Double D - The Radio Interview

Last updated : 30 March 2006 By Bigrich.....
Tonights entire Football Heaven programme on Radio Sheffield was a total RUFC affair for a change.

Dennis Coleman and Dino Maccio were both in the studio taking calls from Millers fans, and there were inundated with thanks and gratitude for taking on our club.

Here is a selection of questions put to the bosses and their answer in italics.

The was a slant in the Advertiser last week that the club could go into administration. Can you make that the last option for the club?

Dennis Coleman - The fundraising has got to carry on, Our plan is to take the club on from next season, we're in to re-structure the club and we've put a plan together to get from now to next season.

Once we get there we've got plenty ofplans in place for next season and for future years. We're not asking for people to go out with buckets but the fundraising events have to go on like the Orson gig!

Administration will be the last option, at the end of the day we want Rotherham United to be playing football next season. If we had'nt have come in then last Saturday was the last game at Millmoor, that is not scaremongering that is fact.

Dino Maccio - Its fantastic that people are still wanting to help us, its a fantastic club with fantastic people.

Can we do 2 for the price of 1 in the community stand til the end of the season?

DC - We have to talk to the police about stuff like that, but we are doing. Mk Dons for example, I'm trying to get their fans in the community end and fill the Railway End with Rotherham Fans and familys.

Storys are circulating that your trying to buy Millmoor, is that true and where are you on that?

DC - I don't know where thats come from, that may be rumours starting cos people may have seen us talking to Mr Booths sons the other day, but that was about sorting the lease out.

Our lawyers are dealing with the lease,we did mention about buying the grouund but we'll wait and see about the response on that. I think its very importand that we own Millmoor, but if thats not to be the case then maybe we can have a specially built stadium somewhere, maybe sharing with the rugby club.

DM - ITs been rumoured before, but we'll work with the rugby club no problems. We've spoke with Brian Chapple and they're happy to do that with us.

Has Alan Knill got a future?

DM - We've been speaking with Alan and we're happy with his performance. We think he's doing a good job and hes a great guy. At the moment we're happy with Alan.

DC - We'll be sitting down with Alan very shortly because we have to discuss next season, who he wants to keep and bring in.

We wont rule anything out. No plans to find anybody new at the moment.

Hopefully long-term it would be ideal to have a Manager with us for the next 10 years, as long as he's bringing in the right players and making the right decisions and we have a bit of success on the football pitch then that can happen.

DM - I think it could be Knill, hes a great guy, doing well and we have to give him a chance, hes doing well so why not? we'll keep him.


Some fans are worried if they buy a Season Ticket that the club could go bust during the season and season tickets have been wasted?

Dc- We've had meetings about this, and I understand the fans thoughts on that, I'd feel the same..

We're looking to make a new account to put the pledges and Season Ticket money and that money stays in there until we can show a plan that goes forward.

We still need everybody to back the club and buy thier season tickets that is part of our business plan.

Will the refreshment bars be improved?
DM - We're definately going to improve it all, we're going to improve facilities al way arouund the ground.

DC - That something im looking at. Under the old board all the shops around the ground - Club Shop, Tea Bars etc were franchised out. I've just got the contracts, so I have to go through them and try to get them back and start making money for Rotherham United because at the moment they're making us nothing.

Whats the biggest problem you have?

DC - We've come into a club thats losing £140,000 a month, the situation hasnt changed since last week. We're looking at ways to make that change and theres a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes to change that situation.

That will change and I must stress that the fundraising is helping with that at the moment while we get things in place and get us through to the end of this season - hopefully in this division. And we start next season with the plans to go forward.

Will the new board still pay the wages of Mick Harford and Campbell-Ryce?
DC - Yeah we're still paying for 4 ex players, we're looking at all the contracts at the moment and see if we can do some deals here and there.

There are other parts of the club that we need to pick up on and see if we can save money on. But we're not just looking to save money, we're also looking at ways to bring more money in. The Commercial dept we can make a lot more money in from that.

When do you hope the club will start ot break even??
DC - We want to get into next season. We had plans going forward and whichever way we raise finance's, from next season we want to be on an even footing, then start to make money.

The fact is, this seaon we are paying £2.1 million on players wages, there are teams at the top 5 paying £900k, that tells a story.

We want to be in the top two, paying sensible wages and making profits for the club but still up there bringing the club forward. It's not rocket science to see whats going wrong.

There's a lot of players out of contract and a lot of big earners in the summer, come the end of June we have probably six or seven players out of contract. They wont be getting the same contracts as they had before I'll tell you that now, wether they stay at Millmoor is another thing but the will have to re-negotiate on sensible contracts.

Them days of crazy wages are starting to die out, theres only the premiership clubs who are paying crazy wages.

How close were you to letting Lee Williamson go before the deadline day.?

DC - We have had a cheeky offer from a local team for Williamson, and it was an insult to our club and there is no way he will be going!!

The bid was £10k and hes worth a Million! Theres no way he will be leaving this club for ten grand.

Is it possible to get the seats in the new stand and people sat in them?

DC - Its a safety issue, the entrance into the stand because of the width limits the amouunt of people we can have in there. We're allowed 1340 supporters and not allowed unless we take down the floodlight.

Whens the finish date on the stand?
DC - As soon as possible, our game is to get the stand watertight. The turnstyles are coming on the 6th or april but theres still a lot of work to do like drainage and everything to be done. We've got the concrete on the 2nd and 3rd level yesterday.

What about the pledge scheme that RUST brought up?
DC - We believe there are 172 pledges so far, but this is something we can carry on with in the future, but give the donors something back like special seats or facilities.

The brick in the wall is a sore point at the minute, we thought RUST had the money, we believe there was £200k raised from that, We've fouund out there's £3,000 left in the kitty. We thought there was a seperate kitty, we believe its already been spent on the new stand already.

What about a member of RUST on the board?
DC - We'll speak to RUST, we want to work with all supporters groups, but as far as a member on the board - I dont know about that, I don't know if that would work. Until we've sat down and spoke to RUST we can't really comment on that.

How bad were things?

DC - Well the clubs losing £140k a month, it doesnt get much worse than that, but what we've found is that the club was run like little departmenst and not as one. We're trying to bring all that together and make everybody work together, It wont happen overnight but we'll get there over the next few weeks I'm sure.

Well there you have it, and they sounded well. Plenty of promise there and lots of ideas.. Lets hope that it will happen and we can only do our best to help the club make it happen.

Best of luck lads!!!