7th tier club’s chairman speaks of financial struggles and trying to make ends meet

Challenging times at Whitby Town, as the 7th tier club’s chairman speaks of financial struggles and trying to make ends meet.

The Seasiders has amassed a £20,000 shortfall in the first few weeks of the season, with chairman Ivor Homer acknowledging the difficulties posed by this situation but expresses gratitude for the support from fans and sponsors.

He emphasised the numerous expenses associated with operating the club, and has now urged local residents to contribute financially by attending matches.

In the first seven weeks of the season, the club’s gate receipts totalled £16,000, while the players’ wage bill alone reached £36,000.

To achieve financial stability, the club requires consistent home attendance of approximately one thousand spectators, nearly double the turnout seen in recent matches.

408 turned up for their goalless draw against Northern Premier League Premier Division‘s bottom side Matlock since the interview was done. Whitby currently sit 16th with 11 points from 12 games.

Interviewer: Ivor obviously was speaking ahead of the the weekend’s game against Matlock Town just to just to sort of put into perspective what the struggles are really at the moment in terms of in terms of costs and everything that’s going on at the football club

Ivor: At this level it’s very very difficult to operate level seven I mean a good example of that is what comes through the gates against the cost of actually the players, in the first seven weeks our income through gates has been 16,000 and our expenses to players I.E wages has been 36,000 so in 7 weeks we 20,000 shy for us to operate at a level playing field with income against costs player costs not match costs player costs we need an average of a 1,000 plus at every home game, unfortunately we can’t get that I’m not blaming anyone for that, we aren’t Macclesfield with 3,000, Stockton just joined this league 1400, we’d kill for 1400, it’s just the realism of where we are and other people fans which is what we we’re talking about today and sponsors which we’ve got some very very good ones they’re the people who are making that shot fall up we’ve also got the expenses of running the club above and beyond the player budget. I think Nathan’s doing a marvellous job with the budget he’s got it’s just realistic we can’t be anything else and I would love that budget to be more I am there’s no one more disappointed than me if we have a bad result, we’ve played some very good football the results haven’t gone our away and at times it looks like we don’t have that sort of wanting it to get any further, I’d like to a that straight away we want to go as far as we can with this club but we have to be realistic there are clubs in this league are in trouble, we won’t mention names it’s not fair to them but we don’t want to be one of them we lost a local club that was in this league we don’t want to be one of them, it’s just the way finances at the moment are running and everyone in this club most yourselves, Craig all the people who were volunteering and working and hard at raising funds to keep this club where it deserves to be

Interviewer: Yeah it’s it’s certainly you mentioned there about the costs particularly on a match day you mentioned obviously the wages everything like that you you get that money in with a home game or you certainly get some of that money in but it isn’t just wages costs either you look at obviously match officials security which is you know something that’s become an issue, they all build up don’t they massively

Ivor: It’s we for some reason in North Yorkshire Council we go you go up Cleveland, we seem to be at the sharp end of what they think is the right level of stewarding we need two medical staff we need this we need that we get a game that’s then segregated that we have less than the game last year when there was no point to the game and there was no problem but we cannot we can’t argue because if anything happens it all falls on the club, but it would be lovely to have them costs half, but them costs aren’t even involved in in in the player budget so obviously that’s that’s an add-on quite right to bring it up, it’s an add-on that people obviously don’t see you’ve got expenses if depends on where as you say the referee and officials travel from it can be 3400 for the officials now that’s a lot of people throw the gate before you even pay the officials but uh yeah they just added cost everyone I don’t think anyone out there doesn’t know that there’s cost to running a club I’m not I’m talking to the converted but what we need to realise is our ambition can only be fuelled by what we generate now we we’ve got some we’re very fortunate to have some very very good sponsors I’ve mentioned and some very very good people working for the club without them we’d be in a lot of trouble and I’m over the moon at the pitch this year because last year we lost some very very very important games that would have generated a lot of money for the club due to the weather and the weather this week has been atrocious but due to the improvements again that have to come out of the costs that have already been made the pitch is looking as good as I’ve seen it for 10 or 12 years

Interviewer: I mean obviously we’re we’re on with the with the pitch fundraiser at the moment we’ll come on to that at some point but obviously as well the club the club in the summer you know they’re spending that money obviously to improve that pitch there you know you look at the work that was done the vert draining the sand work there was 9 ton of sand put on there to improve the drainage in the surface a new drain put in as well again thanks to you know some very generous sponsorship from our volunteers, so you know the club has committed itself to improving that from last season because ultimately the knock on effect is still in play now

Ivor: Yeah I mean that the last year and I’m actually thankful that the club did get a a cup run because that cup run was put against the amount of games we lost a New Year’s Day game we lost a game uh 10 minutes before kickoff we then have the added-on costs of half their their travel and as you say although we’re spending money on the pitch hopefully that will be generated back and we don’t lose games touch wood we haven’t lost any and the weather this week I was a bit concerned that Saturday might not have gone on but looking out there now that is absolutely lob on really really good and as you see without volunteers doing the work and without sponsors sponsoring the costs of things like that that we could have been in the same position we were last year

