Athlone bucked?

[WoodquayBoy]

Merge the 2 clubs and keep the 'Longford' from Longford Town, and the 'Town' from Athlone Town. Keeps everyone happy.
(Don't tell me someone in the FAI hasn't had that thought blow like tumbleweed across their mind.)

[Acornvilla]

Merge them both with the Alberts obviously.

[Longfordian]

Merge the 2 clubs and keep the 'Longford' from Longford Town, and the 'Town' from Athlone Town. Keeps everyone happy.
(Don't tell me someone in the FAI hasn't had that thought blow like tumbleweed across their mind.)

I believe that when they had people in doing presentations about the new super duper FAI run league back in '06 or whenever there was a bit of kite flying regarding clubs possibly merging so there could be one full time professional outfit and it was intimated that one club in the Midlands would be ideal. Obviously neither club were too keen on that idea.

[Charlie Darwin]

Proposing merges between clubs from different towns who hate each other is Star Wars-level out of the box thinking, up there with the eejits who'd have us set up teams for the four proud provinces of Ireland.

[Acornvilla]

Given everything else, and the fact that we 'do all our business in Dublin', we should merge with Shamrock Rovers.

[Longfordian]

Proposing merges between clubs from different towns who hate each other is Star Wars-level out of the box thinking, up there with the eejits who'd have us set up teams for the four proud provinces of Ireland.
There was a lot of "blue sky thinking" from expensive consultants around then.

[Charlie Darwin]

Given everything else, and the fact that we 'do all our business in Dublin', we should merge with Shamrock Rovers.
Why would you merge with a club from Wicklow?

[Battery Rover]

Merge the 2 clubs and keep the 'Longford' from Longford Town, and the 'Town' from Athlone Town. Keeps everyone happy.
(Don't tell me someone in the FAI hasn't had that thought blow like tumbleweed across their mind.)
Most of us would rather rot in junior football than accept something like that.

[WoodquayBoy]

Just for clarity, I wasn't being serious!!

[ATFC-1887]

Crisis averted was the general feeling after the meeting. Not as bad as was made out. Club wont fold. Realistically was never a possibility. In advanced talks with a sponsor with announcement hopefully by end of the week.
Club appealed for more people to help out as their is a very very small number at the moment.
A new 10 euro a week donation was set up with free entry to home games included and an entry in the weekly lotto also.
Very positive response from the majority of what was an extremely large crowd. People seem to want to do something. They dont want to see the club stuck in the 1st division.
Hopefully things will progress from this and we will be back where we belong.

[WoodquayBoy]

Sounds positive - hope that proves to be the case

[De Town]

Judging by pics from the meeting on FB/Twitter, it seems there was a bigger crowd at the meeting than at a lot of games in Lissywoollen...fair play.

[outspoken]

Crisis averted was the general feeling after the meeting. Not as bad as was made out. Club wont fold. Realistically was never a possibility. In advanced talks with a sponsor with announcement hopefully by end of the week.
Club appealed for more people to help out as their is a very very small number at the moment.
A new 10 euro a week donation was set up with free entry to home games included and an entry in the weekly lotto also.
Very positive response from the majority of what was an extremely large crowd. People seem to want to do something. They dont want to see the club stuck in the 1st division.
Hopefully things will progress from this and we will be back where we belong.

Jaysus that's a great idea actually

[oriel]

A tenner a week, free entry into home games is a great idea for a club under pressure. This could work out better than say if there were two home per month (2 x €15), but you would still need to get the fans to make the effort to actually go.

If it's well taken up, you have €40 a month coming in, and it's a tenner up really, and possibly not having to worry as much about the gate, plus good idea giving something back like the lotto. If results improve, crowds attending should increase.

Sounds like a good idea, hopefully it will work out.

[ATFC-1887]

A tenner a week, free entry into home games is a great idea for a club under pressure. This could work out better than say if there were two home per month (2 x €15), but you would still need to get the fans to make the effort to actually go.

If it's well taken up, you have €40 a month coming in, and it's a tenner up really, and possibly not having to worry as much about the gate, plus good idea giving something back like the lotto. If results improve, crowds attending should increase.

Sounds like a good idea, hopefully it will work out.

20 up. It's only a tenner in first division games 😃

[Longfordian]

Yeah credit where it's due that sounds like a really good idea.

[Bosco]

Is that a tenner a week during the season or for the whole year?Good idea whichever it is. Should be cause for a bit of craic over on the attendance thread as well.

[Mr A]

So this was a false alarm? Athlone didn't run with a budget they couldn't sustain? There is a sponsor about to come aboard after all? Suddenly it all sounds like it was a fundraising launch rather than a crisis meeting as it was billed.

[ATFC-1887]

Yeh there was never really a crisis. It was basically a plea to the public to get involved and help in a physical or financial way.

[Mr A]

Were fans offered any degree of ownership for this tenner a week? Demanding people get involved with ideas, time and money may go better if people got a degree of ownership at the end of it.

Midlands coverage: https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/john-hayden-on-public-meeting

[tiktok]

Were fans offered any degree of ownership for this tenner a week? Demanding people get involved with ideas, time and money may go better if people got a degree of ownership at the end of it.

Midlands coverage: https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/john-hayden-on-public-meeting

Athlone is a members club anyway, so assume ownership/membership is a given.

[ATFC-1887]

Were fans offered any degree of ownership for this tenner a week? Demanding people get involved with ideas, time and money may go better if people got a degree of ownership at the end of it.

