Lost [ Sat 16th Sep ] v Coventry Sphinx, KO 3pm NPLD1M AWAY

[bozzer]

I went for the first time since spalding, beforehand everyone was desperate for it to turn, the view was we were very close and just needed a break. At half time we had played really well, and everyone felt we needed another goal. Within 10 minutes they had equalised and we had the worst half I have seen this season, basic errors awful decision making, it was like a different team.
We are all feeling sorry for ourselves, the board have done a great job to have us out on the pitch even competing that is a given, but they are also seeing how hard it is to operate a fan run club without enough fans coming forward to run the club.

At step 3 with Peaksy we were sustainable, but reliant on commercial income to keep us at that level, when that failed massively the following year it became unsustainable.

I think the next two weeks and then the next three games are crucial, if we can get a bit of experience in so that when teams come at us we don’t panic and stay strong then we may start to move in the right direction, if not then we have to try something different to stay in step 4.

[BartonRaz]

At step 3 with Peaksy we were sustainable, but reliant on commercial income to keep us at that level, when that failed massively the following year it became unsustainable.

I would have to disagree Bozzer. I don't think the Club has been truly sustainable (i.e not loss-making) for a long time now and had it not been for the Covid year where some superb work was done on obtaining grants, the issues we face now would have happened a few years ago. The year we almost made the play-offs at Step 3, the Club lost £20k and that's without the commercial issues that were partly responsible for what happened last season. The supporters didn't back it, producing our lowest average attendance to date by a distance (at that point in time) at what was our highest point. The average attendance was well over 100 fewer than we were getting at Step 6 on average.

On top of declining attendances that went through the floor last year, we now have rising costs absolutely everywhere to deal with and despite that, we have NO OPTION but to turn a profit this year or we won't have a Club to support in 2024/25. It really is that simple. On that basis, we gave Chris the best possible budget we felt we could and he was OK with it. Talk of 'backing the manager' or 'using more lottery money' is either delusional or the people making these statements don't understand the Club's position.

With regards to changing the model, I agree that a discussion may need to be had about that at some point whether people broadly agree with it or not. There are details within the constitution about how many members need to come forward to collectively propose something for debate amongst the board and amongst members, and it really isn't that many.

[rickthediamond]

I have to admit I’m tired of hearing that Chris isn’t taking any money from the club, I understand why this was made public after the Fakenham game… But I think that should’ve been kept quiet. Having a manager who is not taking wages or expenses should never excuse the results on the pitch. I’m sure at some point (if we’ve not reached it already), the losses we are facing on the pitch will financially offset the gain of Chris not taking a wage. Fair play to Chris for doing it for free, but I don’t want to hear about it every time we lose.

As per Alex’s post above, the club needs investment, simple as. It’s also really hard seeing the amount of people who have worked tirelessly to keep us going over the years, struggling like this. I appreciate I myself have questioned decisions etc, so apologies if that has contributed to this. But this is the crux of the matter for me, and like I said in a previous post last week, I do think we are reaching the end of the road for the fan owned model. The resources it requires is hurting too many people great people, and desperate times call for desperate measures.

[bozzer]

I would have to disagree Bozzer. I don't think the Club has been truly sustainable (i.e not loss-making) for a long time now and had it not been for the Covid year where some superb work was done on obtaining grants, the issues we face now would have happened a few years ago. The year we almost made the play-offs at Step 3, the Club lost £20k and that's without the commercial issues that were partly responsible for what happened last season.

I think we are saying the same thing to be honest that year we lost our main shirt sponsor and had to come up with the names in shirts idea to mitigate some of the loss of income. Each season the commercial aspect became more and more important, and more and more difficult to get.
My opinion was step 3 we were over achieving and step 4 was probably our level.

[oliv272]

It sounds like realistically the best and only way we are going to increase our budget is by getting further funds raised by the fans. I really believe the player lottery is the best way to do this. We set a figure for how many monthly tickets need to be sold, with clear visibility at different steps of the impact that can have on our budget.