Interviewer: And I mean you you look as well at the equipment now that the the grounds team have to work with you’re looking at equipment that is equivalent to to Premier League clubs and again really good from some of the club sponsors that you know maybe don’t want to be mentioned but are putting their putting their hand in the pocket to ensure that the club has the best equipment and everything right to get games of football on

Ivor: Yeah obviously the the new equipment that’s just coming the lads on it last week is Premiership obviously they have 12 we’ve got one and obviously they they’ve got their their grounds me to do that we have the volunteers who are doing a marvellous job but yeah without this equipment you wouldn’t have the pitch that you’ve got and as you quite rightly said the people who actually have donated that which was a significant lump some for that that particular equipment they’re not they’re not there to be mentioned they’re there because they’ve got Whitby Town at their heart and they want to see Whitby Town do well like everyone out there that you talking to now and it’s not about I’m I’m not talking to say I want thousands of pounds of people I don’t anyone who comes through that gate buys a burger buys a 50/50 ticket is as important as the person who paid for that equipment

Interviewer: Absolutely yeah and and in terms of of how people can help then going forward we’ve mentioned obviously the deficit that there is and and how much it’s essentially costing to run a club at this level how can people help in different ways then because obviously there’s the 1926 Club, there’s the pitch fund, so there’s a few different avenues

Ivor: There is and obviously people will seen the perfect pitch buckets around even throwing a change in there that that money can only be spent on it on on the pitch it’s not to go to the general costs but by improving the pitch you’re helping the costs of the club with generating more as you just rightly pointed out we haven’t we hopefully we won’t lose the games we lost last year there’s obviously the 1926 Club there’s the general funds I mean we announcing to day that I’m going to start from tomorrow’s game sponsor 100 pound a goal on top of what I normally do and 100 pound a clean sheet, the home receipts I.E the home games will go into the general funds to help with obviously the costs and the away games will go into the 1926 fund which we will no doubt need in the new year because we always need loanees, it gives Nathan a little bit of breathing space gives the club breathing space because the club isn’t then increasing the budget it’s being used out that so if anyone out there wants to sponsor a goal wants to sponsor a player wants to sponsor the keeper keep a clean sheet which would be great then get in get in touch with the officials of the club I’m not asking for if you sponsor a pound a goal 5 pound a go a clean sheet that all adds up and it all helps the club nothing is waste and everything is sectioned off to where it can be spent if you do the 1926 it can’t go on General running costs if you if you want to sponsor general running costs fair enough sponsor a game sponsor a ball you can there can be more than one ball sponsor you get the same facilities up at the hospitality unit which has been run very well this season and it is now again that was funded by a donation the the cost of it been funded very well by Scott and his staff and is now generating funds to reduce the deficit from the gate receipts

Interviewer: Yeah and I mean you sort of look at the Seasiders lounge at the top of the ground really nice facility and for a £35 a match it’s a great way to enjoy the match in a bit of a different style isn’t it

Ivor: Yeah you’re getting in, so you’re getting your 12 pound ticket, you’re getting a couple of drinks up at the lounge, best place to watch in my opinion on that Veranda unless it was like yesterday blowing a gale, you’re getting a bit of food you’re getting hospitality, and TV in there you can see what happened with uh your your own team, but yeah it’s a great and it it’s been very very well used this season so far hope hopefully that carries on because it does generate money for the club

Interviewer: Absolutely and just a message for the supporters Ivor as well obviously you know it’s been a difficult start to the season but I mean ultimately it’s it’s about sticking together and everybody sticking together isn’t it

Ivor: Yeah I mean no one’s going to the blame game is is never going to work and I know there’s no one more frustrated than me don’t get get me wrong but I get frustrated inside I don’t get frustrated outside luckily I’ll be fair luckily I’m not a media type because it’s very easy and then you regret what you’ve said there’s nobody in this club there’s no player there’s no manager who wants to come out of that dressing room and get beat and I feel that they’ve actually been very unlucky in certain games I’m not making excuses I think we did very well against Macclesfield I think they were I mean they look like winning the league they’ve got a very very healthy budget but I think they thought they’d got out of jail when it played us and they got a freak goal that you will never see again when we got back into it and for the last 10 minutes there was only one team going to score and unfortunately we didn’t the FA Cup game 90 plus 5 these things happen if it have been the boot have been on the other foot we’d have been over the moon and unfortunately didn’t go through but there’s nobody in the club wants this club to fail and I assume and I and well I know because I speak to it people there’s no one in the Whitby area wants this club and there’s no one in the wider area we’re very like club and there’s a lot of people who look for us after their own teams we’re popular I want the results to go well hopefully fingers crossed we get a result tomorrow but come and support the club in whatever way you can I’m not expecting thousands of pounds off anybody your presence means more me on the players than than your hand in your pocket the fact you’re here means you’re concerned about the club there’s no way this club doesn’t want to be in this league this club wants to be in the next league but realistically we have to cut our cloth to suit as soon as we got more cloth to cut then the budgets would increase there’s no dividends the shareholders it’s quite the other way around the there’s no shareholders but there’s people putting the money in and that includes the people who come through the gate you all want it to succeed I want it to succeed Nathan does the players do