Putting our money where our mouth is

Hope you’re right.
Season ticket sales are up for several reasons.
1. Prices still below average
2. Monthly payment terms offered
3. Pandemic starved fans of football
4. Marketing BS / false promises

 

Why put a hypothetical situation like your above forward, wouldn't you @Loyalbantam be more inclined to say when were in league one or the Championship our annual rent will be negligible .

 

If we defaulted on the lease we'd just be at risk of going into admin and potentially going bust.

Like we have been previously whether owning the ground, renting it from the council or renting it privately.

Those who dream about reforming the club being supporter owned and visiting villages on obscure rail lines with great old time pubs might then get their wish. Though I imagine they'd soon get fed up when we hit a ceiling in National League North.

 

I hope for that but it’s nearly 20 years since we were outside the bottom 2 leagues. Can you see why I’m sceptical

 

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/19625087.amp/?ref=twtrec&__twitter_impression=true
According to Lawn we pay 10x the rent of any other club in the division. Without knowing the facts I don't know how true that is.

 

Well why don’t you call Mark and tell him he’s talking shite.

 

Finding 1 million quid before we kick a football!!! Is that sustainable in league 2? Some of you clowns on here think it is

 

2 years ago, Walsall were paying £440k. Can't see that has changed much
https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/walsall-fc/2019/02/28/stefan-gamble-jeff-bonser-would-sell-walsall-if-deal-was-right/

Lawn spouting usual bollox

 

Rent, Rates, Utilities and Insurance probably eat up nearly half of the season ticket money before we even think of players

 

And if true, could it be that’s the reason Walsall are also in league 2 ? Or is their club badly run too and have their owners made bad decisions also?

 

No it doesn’t, most on here think we can easily afford it with our 15000 season ticket holders paying £4 a game

 

The owner sets the rent himself, He and his brother own the pension company they rent it from and are the beneficiaries of the scheme

It is common for owners to separate the ground from the club and then charge rent

 

If we remain in League Two, and IF the crowds dwindle, then we have to either cut our cloth or raise more money to pay the rent.

If we drop out of the league and assuming we don't make an immediate return (because if we did drop out and boss the NL at the first attempt, we could actually end up better off through bigger gates as a consequence of consistently winning and the number of ex FL teams in there that would give us local derbies) then we probably go into administration and break the lease through that.

Can't see what other answers you want and if the club has any ambition then it shouldn't be giving a moments thoughts to "what ifs" like that when signing a new lease.

The current lease has 7 years to run, who knows where we will be in 2026 or so when they start to talk about terms, the exact opposite of what you are fretting about might have happened.

 

By the way, I have edited your post for accuracy. Gordon Gibb isn't and never has been the owner or landlord of Valley Parade.

 

I'm 57 and we've only spent 12 of those outside of the bottom two leagues in my lifetime so your analogy is flawed.

 

To be fair, everything he says in that interview is spot on and backs the club apart from the rent figure, which might well have been right when he was the owner five years ago.

 

Wind yer neck in lad. Without actually seeing what all the other clubs pay we have no idea of the accuracy of that particular statement. That's not calling someone a liar. As usual with Lawn he makes some very valid points, others not so. I'll give him credit for always saying what he thinks, the stuff about scaremongering in parts is true.

 

No. It means they have employed bad managers and signed the wrong players. As I said in an earlier post, Birmingham City pay £1.25million in rent for a similar size stadium. You can bet if they employ the wrong managers and end up in L2 that figure won't go down.

Commercial rents are vastly higher than residential rents. Its a fact of life that a business just has to live with. FLPF is NOT ripping us off other than in the eyes of fools who don't understand business.

If FLPF hadn't bought VP we simply wouldn't exist and for the rent to have increased 33% over 18 years is not robbery. Commercial property values have risen 8.5% in the last 12 months alone, so rising rents is not going against any trend.

 

I usually am right.

 

Which, if I recall correctly, was an arrangement JR turned down when proposed by the pension fund - renting at a sliding scale based on what division we were in.