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An annual loss in the region of quarter of a million is not unexpected trying to maintain a competitive full time team in the Championship.

Next year's figures will be boosted by our share of the add on paid to Celtic in relation to Ryan Christie for Bournemouth's promotion and the income from reaching the play off final.

An ongoing cause for concern but no cause for alarm.

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To clarify, the £730k is what it's costing us for Key Management.  Manager (and assistants?), CEO, Sporting Director, Commercial Director etc.  Which is equivalent to 20+ decent player salaries at Championship level.

Edited by STFU
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10 hours ago, STFU said:

To clarify, the £730k is what it's costing us for Key Management.  Manager (and assistants?), CEO, Sporting Director, Commercial Director etc.  Which is equivalent to 20+ decent player salaries at Championship level.

I don't remember us, as a club, ever being so management top heavy ever before 

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It will be very interesting to see how the concert venture works out.  The idea of setting up their own production company was so that a 3rd party doesn't cream off the profits.  But making profits requires strong ticket sales.  I've no idea how many tickets have been sold or how many need to be sold to make a profit, but Scot Gardiner said in his statement last Friday that there is still availability in all levels for both concerts.  If people from further afield were thinking about coming to Inverness for the weekend they might find that costs of overnight accommodation will make them change their mind.  According to booking.com, a couple of nights (Friday to Sunday) in a basic Holiday Inn Express room will knock you back £582 whilst the Glen Mhor is charging £1,040 with breakfast extra!

In his statement, Scot also said that the date of the Club's AGM would be announced this week.  Hopefully it will be happening before the start of the next season so that the financial position and on-going plans will be a bit clearer before the next campaign starts.

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8 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Although there was a point when we were paying managerial salaries to John Hughes, Richie Foran and John Robertson all at the same time.

I don't think that explains this tbh. There are a lot of senior positions at the club at moment 

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3 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

I agree. Too many and at too high salaries for a vlub of our limited resources.

And not enough staff on the ground? We seem to struggle to put on a big matchday now with no turnstiles and sometimes only one sometimes 2 scanning at gates at North stand. They are mostly youth players not staff. 

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3 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

I agree. Too many and at too high salaries for a vlub of our limited resources.

Maybe but if they turn things round and make us strong financially it will turn out to have been well worth it.

The deal mentioned in the P&J article sounds significant.

Players have been getting tied up quicker and our young talent and key players are under contract so we will get a fee if they move. Hopefully we bring our new signings in early and they enhance the squad.

The hospitality offering is very good now.

We no longer have gaps in the advertising boards at the ground.

We seem to have great team spirit.

We still need much improved communication though to build on the success of Section 94 and the positivity around the club and the increased fan numbers.

I’d anticipate turnstiles being back in use next season following the pandemic, staffed by volunteers or youth players as they were before.

For me, the Board seem to be moving us forward and hopefully that continues.

I’m happy to give them the benefit of the doubt at this time and trust them that their approach is working. 

Edited by Robert
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It is an interesting article.  It would obviously be nice if the club could operate without a significant operating loss, but it is very encouraging the losses are much less than they were.  The strategy of diversification appears to be paying off and there has been a huge amount of effort behind the scenes to establish a more stable financial base to support the club moving forwards.  

One area where the club has not done so well is in terms of communication and supporter engagement.  This needs to change.  The Supporters Trust has recently written formally to the club to get a commitment from the Board to work constructively with the Trust and are pleased that the Board agree that it is in the mutual interest of club and supporters to have constructive engagement with the Trust.  We have followed this up with a suggestion for an agenda which would include a discussion around the Trust's recently agreed goals and, specifically, picking up on our earlier offer to lead a fundraising campaign to raise money towards a cover for the West Stand.  

If the club can, once again, be seen to be engaging constructively with the Supporters Trust, then hopefully more supporters will join the Trust and help to give it the manpower and the credibility it needs to be successful.  I hope to be able to give some positive news about the Supporter's Trust in a couple of weeks.

