed in the North, and the additional financial burdens it has created. Mentioned that the additional revenue from renting the yard for the roadworks has been extremely helpful and an opportunity we will continue to explore for future works, but there is obvious potential for that stream to dry up. We have had the largest playing budget we've ever had. Said that in his view, the only way for a club in our position to succeed in the North would be to go full time, and we don't have the funds to do it. Key point that I'm not sure we've made enough of with all the talk of travel - in the north, £30k is livable and acceptable; so you can sign a very good semi pro player on £500 per week. Down here, we can sign **** players for £800 per week. It's a completely uneven playing field, and we got zero assistance from the FA. Spoke well about the camaraderie and togetherness that the previous squad had, and that it had been extremely difficult to replicate. Stadium move is not happening for the time being - note.... next time there's council elections, don't vote for this selection of clowns.

Football (Smith) - as you'd expect really. More discussion about the challenges of the North, and very honest admissions that we've been nowhere near good enough. Focus now is to be sensible financially until the end of the season and not spend unnecessary cash. Expect to see Academy players being used more, and more players to be released. Needs to happen within next 10 days as the window shuts after that. Expectation that will be in the South Central next year, which may be no bad thing as the Isthmian will be extremely strong. Steve correctly pointed out that journey times in South Central aren't vastly different to Isthmian, so less concern there. Says we are not a Step 2 club, and every week we are playing teams with 1000 there; attendances of 2-300 don't cut it.

Glass half-full view: We are run by good people who have the club's best interests at heart, who will never do anything that will place the future of the club in jeopardy (examples of debts of other clubs were discussed), and they are prepared to be open, honest & transparent about what the challenges are.

Glass half-empty view: Talking about challenges without having a plan to improve things doesn't get you very far. In all fairness to the 3 that sat up there, it's abundantly clear that they've been in firefighting mode since a month before the season and that - alongside running multiple businesses - they're sinking all the time they possibly can into the club. So maybe its not a glass half-empty view, just a thought that they could benefit from some additional help.

Sure there's plenty I've missed, but that's it for 7:30am.

[Deleted]

Yes think that is a very good summary. Hopefully we will have a budget left to bring back the players who left and have asked to come back .Southern Central no big deal travel times are around the same and a few more local games depending on the final table .Crowds are a problem and definitely more work needed on social media and getting involved in the community. Glad they have put the ground on hold total waste of time with anti football lib dem green council .l know a lot of the councillors and they have zero chance of getting any help,plus the normal big noise suspects in the town .A good honest meeting got a bit awkward when someone brought up tactics and that annoyed Smithy lol

[storty]

Thank you for the write up, very informative.

The point on wages in the North being a lot lower is not something I'd considered before but is a very valid point. Makes us being in the North even more unfair given our closest rival is Peterborough where money goes a lot further.

Those numbers are staggering though. £800 per week for semi pro's! Can't be a sustainable model and must mean most owners are part funding their clubs.

I do think crowd sizes are the key if the club are ever able to establish themselves as step 2. Average NLN crowd is 1000, we're more in line with an average step 3 team. Realistically I think step 3 is our level for now.

[mrpunch]

A couple of things Woodside78 missed was the cost of traveling to the north. The coaches and occasional overnight stays are averaging out at about £2,100, so, close to £50k a year. Imagine the sort of player we could get for that!

In addition, the Enfield ground share should finish, and it's not been the money stream some of us may have thought. After floodlighting and heating etc., we may not have made much out of it at all. By them not playing on it, we should be able to use the pitch for a few training sessions and still have a good pitch to play on.