Club in Tatters?

[clubman]

Be still my friends, be very still.
Listen, listen carefully.
What you hear is our dreams tumbling.
The future of SRFC is very bleak.
With the departure of Foy, followed by Faz and Moore
the door has swung wide open. These three will be joined by
at least five more.
Our squad is depleated.
The moral in the camp is rock bottom.
We will be lucky to survive the drop this season but with us reverting
back to part-time next season the dreaded drop is imminent.
First Division football is all we have to look forward to.
Faz : thanks for the memories because memories are all we have left.

[deecay]

I think you could be right,its up to us to try get as many people to go games as possible

[Red&White Rover]

Aye. Like. It looks a bit bleak...

[Rovers fan]

Realistically in 2 or 3 years time we aren't gonna be in the premier division.It's so frustrating,but simply our income is too poor.We rely on gate receipts and they average less than 10k afaik.Our wage bill is to big.Imo we never should have gone full time,we could have kept players like mctiernan.I can't see cooke being here for long more either.Quite simply the club is fooked and it seems there's very little we can do.Its great doing fundraisers and all that but we all know they aren't gonna solve our problems in the long term.Any money we get e.g from legends game or the grand draw is gone within a couple of weeks.May as well enjoy the premier division while it lasts.On a positive note,while I know many players are leaving during the transfer,we should still avoid the drop this year.

[biscuit]

All true clubman, apparantly Cookie was asked could he make do with a 14-15 man squad til the end of the season.
A massive problem is the "stay away" supporters, people who over the years were great followers of rovers but over the mullen,cassidy, o'riordan times fell away from supporting the club. I know countless numbers of these, eho week in week out sit in pubs discussin rovers like they know what they are talking about when they havnt a clue. Many say they wont go to a game until the long term board members ( we know who they are) stand down and make way for new blood - business people etc.....sometimes its hard to argue with them....theres a massive ill feeling towards the club and some of it understandable....back in the day there was a fund raising initiative (some might remember the name) where i think 1000 people or so forth had a standing order of 50e per month come from their account to rovers...they ask where are the fruits of this??

[carrickharp]

Sorry to here this, it seems to be a problem at a lot of clubs with the stay away support no matter the slagging we need to all get behind each other all I can say there is more to the league than the feckin Dublin derbys!! Get it sorted lads !!

[Rovers Maniac]

All true clubman, apparantly Cookie was asked could he make do with a 14-15 man squad til the end of the season.
A massive problem is the "stay away" supporters, people who over the years were great followers of rovers but over the mullen,cassidy, o'riordan times fell away from supporting the club. I know countless numbers of these, eho week in week out sit in pubs discussin rovers like they know what they are talking about when they havnt a clue. Many say they wont go to a game until the long term board members ( we know who they are) stand down and make way for new blood - business people etc.....sometimes its hard to argue with them....theres a massive ill feeling towards the club and some of it understandable....back in the day there was a fund raising initiative (some might remember the name) where i think 1000 people or so forth had a standing order of 50e per month come from their account to rovers...they ask where are the fruits of this??

2 thigs biscuit well actually 3, first off i enjoy your posts they are usually fairly spot on. Second these 'stay away fans' can f off they are simply to lazy and have a crack at the club and it's officials from the comfort of the pub. Business people, there has been countless times a businessmen could have came on board and they choose not to, to me that is just absolute pub speak. And thirdly i would seriously disagree with you about ill filling in the town towards the club it is actually quite to opposite there is serious good will towards it. One man collected over €20k for the club in lotto sales himself, the €10 euro ticket thing went very well, last year people were asked to help raise funds from the club with nothing in return again another €60k+ raised. Unfortunately it takes a lot more to run a professional football club but ill feeling towards the club in the town and county no chance if anything it is quite the opposite.

[Rovers fan]

Sorry to here this, it seems to be a problem at a lot of clubs with the stay away support no matter the slagging we need to all get behind each other all I can say there is more to the league than the feckin Dublin derbys!! Get it sorted lads !!

Too true.Tbh I'd rather not see teams like harps and galway struggling financially and getting relegated.As said we have enough dublin teams,its good to have a few northwest derbies,its adds an extra buzz.As Rico said in an article on rte a few weeks ago,the league needs teams like sligo rovers,we add an extra dimension to the league.Unforunately it does not seem to be financially viable and the likes of us,galway,longford etc tend to struggle.Its a shame really.

