Any Danger of the Canaries Following the Tractor Boys?

[Budgie 0]

£36 million in debt; the £7.5 million parachute gone; expenses pruned to a minimum. Can things get any worse for the Tractor Boys?

And what are the chances of the Canaries sliding down into the same pit?

Although the club talks of ambition with prudence it is itself £18.5m in the red.........how easy will it be for that £18.5m to move inexorably up towards the £30m?

For me there is not much difference between £18.5m and £36m - it is money the club is unable to repay in the foreseeable future; and remember next year will be the last of our parachute payments.

To me the future looks bleak. Where on earth is the extra income going to come from other than selling our best assets on the pitch?

Promotion to the Premiership - together with a lengthy stay there - is the only way I can see of ridding the club of such a burden.

But how can we get promotion from the situation we are in now?

 

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

I think there is a massive amount of difference between us and Ipswich.  Firstly, although our debt appears to be large, it is manageable.  Nobody at the club is panicking yet.  Secondly, we still have another 1 and a half of parachute payments.  Thirdly, a large part of the scum''s debt is the huge interest they are paying on the loans they took out to build their stands.  We don''t have anywhere near that kind of interest.  It means that the scum are losing 100,000s of pounds a week, whereas we aren''t.  Fourthly, we have the hotel investment and land behind the Jarrold stand.  All this brings money into the coffers.  We also have cateering which I would guess brings in 100 times more money than the scum''s.  I could go on.  We will never be as stupid as the scum were 3/4 years ago.  ''Prudence with ambition'' went out the window.  Although our board gets slated by a lot of people, I''d rather have them than anyone else 

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Nice to have the chance to get in at ''old git peak time'' for a change.

Very true ''dd'' and I think it is also true that next years figures will be up on the basis that premiership monies do not come up front so they will be included next year.

It is important for the club to consolidate and benefit from it''s playing assets  in a structured way so as to improve the cost/benefit balance of so many high wage earners.

Above all it is vital for season ticket holders to renew so the club can plan ahead and this is probably the foundation of where we will be in the future.

[Old Boy 0]

[quote user="DumbleDelia is Magic"]We will never be as stupid as the scum were 3/4 years ago.  ''Prudence with ambition'' went out the window.  Although our board gets slated by a lot of people, I''d rather have them than anyone else [/quote]

Well said DD. Ipswich and Luton are just two examples of what we won''t become, thanks to this Board. My normal reservations still apply - no obvious strategy to improve the footballing side to match the facilities etc. - but I''m thankful that we don''t have to worry about moving to Milton Keynes.

[First Wizard 0]

[quote user="budgie"]

£36 million in debt; the £7.5 million parachute gone; expenses pruned to a minimum. Can things get any worse for the Tractor Boys?

And what are the chances of the Canaries sliding down into the same pit?

Although the club talks of ambition with prudence it is itself £18.5m in the red.........how easy will it be for that £18.5m to move inexorably up towards the £30m?

For me there is not much difference between £18.5m and £36m - it is money the club is unable to repay in the foreseeable future; and remember next year will be the last of our parachute payments.

To me the future looks bleak. Where on earth is the extra income going to come from other than selling our best assets on the pitch?

Promotion to the Premiership - together with a lengthy stay there - is the only way I can see of ridding the club of such a burden.

But how can we get promotion from the situation we are in now?

There is an easy solution here Budgie................. sack the blithering manager!.

 

[/quote]

There is an easy solution here Budgie..........sack the blithering manager!.

[Salopian 1]

Don''t pin your hopes on the premiership! All the players would have

enhanced wages, and the management also, so any extra income could well

be swallowed up in extra costs. Many promoted clubs have found this.

And of course, we would have to buy a few players in order to survive.

Putting a new layer in one of the stands will not come cheap, either,

if support grows.

We have a few small income sources in our favour - Delia''s catering,

part ownership of a hotel, etc. These may not make a massive

difference, but they will help.

We have been ham-strung by Academy regulations about catchment areas,

allowing Ipswich to recruit from North London and us from a largely

thinly populated rural area. Perhaps we could consider ceasing to be an

Academy and recruiting froma wider area. In this way we could

conceivably produce more of own premiership quality players.

It does chafe sometimes that the NCFC Board seem to lack ambition,

-"Where has all the parachute money gone?", but we have a fine new

stand and pitch and the next parachute payment could reduce the

standing debt a little. There does not seem to be much prospect of

following Ipswich.

[LinkNR9 0]

"...we have a fine new stand and pitch...". I think I''d rather have a couple of exciting players instead. 

[Syteanric 1]

if the wrse did come to the worse we have some marketable assets playing wise.. unlike the binnies who would make very little in sales.. Westlake might fetch a few quid but i dont know about the rest

jas :)

[First Wizard 0]

I''m glad you spotted that Link, I of course agree with you for what little thats worth.

[king of latvia 0]

the new stand had to be built because the old south stand would not pass health and saftey and the pitch what is the point in having exciting players on a crap pitch .

[Intenso 0]

The first person to highlight the financial meltdown at Portman Road was Delia who was quick to state that Norwich would not make the same mistakes. What surprises me is that the Norwich Union financed the new stands at Ipswich when the club did not even own their ground and now the scummers cannot pay back the capital repayments.  To compound their problems Sheepshank is attempting to restructure the interest repayments which I assume means that there will be a reduction in the short term but in three years time their day of reckoning will come.

I loved the remark, from the floor at the AGM, that Ipswich have more directors than Fat Joe has fit players.  Perhaps they can do a job swop.