A Couple of Questions Re Dundalk

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Originally Posted by Longfordian

Depends what you mean by financially sound. For example, we're not flush with cash but most of our long term debt has been cleared and we're breaking even or making a small profit the last few years.

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Tbh I'm always very skeptical about this "clubs are making a small profit" angle that is often pushed (mainly by Fran Gavin.)

I just don't see it and I suspect it's probably more to do with the way the budgets set by the FAI are being structured.

Like take a medium sized club like a Longford. No offence Longford fans these are very rough figures!

Outgoings every month:

Wages: 15,000
Officials: 1,500
Insurance: 1,500
Travel: 1,500

That's 19,500 and I have left out an absolute ball of stuff there as you can all see

Income every month:

Gate Receipts: 5,000 (I'm being generous here)
Sponsorship: 3,000 (again I think I'm being quite generous)

That's 8,000 and granted I am leaving some stuff out on this side as well I'm sure.

Where's the shortfall being made up??

The way I see the league there's one club being ran by a shady cabal of eccentric billionaires (Limerick), a few clubs living month to month (Shamrock, Sligo, Pats, Cork) and other the rest are living week to week.

On whether or not a club like Dundalk should cut back to the bare bones, I've did a few exercises in the past (what an exciting life I lead) and there's actually a fairly fine balance to be struck. An awful lot of expenses are fixed and putting out an all amateur team for example doesn't necessarily save the money you'd think it would.

Even if Dundalk release the senior pros, sell whoever they can, and have kids playing for 50e a week expenses, you're still looking at a bill of about 2k a week (staff and players). The bigger debts are the ones that were hidden, manipulated and messed about with by the owner. Coupled to that the fact that he "gave up" hosting events in his fun factory because of the hassle involved (when the fun factory was meant to help towards the running of the club) and you've a situation where there's a mountain of debt crushing the club. The biggest sticking points for anyone coming in are: a) who funded the GM fun factory, b) how much is actually owed by the club, c) how to get rid of the current owner and his fun factory, actually that's just 3 things. Clubs in Ireland are always going to struggle and when the owner wants out (and fair dues he did rescue the club and give the ground a facelift) after hopes and reality not matching up, it's a long, slow, cruel wind down. Dundalk pulling out of the league now is not going to be too far fetched.

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

Tbh I'm always very skeptical about this "clubs are making a small profit" angle that is often pushed (mainly by Fran Gavin.)

I just don't see it and I suspect it's probably more to do with the way the budgets set by the FAI are being structured.

Like take a medium sized club like a Longford. No offence Longford fans these are very rough figures!

Outgoings every month:

Wages: 15,000
Officials: 1,500
Insurance: 1,500
Travel: 1,500

That's 19,500 and I have left out an absolute ball of stuff there as you can all see

Income every month:

Gate Receipts: 5,000 (I'm being generous here)
Sponsorship: 3,000 (again I think I'm being quite generous)

That's 8,000 and granted I am leaving some stuff out on this side as well I'm sure.

Where's the shortfall being made up??

The way I see the league there's one club being ran by a shady cabal of eccentric billionaires (Limerick), a few clubs living month to month (Shamrock, Sligo, Pats, Cork) and other the rest are living week to week.

On whether or not a club like Dundalk should cut back to the bare bones, I've did a few exercises in the past (what an exciting life I lead) and there's actually a fairly fine balance to be struck. An awful lot of expenses are fixed and putting out an all amateur team for example doesn't necessarily save the money you'd think it would.

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Wages are more like €10k a month or less. We've two excellent sponsors that bring about €50k p.a all in all and a chairman that has a few quid if needs be. On a smaller scale than your chairman but he's still a multi millionaire from what I know. We won't be flush but we'll survive.

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Originally Posted by Longfordian

Wages are more like €10k a month or less. We've two excellent sponsors that bring about €50k p.a all in all and a chairman that has a few quid if needs be. On a smaller scale than your chairman but he's still a multi millionaire from what I know. We won't be flush but we'll survive.

