National League North club King’s Lynn Town are in a race against time to ‘ensure they can finish the season’, say reports.
Lynn News stated this week that there are serious concerns emerging with The Linnets with speculation surrounding their future and whether they can finish the current campaign.
They go on to say that club owner Stephen Cleeve has been holding talks recently with a number of parties as to how they can sort the situation, with the hope of finding a sum of £300,000.
But it has been made tougher with the cash-strapped side also having to fork out around £8,000 for security to prevent crowd trouble for the upcoming game with Boston United after trouble when the two sides’ met last season.
I spoke with @officialKLtown chairman @StephenCleeve about the desperate situation facing the club in the coming weeks.
The Lynn owner continues to be as transparent as possible and is still working hard to try to find a solution but time is running out.https://t.co/qhX2LfEw2E— Greg Plummer (@GregTheLynnNews) December 16, 2023
Despite the concerning news, King’s Lynn manager Adam Lakeland turned his focus away from that, and instead looked to potentially strengthening his squad, with one or two additions.
Lakeland said, as per Lynn News: “I’ve got a big enough job on my hands managing the team and the players.
Earlier in December 2023, owner Stephen Cleeve revealed that he needed £300,000 to fund the club for the remainder of the season.
Cleeve said via Lynn News: “We need £300,000 to go to the end of the season and roughly that equates to £60,000 or £70,000 a month to keep the show on the road.
“I’m very worried and I can’t give a guarantee that we’ll see out the season. I think we’ll be able to pay the wages in December but whether we can in January, I don’t know.
“I think we’ve spent more than a million pounds each season in the last two seasons, so it may be as much as £1.3million last season. I can’t quite remember the figures, but I think that’s what it was at one point.
“The season we were in the National League, we spent more than a million on player wages alone and that was without going anywhere, paying an electric bill, a training bill or any other bills for that matter.
“Once all the other costs had been paid it probably amounted to the same amount again. That’s what it costs to run the football club, it’s not a cheap business.”
It comes after Cleeve revealed in a post on social media their finances and where the money goes to.
Cleeve spoke more about this in a match programme for the game against Warrington.
“The numbers showed that once we had paid the expenses for the match against Banbury and for our coach and hotel trip to Southport, we were already in a loss-making situation before a single pay-check was paid.
“If we then deduct the actual expenses due that day which ranged from players’ hotels to petrol to lock-changing invoices we finish about £3,000 in the hole.
“Putting it another way I must find £3,000 plus the wages for the Banbury game and the wages for the next away game.”
Cleeve responded on those suggesting the club could go back to a part-time model last summer.
“The argument with that is the cost of hiring pitches because you have to remember if you go part-time you have to hire in the evenings,” he said.
“Pitches in the evenings are a lot more expensive than pitches in the mornings so the actual cost for entire facilities is almost identical, if not identical in my opinion.
“So then it comes down to wages. With us being full-time it enables us to develop players better and that helps attract the younger players who are the valuable ones.
“Let’s be honest, it helps attract them to the club because they know that they can play and develop. The only argument really is the more experienced players, can we afford the more experienced players to be full-time rather than part-time?
“You’ve only got to look at Step Three and Four, and they’re all part-time with some players on £700 or £800 a week, so I don’t believe it’s the big panacea everyone says it is.
“People then remark about the house being rented for players to stay in. If we didn’t we’d have to be very, very local in what we attract, which would also mean our scope of pulling in players like Cameron Hargreaves and George Morrison would be difficult.
“These players wouldn’t be here otherwise and I don’t think we’d get them at much cheaper rates if we were part-time.”
King’s Lynn currently sit 21st in the table, with 23 points taken from 23 games played, and are a point from safety.
Cleeve, whose own financial situation suffered a major blow a few months back when one of his large investments was delisted from the stock market, has travelled to all parts of the globe in a bid to find fresh investment for the club.
“This perfect storm has left the club vulnerable,” he continued in his programme notes.
“And I have, for months, been trying to find options. I flew to America, went to a conference in Washington DC and visited seven cities in 12 days.