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39 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

It is an interesting article.  It would obviously be nice if the club could operate without a significant operating loss, but it is very encouraging the losses are much less than they were.  The strategy of diversification appears to be paying off and there has been a huge amount of effort behind the scenes to establish a more stable financial base to support the club moving forwards.  

One area where the club has not done so well is in terms of communication and supporter engagement.  This needs to change.  The Supporters Trust has recently written formally to the club to get a commitment from the Board to work constructively with the Trust and are pleased that the Board agree that it is in the mutual interest of club and supporters to have constructive engagement with the Trust.  We have followed this up with a suggestion for an agenda which would include a discussion around the Trust's recently agreed goals and, specifically, picking up on our earlier offer to lead a fundraising campaign to raise money towards a cover for the West Stand.  

If the club can, once again, be seen to be engaging constructively with the Supporters Trust, then hopefully more supporters will join the Trust and help to give it the manpower and the credibility it needs to be successful.  I hope to be able to give some positive news about the Supporter's Trust in a couple of weeks.

I entirely agree. There are some good things going on at board level and sof of them may be commercially sensitive but most are not.

Many of us are financially invested in the club, even if only to a very limited extent, all of us are emotionally invested and we do deserve to be kept better informed and on a much more regular basis.

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21 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

According to booking.com, a couple of nights (Friday to Sunday) in a basic Holiday Inn Express room will knock you back £582 whilst the Glen Mhor is charging £1,040 with breakfast extra!

Agree - and its not just at concert time. When we are planning a trip, which most recent visit excepted, is typically 6 or more months in advance,  I could typically rent a house for a month for less than the cost of booking an average hotel room for a week. As a family we do prefer to do the whole AirBnB or VRBO thing and have some go-to rentals in Inverness that we check first ... but we also take a look at hotel offers and the costs are insane so they are quickly discarded. 

 

 

9 hours ago, Robert said:

Maybe but if they turn things round and make us strong financially it will turn out to have been well worth it.

The deal mentioned in the P&J article sounds significant.

Players have been getting tied up quicker and our young talent and key players are under contract so we will get a fee if they move. Hopefully we bring our new signings in early and they enhance the squad.

The hospitality offering is very good now.

We no longer have gaps in the advertising boards at the ground.

We seem to have great team spirit.

We still need much improved communication though to build on the success of Section 94 and the positivity around the club and the increased fan numbers.

I’d anticipate turnstiles being back in use next season following the pandemic, staffed by volunteers or youth players as they were before.

For me, the Board seem to be moving us forward and hopefully that continues.

I’m happy to give them the benefit of the doubt at this time and trust them that their approach is working. 

Does seem a bit top heavy on the face of things but all good points you raise. Provided the outlay is generating growing income and improving services then so be it ... we have never operated at a profit, always relying on a cup run or wealthy directors putting in a few pennies here and there. If we can use sponsorship, advertising board sales, and other non-football or non-matchday revenue generators then the outlay for staff to bring those deals in and make our offerings more professional may be worthwhile as that in itself may help get us closer to balancing the books.

I am not going to crucify anyone on reducing an expected deficit in the middle of a pandemic when all of these things are challenging even in normal times but we do need to be mindful of it. Its a bit of a broken record, but if there is one area we are still lacking it is communication at some levels and there is no excuse for that. The club have their own website and social media to get things out there, they also have many other fan-based organisations or outlets that the as well.

 

 

 

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There's been a little bit of a misunderstanding earlier in the thread on the £730k.  This is not salaries due to directors but loans given to the club from them, this is how the losses in 2017-2019 were covered.  Its unlikely these will be paid in full but potentially converted to shares - £460k of a loan was converted like this in 2019 along with £100k written off.

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Thanks for pointing that out.

Reading more info, the claim that losses are reducing seems a little far-fetched.  Whilst true, it appears that the losses have reduced by about £10k and hardly worthy of a headline.

Correct me if I'm wrong on the following, but it would appear that our losses are much as they have always been, our debt is more than it has been for a long time and the only trend we're bucking is being the only club in the Championship to have returned a massive loss for that year, despite getting £500k (?) of taxpayers funding?  Kinda feels like we've been taking the ****, no?

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