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Its more than €50k as far as I know.

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Originally Posted by Longfordian

Wages are more like €10k a month or less.

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€2500 a week all in?? Players and staff??

I ain't buying it.

Rest of your post kind of backs up my point aswell.






Anyway......... Dundalk, crises, Gerry Matthews, YDC, etc, etc.

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

€2500 a week all in?? Players and staff??

I ain't buying it.

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+1

Not a hope.

I honestly don't know for sure, it may be around €3k a week including the staff I suppose but it isn't much more than that anyway from everything I've heard to date. Anyway, back on topic as you say..

On topic, so we're cutting the budget by 2k per week, coach not happy. But the main men are just hanging on in there hoping for something to happen. Shocking.

Dundalk FC Trust statement -


http://www.dundalkfc.com/dfc-community-trust-statement

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In the past week, the DFC Trust formally became a legal entity registered with the Company Registrations Office. As part of this process, the DFC Trust was required to change its name to the Dundalk FC Community Trust.
The DFC Community Trust recently met with Mr Gerry Matthews regarding the future of Dundalk Football Club. In this meeting, Mr Matthews re-iterated that he is not going to renew the license for the club for the 2013 season.
As of the evening of Tuesday 3rd July, the DFC Community Trust is the only group that have met with the club to discuss the feasibility of a takeover. Following our meeting, we are awaiting information vital to our due diligence ahead of such a takeover that we expect shortly.
We are continuing to hold meetings and establish contact with the major stakeholders in this process.
This process will ensure that all options are examined to safeguard the future of League of Ireland football in Dundalk. The DFC Community Trust are leaving all options open regarding whether to proceed with a full takeover directly or in partnership with others.
As we are now a legal entity, we will be beginning the process of consultation with supporters in the very near future. We will have more details on this as soon as possible.

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So basically this is an ultimatum- either somebody takes this club off my hands or I shut it down at the end of the season?

Seems to be rumours doing the rounds that it may end in as little as 48 hours. Hopefully they are just rumours.

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#LMFM #LOI It's feared that Dundalk FC are on the brink.The situation is said to be critical.Dundalk have been in the league since 1926

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#LMFM #LOI Reports this morning suggest that the future of Dundalk FC Is looking very precarious.

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End game fast approaching.

The prospect of another team withdrawing from the league looms.

Really hope you pull through. Gutted for you fans if you don't.

Holy crap! Didn't think it was that bad. Crazy situation, and it has been very difficult to work out what the hell is actually going on there.

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Originally Posted by Magicme

Really hope you pull through. Gutted for you fans if you don't.

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Thanks for that.

When there is complete breakdown between the owner and the fans, there is only one inevitablity.

The situation is very comparable to Cork a couple of years ago. The main difference is that Cork's debt was down to paying inflated wages while Dundalk's is due to building a development centre.

The development centre cannot be separated from the club due to legal issues regarding the lease of the ground.

If the issue was just the team, the supporters trust would have already taken over.

Sorry to hear this news sickned for dundalk fans the whole league of Ireland structure needs reviewing its a shambles if john delanely can drag himself out of Dublin nightclubs and sort this mess out.

I wonder are the FAI attempting to do anything? The situation is beyond a joke. Really hope Dundalk pull through.

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Originally Posted by fionnsci

I wonder are the FAI attempting to do anything? The situation is beyond a joke. Really hope Dundalk pull through.

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To be fair to the FAI, we got ourselves into this mess.

The owner thought he would get a lot of grants towards building a development centre for football in the north east. The economy went down the toilet and rather than abandoning the project, he put his own money into building it. A big business mistake on his part. Now he has lost interest in the club and wants out.

There are several parties interested in buying the club but none have the cash to buy the development centre.

Unless the FAI want to buy a regional development centre, I don't see what they can do.

So are we looking at a New Dundalk looking to buy the current clubs assets and apply to the league next season?