[gufct]

Sad to hear it lads cant see anyway out for ourselves either

[clubman]

I don't for one minute think this topic should be regarded as a blame game. Down through our club's great history it has been blessed with great people who helped to keep the club afloat through the bad times and being realistic the bad times were ever present. The more successful the team were the harder the task to keep the show on the road. I don't think it's down to the support, I agree it could be better but hey we're by no means the worst supported club in the league in fact if one is to be honest our club is one of the best supported. People cry "there was ONLY 800 supporters at the UCD game". No disrespects to the opposition but everything considered that wasn't a poor turnout.

The management committee are doing a fine job and thats another fact. Unfortunately there's only so much a voluntary committee can do. In order to service a club that can comfortably survive the modern game in the premier division in Ireland it means raising in excess of one million euro. That's a huge ask of any committee whither that's voluntary or otherwise.


No I feel where the struggle really hurts is in the sponsorship department. Realistically the club would need to generate 50-75% of it's running cost from sponsorship. The fact of the matter is we don't have the catchment area to generate that sort of funding. Our club considers it lucky to have a match sponsor fork out 500 euro for the privilege to have their company's name associate with the game whereas the so called bigger clubs can demand ten times that figure and that's just one area in the sponsorship saga.
The cry is, or more so the dream is, let the businessmen take over. I've heard it, god knows I've heard it but the truth of the matter is that these business people are not out there, as I say we don't have the catchment area.

Unfortunately the huge effort put in by voluntary people doesn't go anywhere near the rewards it deserves. People on a day to day business working flat out for the club that if they were to be paid the going rate for their services the club would have folded years ago. The club is very lucky to have such dedicated people unfortunately not everyone recognises this fact.

The game of football as we know it has radically changed in recent times and basically the wage demands of players have left us in it's wake and that basically is the fundemental problem. When we come to realise that we can't afford to pay talanted players of the calibre of Faz and Adam Hughes then we will discover that we are out of our dept. We have to have it on the pitch in order to compete, not having it simply because we can't afford it means we are not capable of competing and when we are not competing we are no longer in business. That's the bottom line.

[DocRovers]

"The man who moves mountains, starts by carrying a few stones"
The bigger clubs are in bigger trouble than us, they cannot afford to pay Faz or Hughsie either. Thir budget overrun is huge - €1.2 million per season. They are getting by SHORT TERM thro' a rich benefactor & the sale of their grounds. The death of the housing boom has seriously devalued their ground as an asset. Ultimately their business model is based on very poor fundamentals & will untangle.

I hope that Paul understands that with poor results in both Cup competetions, low gate receipts & FAI rules (65% maximum spend on players salaries) that cutbacks are needed. I think we should not be too upset with the loss of non first choice players - Keith Foy, Alan Moore & others. It is a fact of life that as times get tough some people in any line of business have to seek opportunities elsewhere. They are all good lads & I hope they realise that Sligo Rvs have no choice. But if we keep the spine of the team & look at all options to increase income for next year we can regroup.

But if every genuine fan brought two extra people thro' the turnstyle each week what a differnce! The challenge is day in day out - not just this week, we need a steady crowd of 2,000 each week. That is what fans can do, sitting on bar stools giving out is the easy option - I have heard all the reasons why people wont help.

[biscuit]

2 thigs biscuit well actually 3, first off i enjoy your posts they are usually fairly spot on. Second these 'stay away fans' can f off they are simply to lazy and have a crack at the club and it's officials from the comfort of the pub. Business people, there has been countless times a businessmen could have came on board and they choose not to, to me that is just absolute pub speak. And thirdly i would seriously disagree with you about ill filling in the town towards the club it is actually quite to opposite there is serious good will towards it. One man collected over €20k for the club in lotto sales himself, the €10 euro ticket thing went very well, last year people were asked to help raise funds from the club with nothing in return again another €60k+ raised. Unfortunately it takes a lot more to run a professional football club but ill feeling towards the club in the town and county no chance if anything it is quite the opposite.

maybe im spending too much time in the pub RM
i can see your point though. Im just saying personally speaking I have heard alot of negativity about the club from people i know supported them in alot of ways over the years.I was only trying to raise th point, that people who supported the club through the years still see the same commitee members involved to this very day. What Im saying is I think its gone stale at this stage, and we say every year the MC needs to be "freshened up" so to speak.
I do agree with Clubmans post though, sponsership is a massive issue, and there doesnt seem to be the business/interest in the area to back the club in the way it needs. On a side note does anyone know how the EBS or Beamish sponsorship compares to the present day sponsors?

