As you all know I am no lover of Vics in any guise and I will be devastated if we,allow either version to return to town by sharing our ground. Why on earth would we do that if we do not HAVE to? And do not tell me it will pay for better players, Vics in Northwich will take support that could have gone our way if they are forced to remain in limbo and tgat extra support will pay us much more in the long run. But to be honest I am not interested in the money, I just cannot bare the idea of Vics using our ground again, they were arrogant b…ds the last time, they will be worse if we let them in again.
WHS.
[quote=“WHS” post=56236]As you all know I am no lover of Vics in any guise and I will be devastated if we,allow either version to return to town by sharing our ground. Why on earth would we do that if we do not HAVE to? And do not tell me it will pay for better players, Vics in Northwich will take support that could have gone our way if they are forced to remain in limbo and tgat extra support will pay us much more in the long run. But to be honest I am not interested in the money, I just cannot bare the idea of Vics using our ground again, they were arrogant b…ds the last time, they will be worse if we let them in again.
WHS.[/quote]
You have made an assumption that Vics in Northwich will take away support that Witton could have had. Well I have news for you, since both versions of vics left Northwich there has not been a huge rush through our turnstiles. 1974 are very well supported outside northwich and are not going away [even of they did they would not flock to see us] and the other version are not getting many at all.
The difference in support for us of vics leaving town is negligible [may probably get a few floaters].
Therefore, the only way we are gong to get more support is by playing at a higher level. The only way we can play at a higher level is with more income. Groundshare equals easy guaranteed income especially if pay up front
Therefore, provided that the cost of ground share does not exceed the income, Witton Albion will be better off in the long term with a version of vics in northwich renting from us than being the only team in town.
[quote=“WWWitton” post=56238][quote=“WHS” post=56236]As you all know I am no lover of Vics in any guise and I will be devastated if we,allow either version to return to town by sharing our ground. Why on earth would we do that if we do not HAVE to? And do not tell me it will pay for better players, Vics in Northwich will take support that could have gone our way if they are forced to remain in limbo and tgat extra support will pay us much more in the long run. But to be honest I am not interested in the money, I just cannot bare the idea of Vics using our ground again, they were arrogant b…ds the last time, they will be worse if we let them in again.
WHS.[/quote]
You have made an assumption that Vics in Northwich will take away support that Witton could have had. Well I have news for you, since both versions of vics left Northwich there has not been a huge rush through our turnstiles. 1974 are very well supported outside northwich and are not going away [even of they did they would not flock to see us] and the other version are not getting many at all.
The difference in support for us of vics leaving town is negligible [may probably get a few floaters].
Therefore, the only way we are gong to get more support is by playing at a higher level. The only way we can play at a higher level is with more income. Groundshare equals easy guaranteed income especially if pay up front
Therefore, provided that the cost of ground share does not exceed the income, Witton Albion will be better off in the long term with a version of vics in northwich renting from us than being the only team in town.[/quote]
Short-termism in the extreme, the slimy Flixton so-and-so’s have magiced some money from SOMEWHERE to pay HMRC when faced with a winding up order…how the heck can they afford groundshare?? If we took their filthy lucre for how long would it be, a year, five, ten…not happening!
Just moved into one of the many new estates in Northwich and I fancy going to watch a local football match: do I go to Flixton or Winsford or do I go to the local ground in Wincham where the senior team in town play? But if there is a ground share they may get to see Nortwich Vics or 1874 and Witton would lose that possible new supporter.
Do you really think Northwich Vics can forever keep going on gates of 100? And how many people who come to.live in Northwich are going to go to Winsford to watch a game? In my opinion to allow either club back into town is stupid beyond belief.
WHS
WHS 1874 are not coming ! if anyone is its Vics, They may share for a short period but will go bump in maybe 2-3 seasons when backing dries up - they will not pull any Wittoners or 1874 fans maybe an odd neutral here or there but not many and when they fold we are still in a good place. You just keep repeating the same comment in different ways. our board know what they are doing, I am happy for them to see this through.
In my opinion this is a HUGE mistake. If Rushe steps down then the two clubs might come back together especially if they have a toe hold in Northwich, that can only be bad for us. Rushe strutting around our ground as he did the last time does not bare thinking about!!
That is my last word on the matter. (For Now!!).
All IFs, BUTs and MAYBEs.
You never prosper wishing ill on others. We need to focus on ourselves, do what is right for us and then we will progress.
We won’t do it by trying to keep other teams down.
Heard last night from an old Witton friend of mine that Vic’s have paid Witton for the whole season £20, 000 up front. So looks like a deal has been reached and we’ll be sharing your ground next season.
:goal
DDH: Your friend is incorrect in his story. Please don’t get excited. nono
GE
[quote=“G E” post=56339]DDH: Your friend is incorrect in his story. Please don’t get excited. nono
GE[/quote]
Well he’s one of your own, so the information must have come from within or rumour started from within.
Eitherway we all kmow deep down that its a done deal, Witton need the money and Vic’s want to get back home.
Will you lot take the money from the bar and cafe?
Will you supply your volunteers and stewards for our match days?
If true I am disgusted. We are cutting our won throats. Vics will survive very nicely back in Northwich, they would have died at Flixton soon enough.
