MillersMAD Q and A - the rundown

Last updated : 08 January 2008 By Deano
The forum began at just after 7.30pm, running from the Rotherham United Suite and here we have pulled together the minutes of the evening for you.

What was the bugetted attendance figure for this season and how did this translate to revenue (ie. mix of season tickets vs oaps vs kids vs mainstand adults etc)?
Awkward question, what people dont realise is, I have people asking this all the time.

Our attendance figure is only a 1/3 of the income we need so we need to find the rest elsewhere.

At the beginning of the season, we did 3 sets of budgets and worked on historical figures, but what you can't budget for is the costs we keep getting. IE Floods at Millmoor & Hooton Lodge, We had to renew all the turnstyle counting system, rewire of RU suite (which was dangerous!), heating repairs in RU Suite, Roof on new stand has started leaking, which all costs money..

Everything goes on success, so we budget for players but if team does not bring success, income obviously goes down. The budget given to Mark Robins this season we expect to bring us promotion.

With that in mind any indications on how much are our significant other costs (e.g. policing etc on matchdays)?

Also if the budgeted attendance figure was significantly higher than last time we were in this division with Ronnie Moore in charge....what made us plump for this figure?
It goes back to historical figures, we had success at that time and time in the championship, we would hope that some of those fans from the championship days would still be coming...

Also, we assumed that a promotion season would bring in at least as many fans as a relegation season last year.

If we had not given a good budget to Mark, and not gone for promotion it would have given off the wrong vibes to people that we would be happy to stay in this division.

Significant other's are the big rental on the ground and the example we used in Saturdays programme, Notts County get thier stadium at less for a year than what we pay for a month!!!

The proposed move away from Millmoor...
Where is the new ground proposed to be built?

Also what is the likely/hopeful mix of funding for it? (e.g. Council, RUFC, Rugby, Stadium Improvement Grants, Other)?
We hope to be able to make an announcement on where the ground is likely to be in the next few weeks, as regards funding the council will not pay for this ground, we have to fund it privately, but we believe that is achievable.

Although the council won't pay for the ground directly, their input will be of help in obtaining funding.

What would the capacity reduce to if we went to a system of unreserved seating? (thinking being it'll reduce a bit but we're miles from capacity most games anyway and it might generate a bit better atmosphere if mates could sit together)

Also when is the surcharge/discount nonsense being discontinued on match day tickets? ..and why do kids for a quid deals require advanced tickets??
The capacity would be reduced by 10%, although the question on reserved seating had been asked before at a forum and a majority showing was for reserved seating..

Surcharge - Why would fans want us to stop discounting tickets by £2? Buying tickets in advance helps us guage the crowd and possible costs - stewarding / pies / programmes etc etc It also helps us to know what stands we can have open.. plus it aleviates queing at the turnstiles.

Its for child protection, we can't put child tickets out on the turnstiles, they have to be from the ticket office. Kids for a Quid tickets are available up until 2:30pm on matchdays!

The reason why the ticket office stops selling tickets at 2:30 is because we have to reconcile the money ready for securicor collection.

Why oh why oh why can we still NOT buy merchandise/ tickets online lads??

The shop/ticket office largely coincides with most working hours and I find it bizarre that in this day and age no online payment/ticket allocation/sale system is in effect....shed any light for us please??
we are sorting something out where the shop will be online by the end of febuary, a fan off Millersmad is sorting that out for us..hopefully tickets won't be far behind it..

We did look at a completely new ticketing system for online and offline purchases but the costs were just too high, but we are looking at alternatives and will hopefully be online shortly.

We know this is an important thing but we want to do it right, because if we get it wrong we will get slaughtered...

This question is about the named bricks that many paid for with our donations to the ill fated new stand fund...will you give thought to trying to incorporate this system in the future Millers stadium plans?
Yes definately, its already been talked about but its pointless doing it at Millmoor, but it will be done at the new stadium if and when we get one.

If the ticket price at £15 for "United Rotherham" proves to be popular will it prove that the ticket prices should be lowered permanently and would that be something you might consider?
If we thought we could get over 30% extra constantly through the turnstiles then of course we would consider it, but we have already done it for 2 games this season and only got 76 took the offer up and only 4 had been less than 3 games this season, so it cost us money and it didnt bring any new support in.

Is it possible you could briefly outline the terms of the current Millmoor lease deal with CF Booth ltd, I.e. monthly rent, responsibility for maintainance, penalties for non compliance etc??
we cant really go into the lease thing, whats we can say has been said in the public domain over and over.
We do have a clause in the lease that we can leave Millmoor 2011, however there is clause for the landlords to force us to leave by 2014.

Denis and Gary also declined to comment on the rumoured Adidas kit deal for next season, confirmed that no current player has a get out clause if we fail to gain promotion this season, and that we do have a sell on clause percentage from Watford for any future sales of Hoskins and Williamson.

On behalf of myself and Rich we'd like to thank the lads for giving up their time to take part and wish them all the best for the rest of the season.
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