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[andrewflynn]

I'd certainly keep Simon Richman in my Conference North squad.

We'll have enough on our plate without having to look for another central midfielder. He'd be fine at that level, good in fact. The last thing we want to do is invest time and resources into replacing him. Don't forget we may be two strikers down, and entering our 129371297th season without an out-and-out right winger on the books. Lets sort that out first before we get picky about players that would do a good job in the North.

[Timperley The Best]

He would get in to most conference north teams midfield imo, lets hope at least one of Rankine and Reeves stays

[JTH]

We banged the drum about being one of only 3 clubs in the league with no paid (non-football) employees. Small club mentality, again. Besides, I thought we had a few paid staff on the community side who worked at the football club everyday? We wouldn't judge other clubs as 2 separate entities and we shouldn't look at ourselves in such a way. While I wouldn't want to underestimate the workload that is picked up by unpaid volunteers sacrificing their time for free, we do have paid employees and (as was pointed out by someone on Saturday night) we need to stop belittling ourselves at every opportunity.
 

Hi Matt, I asked the question and to be honest didn't think the answer was banging the drum for sympathy or displaying a small club mentality. If we were like the other 21 clubs in the National Division and employed staff to carry out the roles currently done so voluntarily I reckon it would cost c£90k to £100k pa? We heard that the club will 'be in the black' by the end of the season, to achieve that we'd need to increase income or more likely cut the player's wage bill. That would make any hope of National League status a pipe dream frankly. Alternatively of course we could improve our cash flow and stop paying our bills. I'm not that interested in starting up 'SAFE #2'. As you say the Board accepted that plenty of things should've have been done differently and indeed better, not least communicating with us. Let's hope Saturday night was the start of that.

P.S.  My understanding is that the Community Sports Hall is a registered charity, an entirely separate entity to the Football Club and has 2 permanent employees. If this isn't the case I'm sure Pete Foster will come on here and tell us.

[robininstockport]

If the CSH turns in a profit where does excess money go?
And likewise who covers a loss?

[JTH]

If the CSH turns in a profit where does excess money go?
And likewise who covers a loss?

The CSH is a separate entity. As it's a registered charity its activities are overseen by it's trustees who would decide on how to use it's funds in line with it's charitable objectives.

http://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1154394&subid=0

[bighairedmike]

If the CSH turns in a profit where does excess money go?
And likewise who covers a loss?

The CSH is a separate entity. As it's a registered charity its activities are overseen by it's trustees who would decide on how to use it's funds in line with it's charitable objectives.

http://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1154394&subid=0

It also depends on what the profit is made from. The football club own the bar, the CSH owns the actual hall.

For example, if the 40k profit was solely made on the bar then that would be football club money. If £10k profit was bar takings then the other 30k would be "charity money".

[Matt Taylor]

We banged the drum about being one of only 3 clubs in the league with no paid (non-football) employees. Small club mentality, again. Besides, I thought we had a few paid staff on the community side who worked at the football club everyday? We wouldn't judge other clubs as 2 separate entities and we shouldn't look at ourselves in such a way. While I wouldn't want to underestimate the workload that is picked up by unpaid volunteers sacrificing their time for free, we do have paid employees and (as was pointed out by someone on Saturday night) we need to stop belittling ourselves at every opportunity.
 

Hi Matt, I asked the question and to be honest didn't think the answer was banging the drum for sympathy or displaying a small club mentality. If we were like the other 21 clubs in the National Division and employed staff to carry out the roles currently done so voluntarily I reckon it would cost c£90k to £100k pa? We heard that the club will 'be in the black' by the end of the season, to achieve that we'd need to increase income or more likely cut the player's wage bill. That would make any hope of National League status a pipe dream frankly. Alternatively of course we could improve our cash flow and stop paying our bills. I'm not that interested in starting up 'SAFE #2'. As you say the Board accepted that plenty of things should've have been done differently and indeed better, not least communicating with us. Let's hope Saturday night was the start of that.

P.S.  My understanding is that the Community Sports Hall is a registered charity, an entirely separate entity to the Football Club and has 2 permanent employees. If this isn't the case I'm sure Pete Foster will come on here and tell us.

Sorry mate, maybe I didn't phrase that very well. I wasn't intending to imply that FT staff should replace volunteers at Alty, I was questioning the claim made by the board that we are one of only 3 conf national clubs that don't have club employees. Because we do.
Just because we choose to run our stadium facilities and community work via a registered charity for admin purposes, doesn't mean we don't have paid employees working out of the club. In fact I would have thought that having two paid employees at the club, and a number of volunteers working around them, isn't particularly out of kilter with a lot of other similar sized conf clubs?
I actually think it's great that we are now at a stage where we can have paid staff at the club. We should stop belittling ourselves by pretending we don't.

[cheshire cat]

I think it's time to think about putting the ticket prices up. A £1-2 increase would raise cash that could replace TV money we won't be getting.

[wayno]

Do you not think its pretty expensive already ?

Hopefully prices will be froze

[MadFrankie]

Do you not think its pretty expensive already ?

Hopefully prices will be froze

£14 to stand is just about OK at national level but any increase would probably be unnaceptable to a lot of people - £15 for 6th tier football is just too much and will put off floating fans. Next season will see a considerable drop in total attendances (fewer casual supporters, significantly lower away support, 2 fewer home games) and a corresponding drop in gate income, but against that there'll be a drop in player costs (you'd expect) and lower travel costs. Perhaps the books will balance without the need for price rises.

[Timperley The Best]

Do you not think its pretty expensive already ?

Hopefully prices will be froze

£14 to stand is just about OK at national level but any increase would probably be unnaceptable to a lot of people - £15 for 6th tier football is just too much and will put off floating fans. Next season will see a considerable drop in total attendances (fewer casual supporters, significantly lower away support, 2 fewer home games) and a corresponding drop in gate income, but against that there'll be a drop in player costs (you'd expect) and lower travel costs. Perhaps the books will balance without the need for price rises.

agree

[im not really here]

I'm not quite sure how much we gained from the meeting, the board answered the questions posed though. There was no discussion about what the club requires going forward, the Chairman said if anyone had an ideas that they could approach him but what help do the club need? A list was posted on the main site recently asking for help with manual tasks but I wonder if there are any admin, fundraising, coordination or community tasks that the club needs help with. For example I may have the time to assist and/or lead on a project but not necessarily have the time to think of one and produce an outline plan, likewise there may be people with IT skills but no DIY skills. Could a member of the board sort this out?

[cheshire cat]

Do you not think its pretty expensive already ?

Hopefully prices will be froze

£14 to stand is just about OK at national level but any increase would probably be unnaceptable to a lot of people - £15 for 6th tier football is just too much and will put off floating fans. Next season will see a considerable drop in total attendances (fewer casual supporters, significantly lower away support, 2 fewer home games) and a corresponding drop in gate income, but against that there'll be a drop in player costs (you'd expect) and lower travel costs. Perhaps the books will balance without the need for price rises.

agree

No I don't think it's pretty expensive. I paid £20 to watch a Division 2 match the other week. Macclesfield charge £19 on the gate, County charge £15. If we want to have a team worth watching the money has to come from somewhere. A small increase wouldn't be the end of the world.

[im not really here]

Increasing the gate fee would be a backwards step. All the hard work to attract new fans would be undone straightaway, you may be able to afford it but a lot of people won't pay it.

[brian1925]

I think an increase to £15 would be okay for a Conference National team, so for me prices definitely should be frozen next season.