Midlands coverage: https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/john-hayden-on-public-meeting
Nope its seperate to membership. A new membership scheme was set up a couple of months ago. Its 250 euro a year. Alot of people dont see any real benefit to it for that amount so it has not really worked.
http://athlonetownfc.ie/membership/

[Mr A]

Well, that's that cleared up.

Wait.

Are those my feet?

[ATFC-1887]

I know its strange that people reacted better to this than the membership, which is cheaper. Can't understand why but i think its the way the membership was promoted was poor so people didn't want it. Ah i dunno. Nothing surprises me with this club or fans

[ATFC-1887]

http://www.westmeathindependent.ie/news/roundup/articles/2015/03/20/4036514-athlone-town-not-facing-a-doomsday-scenario-meeting-told/

[Dodge]

I know its strange that people reacted better to this than the membership, which is cheaper. Can't understand why

Fear is a great motivator

[total hoofball]

So this doomsday crisis was all about Athlone attempts scare the life out of their supporters to get them to pay up to fund their attempt to buy their way back to the premier division. Short term solution to a sustainability problem. I wonder how the boards of their other 7 first division clubs living within their means feel about this?

The sooner the FAI sort out this licensing farce to prevent mid-season wage cuts and begging to supporters for digouts the better. Introduce some sort of pre-licensing in November/December on realistic basic bugetry projections/sign whatever players you can afford and then come January/February when you have earned your sponsorship, sold your season tickets then you can go ahead a sign whatever additional players to strengthen your squad and get your full license.

[gufcfan]

The sooner the FAI sort out this licensing farce

They have shown time and again that they are unwilling to apply the rules consistently and prefer to ignore them when it suits them, rather than fix anything.

[Charlie Darwin]

the boards of their other 7 first division clubs living within their means
Hahahaha

[Mr A]

The message seems to be promotion or drop out of the league, existing in the first division not viewed as an option. Never mind trying to put your house in order and trying to build up gradually, the approach seems to be get promoted then things will be grand. Not a surprising attitude given how difficult surviving in the first is, but didn't Athlone splurge massively just after the stadium move in an attempt to get up- how did that work out again?

But from another D1 club looking on none of this carry on would endear you to ATFC, not that they'd give a feck of course.


Athlone is a members club anyway, so assume ownership/membership is a given.

It wasn't clear to me that members own the club BTW- plenty of clubs have membership schemes that don't confer ownership. I'll take your word for it though.

[ThePrisoner]

Athlone is a members club anyway, so assume ownership/membership is a given.

Can you advise of the legal entity that owns and operates the Athlone Town FC?

[wonder88]

From newspaper report total budget is around 5k per week of which 4k is wages; so 80% of expenditure. And it seems that expenditure is more than income at present so that pushes the wage bill over 90% of turnover approx. No expert, but is there not guidelines in relation to spending on wages when giving out licences?

Two problems highlighted in this story in relation to the LoI;
1 nearly all income seems to go on wages, resulting in poor infrastructure and lack of player development structure (see Pat Fenlon and B team at Shamrocks)
2 the general (correct?) feeling that being in the first division is a disaster for any club

If the league hopes to prosper both these problems need to be sorted. So lets have a one division league and central contracts for players.

[outspoken]

From newspaper report total budget is around 5k per week of which 4k is wages; so 80% of expenditure. And it seems that expenditure is more than income at present so that pushes the wage bill over 90% of turnover approx. No expert, but is there not guidelines in relation to spending on wages when giving out licences?

Two problems highlighted in this story in relation to the LoI;
1 nearly all income seems to go on wages, resulting in poor infrastructure and lack of player development structure (see Pat Fenlon and B team at Shamrocks)
2 the general (correct?) feeling that being in the first division is a disaster for any club

If the league hopes to prosper both these problems need to be sorted. So lets have a one division league and central contracts for players.

Afaik the 65% rule only applies to premier clubs.

[Battery Rover]

I am not sure of that. I have a feeling SCP applies to all but it is in final accounts that is declared.

[ger121]

Bucked they may be but that was a big 3 points last night.

[nigel-harps1954]

Jesus, 5k a week is massive for a first division team, especially someone like Athlone who, let's be honest, aren't the most well supported team out there.

[ATFC-1887]

Jesus, 5k a week is massive for a first division team, especially someone like Athlone who, let's be honest, aren't the most well supported team out there.
Yes, because all the other first division teams are very well supported......

[ATFC-1887]

And before you say it, yes we had a poor attendance against Cobh. But alot of that is down to the things going on with the club. No promotion of the game etc. Hopefully the crowds will build after our good start. We all love a good bandwagon.

[nigel-harps1954]

Yes, because all the other first division teams are very well supported......

Because the gripe of course is with how well Athlone are supported and not how they're spending 5k a week on a budget, around double that of most teams in the division.

[ATFC-1887]

Its not all on wages clearly. I was told last night the wages is around 3k. The rest is running costs. Not saying its true. Just saying what i was told

[ATFC-1887]

We finally got a sponsor :D Top Oil

[Nesta99]

We finally got a sponsor :D Top Oil

Is it a Dundalk company? Has to be top oil then!

[GCdfc]

Is it a Dundalk company? Has to be top oil then!

Head Office Address:

Tedcastles Oil Products
Promenade Road,
Dublin 3

[gufc2000]

Eddie Wallace has resigned as Athlone manager