Play offs are

My question mark is because I’m not clear we have a strategy at all.

I suppose if we have already overspent by 80-100K this season and spent the money from half next season's season ticket sales getting through the covid 19 crisis another 20+K is neither here nor there.

pete mac wrote:My question mark is because I’m not clear we have a strategy at all.

Haha well quite! Anyway, looking forward to the Q&A next Tuesday.

Weymouth have started a fund raiser with a Go Fund Me page (currently £1195) to raise an anticipated £50K which takes into account their other financial pressures so may not be the same for every club:

TERRAS FANS WE NEED YOU!!
The last few weeks have been full of ups and downs with regards to the play-off situation. Finally, now we have the decision that we will be able to take part, albeit not in the way we would have liked, but at least we now have the chance to compete. While the club is in a good financial place, the play-offs come at a large additional financial cost. These not only comprise the cost of testing but also the associated costs that we face in order to be compliant with the Government’s COVID-19 regulations. We obviously want to give Mark; the players and you our brilliant supporters every opportunity to build on the success this season deserves.
Having planned and budgeted for next season and to avoid potentially leaving ourselves with a large shortfall. We now need your help. Based on the information we have been given by the league and the government the additional costs are anticipated to be in the region of £50,000. I am sure you will appreciate without a crowd in the stadium and other matchday income this would leave a big void. The excellent Take Two feature has raised over £5,000, which is brilliant start and gets us up and running. If we are going to participate in the play-offs we need your help so we can remind competitive next season.
We are putting together other ideas to raise money from streaming the game subject to TV rights through to a special edition play-off home shirt. We will not stop fighting for the right to compete, let’s face it this club has had to fight plenty in the past decade to even exist. We are all fans at this wonderful club and now we can all play our part to realise the dream many thought would never be seen again in those dark days.
If you can help please do so, as every pound will be vital. Please follow the link to the Go Fund Page where you will find a message from Mark Molesley.

tovid wrote:I suppose if we have already overspent by 80-100K this season and spent the money from half next season's season ticket sales getting through the covid 19 crisis another 20+K is neither here nor there.

Is that a fact or just assumption?

Assumption I’d say?

Reading it ‘I suppose......’

Luton Roman wrote:2 distinctly separate points for me here:

1. Cost of the play offs. There are a range of figures being quoted and I believe there is an NL meeting of all play off clubs today to provide more details. Hopefully that will give clarity. If it can be afforded, through sponsorship, fan giving, BT/ streaming, or whatever, that does not critically impact on the clubs sustainability, then lets go for it; and

2. Life in the NL. Who knows what it will look like next season or even when it would start, but if the season had played out as normal and we had been in the play offs would people have called into question our participation? I hope not because there is certainly no ideal time to say yes we are now ready to go up. If we had declined on the basis of not wanting to give it a go, then goodbye ambition and attracting the calibre of staff, players and manager like JG. Social distancing wouldn't be an issue as our attendances would reduce and people can return to their beloved standing spots. Community club or not people want success. More sponsorship, bigger gates and hopefully some sort of ground development would follow, and, importantly, clever recruitment would be needed. We have the right guy in place.

Even a glance through City's history will show a lot of impoverished times, but not a reason to stifle aspiration, but to do things better. Wealdstone's forum are also debating their challenge, but with excitement. So, if we can sensibly afford it, lets got for it.

I think Luton Roman makes some good points here.

Agreed. Gerry’s points very well made.

Hard to see why some are saying no to this. We were in the playoffs last year and now this. We fought all season to get there.

No doubt the Board will assess on Monday night but one off costs and if amazingly we win 3 games presumably numbers will be crunched.

Lots of teams at higher levels struggling so we could compete better with our structure. A team like Yeovil will have to run a cheaper squad or go part time?

Am very keen to see the play-offs go ahead myself.