[brianw82]

Sligo Rovers have to be realistic. There are certain fundamental problems that will never quite go away, so we have to work around them. These are:

Player wages - paying too much for players who don't do enough on the pitch, eg. Foy, Doherty, Jennings, Judge.
Attracting players - most of the Irish players are Dubliners by default, and they don't want to move to Sligo.
Getting crowds - I'm personally tired of hearing pleas to come to games. I live in Dublin now and can only get to 4-5 home games a season, but I bought a season ticket in spite of this and still pay the €15 when I do get to home games.

As said before, we really have no choice but to let players go and revert back to part-time. There also is really no other option but to bring youth players through. Why are they there if we're not going to play them? Systems need to be put in place to consistently bring youth players through from the Connaught region, to replace the previous generations when they leave for the higher wages in Dublin/UK. (like Crewe Alexandra famously do in England) I'd rather see some lad from Cranmore busting a gut at left back than turds like James Meredith wasting space and burning holes in the club's pockets.

Just my opinion.

[avvenalaf]

The Eircom league, as a full time professional set up is, in the words of our Northern friends, a bayten docket. The only club with the possibility of sustaining a full time set up on their own resources is Cork City. I've been to Dalymount and Richmond and the home support there is pitiful. Drogheda? - what's that about ffs.
These clubs are surviving on the sale of assets and without that, it is likely that ourselves, Cork and Derry would be fighting out the league.

Rovers attempt to keep up with this set up is a noble but failed gesture. It's worthless giving out about stay at home supporters. Every sport has support which only comes out when there is success. It's called discretionary spend. Will I go to The Rovers or have three pints and watch Match of the Day?. No contest unless Rovers are at home to Shams/Derry and they are all in contention.

Business people invest in viable businesses. They don't throw money down the drain just because we think they should. I spoke sometimne ago to a business man who did put money into Rovers and he told me it was fired in his face by his employees the next time he was negotiating a pay deal.

This league is being prepared for the All ireland league and we won't be part of that. We will revert to the odd cup shock and the annual annihilation of Harps and Galway and the core support will ensure the survival of the club.
These are the facts but if Galway, with a huge catchment area and a full professional management set up cannot survive, we may throw our hat at it.

I'm not all that bothered about this, tbh. I'm used to the roller coaster now and a cup win every ten years will do me fine.

[sligofan4ever]

It was rumoured a few weeks ago that Vincent Nally was going to be the new chairman of the club. It would have been great to have someone who can provide the money for us. Wish he was since we would really need the money. I beleive he's involved with the club at the minute though.

[sligored]

dont associate the demise of irish premier league football with the demise of rovers.
that wont happen and this sort of nonsense is of no help
we have got to july competing fairly well in the league , we were unlucky in the cup.
there is no light at the end of the 2008 tunnel unless we spend big and try and secue an inter toto spot
the mc have decided to cut their stick and hope for survival which is almost assured now in the most difficult year(3 teams relegated).
it is in the long term interest that we trim the squad and get rid of the likes of foy moore and possibly curran and feeney because i think that there are "A" team players who will do an equally good job.
We are without doubt in the top 10 teams in this island
God rest him johnny chadda would cry if he saw this defeatist attitude.
ps ; a great result tonight

[sligoman]

and get rid of the likes of foy moore and possibly curran and feeney because i think that there are "A" team players who will do an equally good job.

I'd guess from the above comment that you haven't actually seen Rovers 'A' team play?

[sligored]

i have been at 90% of rovers games this year and foy, moore , feeney and curran have not played . they have appeared a few times i do agree , though. and no wages

[red bellied]

Doom and gloom thread again, everyone hears the romours but sometimes people should keep stum, good result tonight!

[Risteard]

Personally, don't see why semi-pro is such a disaster lads. Works for the other Rovers.