“Whilst out there I believe I have put together a plan to generate significant summer revenue which will fix most of next year’s deficit.
“Our main problem is to get through to the summer. I met with 33 investors in the USA and most had never heard of King’s Lynn. The negativity online in certain quarters did the club no favours and took some explaining but equally attendances did not help fight our cause. We were too small a club for the investors who wanted to write cheques for at least £50million.”
This is what fans are saying with reports of the National League North club in a race against time to ‘ensure they can finish the season’…
Wayne Hornigold: ATM the club as a whole appears to be in disarray… imo we have a good squad of players… great volunteers, a core of 400-600 supporters… but with a chairman who has burnt all local bridges and is now struggling to get any help… he’s made himself a one man band and has cut off his nose to spite his pride…… and unless the rot is stopped extremely quickly will will fold again… If I knew the answer to this all, I’d gladly give it… Somehow we need to get through this season without getting relegated and then get either someone to pump in the cash and/or completely take over the running of this club… Just my opinion and thoughts… But whatever’s going to happen it has been done sooner rather than later…… COYL… we need everyone to stand up and fight for our club…
Simon Ellson: Well written but a sad read to see how the club has declined in last couple of years, I m afraid I m a stay away these days as couldn’t stomach anymore of Mr Cleave. Hopefully relegation and/or folding can be avoided and happier times ahead. Cleave going to America did raise a smile though, why would an American invest in Kings Lynn especially with that PR disaster captain of a floundering ship
Gordon Chilvers: Hard hat ready. Perhaps if these full time players (joke at this club) spent as much time trading and playing on a real pitch instead of the amount of time playing on a toy pitch in their play stations there might be some improvement. I am told they are bored! Simple go part time, get a real job and get this club back where it belongs!
David Cross: A well written piece. Who in their right mind would want to be a Chairman of any football club. You are on a hiding to nothing. The only chairman I can think of who never attracted any criticism was Roman Abramovich of Chelsea. Whatever you think of this chairman I should imagine he has sunk a great deal of his own money into the club. If the club folds I suspect he will take a big financial hit. We know that we need gates of 1,000 to break even. If Kings Lynn want a football club they need to come out and support the club. I turned my back on top tier football to support Lynn. If you live in Lynn why would you go to Norwich. I travel to most away games. I am currently out of the country but return tomorrow and will be at The Walks on Saturday to support ‘my club’, I still think this manager is the person to take us forward. I said months ago – we need to give him time. If we can avoid relegation and the club folding this season we would have done well. The manager will then have time to assess what changes are needed in the playing staff. He will have a full preseason to get the players fit and ready for the new season.
Chris Burton: Something’s gone wrong, that’s for certain for a full-time outfit training in excellent facilities it just doesn’t seem to be working. And how long we can maintain being full time is questionable. I think we have a very good manager and he will get things right but we lost momentum after beating Scunthorpe when everyone thought that was the turning point maybe? Losing to Stourbridge Might not seem significant, but then you go on a 3 match losing run. Yes it was a lot to ask 3 away games in just over a week but it’s the same for all clubs. Something needs to change that’s for certain because we’re only going one way at the moment COYL
Darren Ashton: Was never ever going to be any other outcome with that clown running the club. Blocking supporters from social media, banning fans, no relationship with the community, increasing prices and then moaning about not enough fans. What goes around comes around Mr Cleeve
Len Plain: Everyone moaning about Mr. Cleeve. Without him, there would be no club. Mr cleeve has done me no harm, nor anyone of the moaners either, I’ll bet. Instead of moaning, continue to support our team and without person comments on other people’s. Delia gets the same at Norwich, and so do all other chair people’s, wen their teams are struggling. Get the sen to the home games. Win or lose, it’s not a bad afternoon out. Viva linnets
Bernie Smith: I know it’s frustrating, watching the team underperform every week. I understand why so many say they will not attend the matches but staying away is contributing to the decline of the club. Suck it up and support the boys and we may still have a club next season.
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