Just as a random example lets say we have 260 tickets sold a month currently, what would an additional 50 tickets provide to the budget % wise? (and to go one step further what does this mean in reality ie. 100 tickets might roughly equate to us being able to sign 2 experienced step 4 players).

This sort of visibility provides real meaningful targets to the fans, it makes us all responsible for trying to help provide a competitive budget for the remainder of this season. It's all well and good pleading for fans to turn up and commit both our time and money to watching increasing dog sh*t football but providing real incentives to financially back the budget might prove more successful.

There was talk at the end of last season about producing a video campaign for the player lottery, I offered support on the members forum to help with this. That support still stands I'll happily put together a few 30-60 second shorts that we can put on our social media pages all I need is someone to contact me and access to a few areas of the ground a couple of match days to do some filming. (When I a kid in school I produced the Save RDFC YoutTube Video back in the day).

I strongly believe the board and Chris are doing everything they can to keep as afloat and as competitive as we can be, now they should put it on us the fans to put our money where our mouth is by increasing our backing of the player lottery (as long as we see new signings and progress as a result - again with full visiblity). If you don't like what you see on the pitch, do you bit to help us sign some more experienced players sort of idea. The great thing with the lottery is the fans benefit two fold, you get better quality players on the pitch and a chance to win a decent amount of money monthly and quarterly, it's a win win.

[rickthediamond]

Agree with above.

[BartonRaz]

It sounds like realistically the best and only way we are going to increase our budget is by getting further funds raised by the fans. I really believe the player lottery is the best way to do this. We set a figure for how many monthly tickets need to be sold, with clear visibility at different steps of the impact that can have on our budget.

Just as a random example lets say we have 260 tickets sold a month currently, what would an additional 50 tickets provide to the budget % wise? (and to go one step further what does this mean in reality ie. 100 tickets might roughly equate to us being able to sign 2 experienced step 4 players).

This sort of visibility provides real meaningful targets to the fans, it makes us all responsible for trying to help provide a competitive budget for the remainder of this season. It's all well and good pleading for fans to turn up and commit both our time and money to watching increasing dog sh*t football but providing real incentives to financially back the budget might prove more successful.

There was talk at the end of last season about producing a video campaign for the player lottery, I offered support on the members forum to help with this. That support still stands I'll happily put together a few 30-60 second shorts that we can put on our social media pages all I need is someone to contact me and access to a few areas of the ground a couple of match days to do some filming. (When I a kid in school I produced the Save RDFC YoutTube Video back in the day).

I strongly believe the board and Chris are doing everything they can to keep as afloat and as competitive as we can be, now they should put it on us the fans to put our money where our mouth is by increasing our backing of the player lottery (as long as we see new signings and progress as a result - again with full visiblity). If you don't like what you see on the pitch, do you bit to help us sign some more experienced players sort of idea. The great thing with the lottery is the fans benefit two fold, you get better quality players on the pitch and a chance to win a decent amount of money monthly and quarterly, it's a win win.

I agree to an extent. I think there's a basis of an idea there but I feel like I should explain a bit about the lottery, hopefully without impacting the wider view on it.

For transparency, a good / very good, experienced player at this level that we probably need right now would cost somewhere around £250 a week.

Let's say we obtained 20 new lottery subscribers tomorrow. That generates £200 a month. £100 of that is ringfenced for the winner of the draw, which leaves £100 a month for the club to use on players.

£100 divided by 4 weeks = £25 a week. In other words, 10% of the £250 a week we need for the sort of player we need. So, in summary, you need 200 subscribers to generate the £250 a week we need. Is that realistic?

It isn't.

Another option which is just running through my head at the moment and I haven't thought about the logistics of, is opening up a separate avenue for supporters to donate any amount of money in to a ringfenced account, used only for paying players. Whether that's £1 or £1,000 a time, the option is then there. But it would need to be done without people cancelling lottery subscriptions en-masse because that's budgeted for.

In answer to something else you've mentioned, the lottery video is In progress.

[Dbsl]

The Volunteer Working Group is running an Ideas and Volunteering walk in eve at the Windmill Club on 3rd October starting at 7pm. Come and have chat about ideas You may have for fundraising. Find out a bit more about volunteering to make the ideas happen. Volunteers will be present to chat to.

