Coleman put's paid to rumours!
Last updated : 28 September 2007 By Bigrich.....
Speaking to the Advertiser, Denis has moaned about rumours on this site, and hysterical reporting from the Star and has gone to lengths to squash some of the rumours.
Here's what he said.
"The finances are tight, as they are for every club, but they are probably as good as they have ever been here. We must be one of the only clubs in the country in the black. When we came in the club was losing £1.8 million a year. We hope to break even by the end of the financial year next May."
"We are not breaking even on a weekly basis but you get sponsorship deals throughout the year and Football League money throughout the year. Our projections for the year show that by the end of it we will have balanced our books."
"Obviously, a large factor is gate sizes, but they don't pay half of what we need in this club. They are unpredictable and they are dictated by what goes on on the pitch. If we can get gates up then we will be in a healthier position. But as we have always done since we came in, we have always taken a pessimistic view on what gates will be and budgeted accordingly rather than assume that good numbers are going to come in and then it not happen and find ourselves in trouble, which I think is what happened with the previous board."
"Remember that at the beginning of last year this club was losing £140,000 a month and had debts of several hundred thousands racked up and was days away from being liquidated. Unless, you have someone who has millions of pounds to say, 'here you are, there's a clean slate,' you have got to simply attack it the best way you can, which is looking at any excess costs and trying to reduce them and working as hard as you can to increase your income and revenue."
"We don't always get it right and we know there are untapped streams of income that we should by now have got onto, but we haven't. But the facilities here hold us back and, due to legal reasons, we can't make the most use of them. I'm sure most supporters are aware that we inherited a difficult situation and we are working as best we can to stabilise the club and take it forward."
"The big issue is wages. I have sat down with the manager and worked a budget out and stuck as closely as we can to it. And that is where football clubs lose their money—by gambling on players wages.—and we realised that very early. "
The chairman then went on to speak about the clubs crowds; "We appreciate all the people who come and appreciate that it's going to get consistently good performances out on that park to get the crowds back to the level we'd like to see them at. We are working towards it and it's a tough one."
Then onto the rumours of a boardroom split, which is something that had not been mentioned on the messageboards!.
"Absolute rubbish. As a board, we are as united as we were on day one. Don't get me wrong, our meetings are robust and we discuss topics fully on the understanding that that there will be a decision reached that we all work towards achieving. We have a brilliant relationship as a board and a healthy exchange of views and that's the only way you can do it."
Then he moves onto the clubs much moaned about commercial deptartment, admitting there has been problems getting the right set-up; "This is a department we have had problems with. We're trying to bring people in but to be honest we've not found the right formula yet. There's a lot of people will tell you they can sell but selling is not can or can't, it's will or won't. Some people don't get a buzz from clinching deals."
"Commercially it's still a healthier situation than when we came in, because there was nothing coming from the club shop, the tea bars, the Suite. There were ground boards that hadn't been paid for for years. There was one company on the corner roof of the Railway End that had been bust for four years and they were still up there in a prominent position."
"Remember, all those things are now in place and bringing income into the football club.
We've still a lot of catching-up work to do, but things are healthier. There is less staff but the structure we have in place fairly soon will be optimal in terms of the numbers we can afford to have and the jobs they will need to do. The key thing is that if someone rings with an enquiry, someone gets back to them within 24 hours."
"The second part of the equation is that we are not sitting and waiting for those enquiries. We are actually going out ringing phones, sending e-mails and knocking on doors."
It also looks like the club have moved on from the court case against the Booths and the rent issues.
Telling the 'Tiser; "We've got more pressing issues than the Booths!", and "There's never been a problem with meeting the rent. We missed one payment and got taken to court by the Booths. We paid it into court and now we are back to paying it through the normal channels, albeit at a high rate."
Denis looked to the future, saying;"We are not going to get this right overnight. It's going to take a few years. Bigger clubs than us have gone into freefall and I'd like to think we've stopped the rot."
"We are building for the future and I would remind people that our youth policy has developed into one of the best in the lower divisions. About 150 lads turn up every Sunday to play for Rotherham United in the Centre of Excellence and who knows how many of them are going to make the first team."
"We just ask people to keep with us and keep supporting us." he finalised with.