WHS.
WHS.
I’m sure you’ve said that before whs
[quote=“WHS” post=56348]If true I am disgusted. We are cutting our won throats. Vics will survive very nicely back in Northwich, they would have died at Flixton soon enough.
WHS.
WHS.[/quote]
We are a football club looking to maximise revenue and always looking for innovative new ways to generate income. I have an idea, we have a football ground with football related facilities perfect for hosting football games and guess what? More often than not, every other Saturday during the season it is not being used! Sounds a bit radical but why don’t we rent it out to someone to play football games on!
If they survive nicely then we have a nice income stream for doing something different? Taking a risk doing something we are not familiar with? No for doing exactly what we know and what we are geared up to do now it would simply be that the ground would be used to its maximum capacity instead of sat empty every other Saturday generating nothing. As a business decision it is a no brainer.
No brainer my ****! These slimy green Flixton dwellers have just have to had a winding up order against them to get them to pay tax which they had been omitting to pay AGAIN they are clearly living well beyond their means just look at the manager and players they have verses their income. We should not take a single penny piece off this scum whether it’s £20,000, £30,000, £40,000 for one year, two years, three years. Lets see how all the local businesses they ripped off before would like it if we let them back in…it’s a no from me…
It would be like Sainsbury’ s offering half the use of their stores to Tesco that is the kind of business decision it is.
WHS.
[quote=“WHS” post=56354]It would be like Sainsbury’ s offering half the use of their stores to Tesco that is the kind of business decision it is.
WHS.[/quote]
Im sure as a huge business that if Sainsburys stores were empty with no money coming in then they would let Tesco rent the stores when they weren’t in use as that makes sensible business sense
Not true Matt, they hang on to them to stop other stores using them. The saying “Never give a sucker (competitor) an even break” is the one we should follow. Northwich Vics can be the only winner if we let them share, we will revive a “dead body”.
WHS.
But I surrender, just like the filling in of the subway the decision is already made and both are in my opinion wrong but I recognise there is nothing I can do to alter either decision. As with the Tuck decisions it is down to the board.
WHS.
Whilst it is true that we are a business, we are also a business run by volunteers.
Volunteers who have work commitments, family commitments, and other interests away from Witton Albion.
If the likes of Mark Harris and Neil Wilson (just 2 names, there are many others) invest, for example, 5 hours of every day into the running of WAFC, then that’s 5 hours less they can spend with their families, or their partners, friends, etc etc.
We have very few fluid revenue streams. We rely on gate money (can fluctuate game to game, month to month), we have supporter donations (again, can fluctuate, could quite feasibly reduce or even stop).
We do however have fixed outgoings that rarely fluctuate (insurance, rates, electricity, wages, etc etc).
So we have to find roughly the same amount of money to pay our bills each week regardless of what we actually bring in.
I can imagine that this can get quite stressful for those taking on the responsibility to ensure we meet our financial obligations (yes they choose to take on that responsibility – but I don’t see too many others putting their hands up).
We have investigated several potential revenue streams, some of which have seen improvements to our turnover, others that haven’t.
What we do have is a facility that is designed to house football matches. A facility which we pay for for 52 weeks of the year, but use for around half of that time.
It makes absolutely no financial sense to not look at a groundshare, and the club has spoken to several clubs about various academy sides coming to WP. Unfortunately we were not the first choice of any of these sides.
1874 have announced that they will be staying at Winsford next year, so that’s them ruled out.
We ARE the first choice of NVFC.
We therefore have a choice of either not speaking to them, and seeing the same issues as above continue and the personal lives of our volunteers being affected as they work tirelessly to ensure that we meet our financial commitments in a timely manner, or we sit down and have a conversation about a potential groundshare.
So that’s currently where i believe us to be at - a conversation.
If all of Witton’s conditions are met, then i expect this will be rubber-stamped in the next couple of months, as the cut off for submitting such an arrangement to the league would be in March.
Nobody wants Vics back in the town, but if we pursue a groundshare then they are our only option.
If we can find a regular revenue stream that is greater than we will bring in from such a groundshare, then we have until March to realise this.
So my advice to those strongly against this situation would be to get your thinking caps on and invest your time and effort into finding solutions rather than repeatedly highlighting your objections on here.
From a business point of view, it’s a revenue stream that we need to investigate – if it proves to be unsuccessful then we are tied in for 1 season and nothing more, so it’s a calculated risk.
However, from a personal point of view, if it gives Mark, Neil et al, a few extra hours each week to spend time with their loved ones, then who are any of us to tell them that they are wrong.
I’ve been keeping out of this discussion, but as someone who does a bit of voluntary work on the pitch, this is my two penny worth.
We do not have a good pitch despite many people’s best efforts. If we do end up playing another 30 plus games on it then everyone must be prepared for a sizeable percentage of the increased revenue a groundshare will bring in to go directly ( do not pass GO, do not collect £200) to ground maintenance and wages for people to work on it pretty constantly. If we had had a home game this past Saturday the pitch would have been churned up something chronic, that’s how wet it is in patches. But please, everyone, acknowledge where some of the income MUST go before all this “free money” comes in, if it ever does…