If you can't make it email those ideas to me on david.bland@afc-diamonds.com. Remember, no idea is a bad idea. Giving an hour or 2 a month to help fundraising would be fantastic

[oliv272]

It sounds like realistically the best and only way we are going to increase our budget is by getting further funds raised by the fans. I really believe the player lottery is the best way to do this. We set a figure for how many monthly tickets need to be sold, with clear visibility at different steps of the impact that can have on our budget.

Just as a random example lets say we have 260 tickets sold a month currently, what would an additional 50 tickets provide to the budget % wise? (and to go one step further what does this mean in reality ie. 100 tickets might roughly equate to us being able to sign 2 experienced step 4 players).

This sort of visibility provides real meaningful targets to the fans, it makes us all responsible for trying to help provide a competitive budget for the remainder of this season. It's all well and good pleading for fans to turn up and commit both our time and money to watching increasing dog sh*t football but providing real incentives to financially back the budget might prove more successful.

There was talk at the end of last season about producing a video campaign for the player lottery, I offered support on the members forum to help with this. That support still stands I'll happily put together a few 30-60 second shorts that we can put on our social media pages all I need is someone to contact me and access to a few areas of the ground a couple of match days to do some filming. (When I a kid in school I produced the Save RDFC YoutTube Video back in the day).

I strongly believe the board and Chris are doing everything they can to keep as afloat and as competitive as we can be, now they should put it on us the fans to put our money where our mouth is by increasing our backing of the player lottery (as long as we see new signings and progress as a result - again with full visiblity). If you don't like what you see on the pitch, do you bit to help us sign some more experienced players sort of idea. The great thing with the lottery is the fans benefit two fold, you get better quality players on the pitch and a chance to win a decent amount of money monthly and quarterly, it's a win win.

I agree to an extent. I think there's a basis of an idea there but I feel like I should explain a bit about the lottery, hopefully without impacting the wider view on it.

For transparency, a good / very good, experienced player at this level that we probably need right now would cost somewhere around £250 a week.

Let's say we obtained 20 new lottery subscribers tomorrow. That generates £200 a month. £100 of that is ringfenced for the winner of the draw, which leaves £100 a month for the club to use on players.

£100 divided by 4 weeks = £25 a week. In other words, 10% of the £250 a week we need for the sort of player we need. So, in summary, you need 200 subscribers to generate the £250 a week we need. Is that realistic?

It isn't.

Another option which is just running through my head at the moment and I haven't thought about the logistics of, is opening up a separate avenue for supporters to donate any amount of money in to a ringfenced account, used only for paying players. Whether that's £1 or £1,000 a time, the option is then there. But it would need to be done without people cancelling lottery subscriptions en-masse because that's budgeted for.

In answer to something else you've mentioned, the lottery video is In progress.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, it does indeed sound like the numbers needed for the player lottery to have the immediate impact needed is probably not realistic. Probably more a case of just trying to get the numbers increased a bit to improve the long term health of the lottery.

The 2nd idea is interesting again I think there needs to be good visibility to the fans about how reaching milestones in that account lead to new players being signed (or in the future being retained) Just as you've highlighted with the £250 a week example. If we had a fundraising thermometer on the site linked to the funds raised in that account or something that could be a good way for us all to keep track of it.


Another thought, would it be possible to sell additional player lottery tickets where 100% goes to the club rather than the normal split? I can already imagine some logistical issues with this but just throwing ideas out there!

[GreekDiamond]

On the lottery. Which I think is very good odds for participants by the way compared to a normal one, should have a change of percentages.

Last monthly Winner won £557.
Last quarterly winner won £1678.

Right now these are too much. Winnings for the moment should have a limit. Imo monthly to £200 and quarterly to £600.

With no changes that’s an extra £1425 to the club, which is £176 ish a week.

Like has been said, now is the time for an options for fans to donate to a fund that is for playing budget. Add that on and we have a chance to get players in that give us a chance to change things around.