If we're concerned about the cost of it, let's put it to the people of Bath. Bundle it up in an appealing crowdfunding pitch and media campaign along the lines of :

- Covid has had an unexpected impact on the club.
- We fought hard all year to get into the play-offs, but Covid means the cost of competing in them may now be a step too far.
- If we enter the play-offs it'll be 3 games that could take us one step closer to history by finally making Bath a Football league town. But we won't do it if it will jeopardise the club financially.
- So ask the people of Bath if they want to help us achieve that ambition.
- If they do then we need them to contribute to a crowdfunding appeal to ensure we can compete without placing the club in financial jeopardy.
- Set a target of raising £XX by a certain date so we can confirm our participation.

At the very least we'd get some news coverage out of this (keeping the club continually in the minds of the public needs to be a continual objective IMO). And it may draw some people closer to the club.

Give it all a catchy name : e.g. 'Help Ensure the Play-offs Pay-off for Bath City'.

Then if we don't enter the games, we can at least say we tried and that it's not the club's fault. And if we do enter, we'll hopefully have the city behind us more.

I'd be happy to help with a campaign like this personally, as I've currently got very little work on due to Covid !

Weymouth fans reckon they have raised £12,500 already and they kick off about a week later than us, assuming it goes ahead.

Spot on Steve.

Such a campaign would be galvanising.

In terms of appeal we can surely match Weymouth

Martin P

Hopefully you can take Steve’s ideas and those of others to the Board on Monday?

I see Weymouth are producing a special playoff shirt.

Yes, Pete, I shall be passing on to the Board supporters’ views on both sides of the debate.

More important, I suggest, is that information flows back to supporters/owners about the financial position of the club. As stillmamjunior illustrates above, we're just guessing at the moment...

pete mac wrote:Assumption I’d say?

Reading it ‘I suppose......’

No the suppose goes with the 20+k bit. The rest of the sentence is a sub clause. I should have put commas in.

I think it boils down to this. You are either a risk taker or risk averse. Personally I am cautious with money but others spend it more freely.

OliverH wrote:More important, I suggest, is that information flows back to supporters/owners about the financial position of the club. As stillmamjunior illustrates above, we're just guessing at the moment...

Spot on about the guessing. The Society as owners is always represented at Board meetings and has access to its minutes. I’m sure you appreciate and agree that putting financial information in the public domain is a very different matter.

I do think there is a need for more financial information. There are some things that may not be able to be disclosed but it should also be remembered that one of the basic principles (or so I thought) at the time of the community share issue was there would be openness and transparency.
I feel that people are making judgements on this without knowing / appreciating the current financial situation. The failure of the planning application and implications of Covid on the club, sponsors and supporters is going to make a big difference to a situation that in a calculated guess was not good prior to these events.
I believe that there is a Board meeting today and I hope the foremost thoughts in the Society appointed Directors minds is the sustainability of the club, that is what people who subscribed to the BID wanted. You have to remember that managers and players come and go regularly and whilst they may have loyalty to the club for a spell this generally is only whilst they are on the payroll. Supporters on the other hand tend to be there for life and they are the ones stumping up money to pay the players and manager so the important thing is that there is still a club there for them.
I see people talking about opportunity and ambition, yes you take opportunities but when they are right for you but not when the risks are such they put your main interest, in this case the club, at high risk.
I hope the club decide not to proceed with this but I am not confident. I realise that some funds could be cobbled together to go some way towards funding the tests etc for at least on play off game but after that it would be more difficult but it is the bigger picture of what happens if were to win the play offs that concern me. I feel that the Board will be torn on this and whilst in reality knowing it is not the best for the club they will proceed and hope that we basically get knocked out early on and in this event everyone will have been kept sort of happy.

Agree with SteveS, and I must take some responsibility as I volunteered last year to work with the club to produce annual figures with accessible explanations, forecasts etc for member-owners each year - we've not been able to get it together to make this happen yet, but there is agreement in principle that the club should improve its communication about finances to members. This doesn't have to involve much more than taking what we already make public via Companies House filings, and just adding appropriate explanations. Several other community-owned clubs do this e.g. Lewes.

