The Sinking Ship?

[dicksmith]

The club has been hit with a succession of key personnel leaving at the end of the year - The CEO Maggie, Tony/Joe, and Scott Booth.  All are key positions for guiding the club and the teams.  In addition, the coming years are starting to look even more lean budget wise although we've never been flush with money.

Reading between some of the lines, trying to figure out what made this year different from the recent past, I can only point to something that others have alluded to.  That is the cultural change in the Board.  Two to three years ago, the majority of the Board were people who had grown with Lewes and had achieved some knowledge of how football clubs' "work".  The last couple of years have seen many new faces, of very well-intentioned people, arrive on the board but without much background. 

Becoming a Board member at Lewes was a "neat" thing to do with our excellent branding.  In addition, several of these newer board members chose to leave prematurely, which opened the door for more of the same.  To me, the unbelievable part was that several new Board members had never even been to the Pan to support the teams.  The recent call for co-opted Directors shows that even the Board recognizes their lack of expertise.

What to do?  Well, if we do nothing, we'll probably just watch the teams fall in the pyramid, attendance and interest fall off, and Lewes will become a foot note in football history for their stance on social issues.  If we cannot find suitable people to run the Club, on a volunteer basis, then I see only one alternative.  That would be to sell off the Club to private equity. We would probably even be better off if we gave it away to some entity that was committed to bringing in additional capital.

Your opinion may be different, and that's OK.

[ollyports11]

Fair points, the budget maybe less, the players may all leave. But I’ve seen this all before with Lewes, but the club lives on. I still will be buying a season ticket next year and bring my 10 year old son, who loves the club. If fans want to walk away when the chips are down that’s fine. But this is Lewes Fc my club and my love.

[nicorijnders]

More veteran Rooks can correct me on any details, but my understanding/recollection is that around a decade and a half ago Lewes had a wealthy backer/owner that culminated in promotion to the Conference, at which point the funds dried up / financial demands got too rich and the Conference season ended up being a pretty miserable slog of 0-4 home defeats (this was my first season, not sure quite how I got hooked) followed by a tumble down the divisions and the club almost going out of business before being rescued by some generous benefactors - some local and some not - and the current ownership structure has been put in place.

I have a huge affection for the Ibbo years but there's no doubt that falling down the leagues or just competing against teams with bigger budgets isn't much fun. But I'd still rather Lewes were playing in the County League and be in control of our fate and reasonably sure the Pan won't get sold for flats or whatever - which might sound hysterical, but as above, the club has almost gone out of business once in my relatively short tenure and I'm sure we're all familiar with awful stories from up and down the leagues.

There have certainly been directors who maybe haven't contributed as much as promised - and who weren't seen at the Pan after or even during their tenure - but this seems to be true of some locals as well and looking at the current board make up there's plenty of locals and I don't remember seeing a list of forensic accountants on the ballot paper who were overlooked. You don't need to be a technical expert to understand that if you have funding that stops or a lump sum that is used up, then budgets will reduce. But however you see the recent period at the club, where the club now finds itself now - for good and ill - is a result of the collective strategy not a result of a technical failure or lack of capability.

I personally have loved the Russell era, but the club goes on and there's plenty of passion and knowledge left to get the next pick right and whether they do or don't the club will go on. That's football. The club have been getting fantastic gates, attracted some big sponsors, have an income stream in ownership that other clubs don't and some remaining strong and committed directors. I'd hope that's enough to compete at a decent level, but even if not I'd rather have security for the club than risk it on "giving the club to private equity" or being too thirsty for some investment that might not even be out there and has a lot of risk & gives up something special.

[lewesrook]

Yes it’s the end of an era. One that has been fuelled by £2m of generous donations from ex-Directors over the last three seasons, in a failed attempt to achieve promotion. No one asked the owners if this is what they wanted, it just happened. Now that the money is spent, everyone is leaving. Lewes FC will live on with less ambition and maybe get back to being a fan owned club. Anyone want a Tesla?

[simon]

Tony has done a decent job, with finishes of 7th, 6th and 7th. Just short of play offs but still decent.

It appears the club will be heading into different waters financially but there will still be plenty of managers ready to step forward and give it a go.

