Rupp & Sparks Out?

Financial survival is obviously a key requirement, bit when your thinking and planning is limited to, or completely centred around that goal, you not only limit your chances of success but you frame your approach to actually achieving that surivial in ways that can become misguided. The best way of ensuring financial survival is to grow, and invest in the tools that make you competitive.

 

And that's why he's fundamentally unfit to own this club. His tenure has been a disaster and could very well end up putting the club out of business.

 

Depending on the terms of the loan, that in itself isn't a problem. It's just liability that would be factored into the price. In fact, based on the admittedly limited information released by the club, a glance at our P&L and balance sheet would lead me (or I would suggest a genuinely experienced and ambitious CEO) to conclude we're under leveraged in terms of our debt position. The first thing I'd be doing as CEO is looking at how much capital I could secure against the increased revenue we have, to materially invest in growing the club. Ideally through the owner at preferential rates of interest, but if not, then through other means.

 

For someone who consistently asks others to provide facts, I'd like to ask you Kevin where is your evidence that over 50% of those commentating didn't go to or watch the match? It's a very bold claim that you seem very sure is correct so please provide us with the facts to back this up.

 

This £1.7 million that Rupp lent the club. Is that the loan to clear up the Rahic mess? I think Rupp needs to think long and hard about making the club liable for this debt. In effect saying to the fans and sponsors alike that they have to sort out the mess his partner created. Not a good look in my view.

 

I believe its a combination of that, and to support the club through the period of no gate receipts in Covid.

 

Something that is commendable, although every other club had the same issue in Covid and not one professional club went pop. I’m sure the near £3 million for McBurnie will have helped as well, something most other lower league clubs didn’t get the luxury of. The thing that leaves question marks in my head is how can we go from roughly £5.5 million turnover to a £8.3 million turnover and see little increase in the player budget? Which should be the main outgoing at any club. Has the rents gone up dramatically or policing? Sparks talked about full transparency when he took over, so let’s start there.

 

I don't know for sure but I could see some of that number being eaten up by stadium maintenance, more coaching staff and also being used to keep the club self sustainable Have to give Sparks props for getting that turnover figure up. Be interesting to see how that turnover figure relates to other clubs in league one and two.

 

Who said I’m sure? It’s an estimate, an educated guess . “ I’ll go as far” ( As saying)

That is really really straw and pearl clutching rolled into one my friend.

 

In fairness to the bloke, he KEPT us in business at one stage didnt he?
That’s how I saw it ? I’m sure @Dennis can provide some data. But yes he’s the current block to progress, without improvements on the green stuff. Invest and we should progress, and Jan - Summer 24 are the critical periods for a new outlook.

 

I think we all know that, like I said the other day, his goal is promotion without additional cost. We all know it. He may realise it eventually.

 

Did he? I don't think that's true.

 

Do you think Fordy will understand this ?

 

Getting loans based on future revenue projections , eg season ticket sales are far and away more costly than loans based on assets . The latter is fixed, the former is built on sand .

 

It’s not shite so no.

 

I was under the impression he had pumped over a million and a half in during the pandemic to make up revenue shortfall and update furlough funding . Could be wrong of course. The murky world of football finance?

 

Maybe. Though a couple of points come to mind. Firstly, no Football League club went out of business due to Covid. Plenty of help was given in terms of subsidies from the PL/FA, and given our commercial revenue position in comparison to the rest of the league, we should have been well placed to ride it out anyway. But even if he did intervene, I see no basis for him doing so beyond preserving his investment. For example, if come January we're genuinely in a relegation scrap, I reckon he/we'd find the money to do a couple of key deals. It'd be nice for us to get more proactive though, and not wait till we have to respond to being in a crisis. Again though, it comes back to having a vision and plan.

 

He didn't 'save' us,coming in like the caped hero doing a good deed, he did it cos essentially he has around 9 or 10 million potentially invested of his own cash. We go down so does his investment.