Anyway I'll stop banging on about this now! Hopefully tomorrow's meeting will make things clearer. I do appreciate both the club board and society committee are working very hard in very challenging circumstances.

There was an interesting statement made by Chester today, who are one of the teams in the NLN playoffs and who are clearly considering their involvement. It set out some of the requirements that the clubs were made aware of on Friday, which include:

Developing a thorough Covid-19 risk assessment and stadium management plan. The plan includes the appointment of a Covid-19 Officer and Medical Officer and must be approved by the Safety Advisory Group and the National League.

Developing a viable Covid-19 testing process for all players and coaching staff. The tests must meet clinical testing standards and the provider must be certified and approved by the National League Medical Ofiicer.  

Training sessions must be Covid-19 compliant in line with FA and Government guidance.

Going back to SteveS's post, his comment that "...but it is the bigger picture of what happens if were to win the play offs that concern me. I feel that the Board will be torn on this and whilst in reality knowing it is not the best for the club they will proceed and hope that we basically get knocked out early on and in this event everyone will have been kept sort of happy" in a way ties in with Luton Roman's second point in his post, and could be the start of a conversation (which I am sure we have had before) of where we see the club being in the future.

I wonder if the National League is imposing such onerous health conditions and as a consequence similar financial demands, that it hopes most Clubs will feel disinclined to take part in the play-offs.
If there are sufficient non-entrants the league may be able to decide the play-offs are no longer part of the season and, simply, only promote Wealdstone and Kings Lynn and reduce the numbers relegated from the National league.

Peter Newman wrote:I wonder if the National League is imposing such onerous  health conditions  and as a consequence similar financial demands,  that it hopes most  Clubs  will feel disinclined to take part in the play-offs.
If there are sufficient non-entrants the league may be able to decide the play-offs are no longer part of the season and, simply, only promote Wealdstone and Kings Lynn and reduce the numbers relegated from the National league.

I think Havant are hoping that everyone else drops out and the league decide to promote the two second placed teams!

The club is now fully committed to playing in the play offs. They know it will be approx £35k cost but are confident that can be covered. A lot of work will have to go into fund raising.
If you take the average gate for this season of 1000 then that is £35 each or £12 a game. Seems achievable.

tovid wrote:
If you take the average gate for this season of 1000 then that is £35 each or £12 a game.

That's assuming we get to the play-off final, of course.

One would assume that if the unthinkable happens and we don't, there would be provisions in the donation process for us to legally allow any spare money in this scheme to be passed forward into next season's budget?

More likely to pay off this terms debt but I would hope that any excess monies could be retained and used by the club.

I don't often post on the forum any more, but frankly on this I'm so annoyed I feel I have to.

Having spent loads of time standing on Milsom Street with others over the years either advertising matches, or many times advertising the Bid, delivered flyers on weekends for Community Days/Student Days etc., been the weekly poster distributer for the shops of Moorland Road and Twerton High Street, plus buying community shares I feel I've done quite a bit for the club we love - NB I'm not saying this to highlight I'm amazing, I'm well aware that lots of people do even more than me, I'm just pointing out that I will help when its needed.

This ridiculous decision to throw good money after bad on playoff games that should never happen is outrageous, and I honestly feel it is a dereliction of duty from the BoD. I will not put a single penny into fundraising, nor will I help in its organisation. I fully expect people to raise the funds and good on whoever does it, but I can't in good conscience contribute, when I know there will be an inevitable bucket rattling fundraiser coming down the line in the next few months when the redevelopment doesn't happen/COVID restrictions prevent fans etc.

The most important thing to people when they were surveyed when the Bid completed was to have a sustainable club, for people to support wasting money on this proves either a) they were all lying or b) the BoD has committed a grave error