[stevet]

Surely a team averaging over 900 brings in enough funds to stay in this division. I remember the years in the division below and they were pretty grim - terrible opponents, hardly any away fans, poorer quality players. I wouldn't want to see us fall down even one division, let alone county league

[tabby]

Now that the women's team are relegated, if the board reduce their budget for next season then the same will happen to the men's team.

[wm]

We need someone to clearly explain the £-implications of the ladies relegation. For several years now, FA grants etc seem to have been the reason given for various paid jobs being affordable. Presumably they'll all go now? And am I the only person struggling to recall any figures for gates and £s generated by the two teams – who's going to be subsiding who next season? Are any of the much-heralded sponsorships going to disappear now? And what the hell is this talk about a Tesla??

[hoopsboy1]

Think that is about the Electric car tony was got as part of his deal

[sedlescombe]

Apr 22, 2024 11:54:46 GMT lewesrook said:

Yes it’s the end of an era. One that has been fuelled by £2m of generous donations from ex-Directors over the last three seasons, in a failed attempt to achieve promotion. No one asked the owners if this is what they wanted, it just happened. Now that the money is spent, everyone is leaving. Lewes FC will live on with less ambition and maybe get back to being a fan owned club. Anyone want a Tesla?

It’s certainly the end of an era - From the fan takeover of the club to the Ed and Charlie years of funding.  With the running down of their financial legacy to the relegation of the women’s team it certainly feels like a chapter has come to an end.  As for no one asking the fans that simply isn’t true.  The whole Equality FC came out of Charlie and Ed’s re-election as directors.  Indeed it felt to me that the club had gone through six months of slowly trying to:live within its means and reducing its reliance on director investment to full speed ahead to being lauded as the club that does things differently.  They weee decisively elected on that platform so we are all as owners responsible.

There were a few voices at the time arguing that this was unsustainable - and surely we all knew in our hearts that this day would come but like football fans everywhere and paraphrasing that clown that ran Leeds United into the ground we were happy to “live the dream”

There is a lot of gloom in this thread and I would invite everyone to take a look at the Isthmian League table and Wingate in the play-off spots.  A club where they announce the crown changes to the team ( ok that’s unnecessarily sarcastic). The club still has a lot going for it and hey most teams fortunes wax and wain.  We can still be competitive and still be Equality FC

[Nell]

It seems to me that us owners have sat back and enjoyed the positive PR around Equality FC (and how good it has made us all look and feel) without holding the board to account over its strategy around it and it's sustainability. I hope the new board will review what community ownership actually means in practice and how we can use it to support the board to make the right decisions in the future.

[everyotherweek]

The ownership model is very interesting. Very worthy and people are proud to be a part of it. In reality, owners hear little of what goes on, few attend the Town Hall meetings and many owners have nothing to do with the club other than laying out their £50 because they like what they hear of the values.

It does seem extraordinary that all the money the club has had has, apparently, been spent. Even without the enormous donations, we have excellent crowds, huge food and drink sales and decent merchandise.

Someone mentioned Wingate and Finchley. They are a great example of managing budgets, always breaking even and maintaining a position in our league. This year they have done brilliantly in competing with every other club, all of which have much bigger crowds.

Good luck to them!

[robm99]

There are certainly clubs that cannot survive on their average gate receipts alone. Wingate and Finchley, for example, are averaging 195. Redridge, I think it is,averaging 81 while Dulwich Hamlet at well over 2500. Our average this season was 944 according to the Isthmian web page.

[dicksmith]

Apr 22, 2024 14:50:18 GMT wm said:

We need someone to clearly explain the £-implications of the ladies relegation. For several years now, FA grants etc seem to have been the reason given for various paid jobs being affordable. Presumably they'll all go now? And am I the only person struggling to recall any figures for gates and £s generated by the two teams – who's going to be subsiding who next season? Are any of the much-heralded sponsorships going to disappear now? 

I think that the owners and the fans would like to see the Board's projection to these questions.  Only by being transparent, can we get some honest handle on the future direction of the Club.  Simply posting the financial numbers at the end of the year only gives a very broad brush look at what took place.

[wm]

Apr 22, 2024 15:10:20 GMT hoopsboy1 said:

Think that is about the Electric car tony was got as part of his deal

Jesus

For a non-league manager? What were they thinking of?