Rec Pitch

[Josh]

Interesting. I'm guessing then we are not a sustainably run football club. Did he say why we are losing so much money. I think £23 is already a lot for bottom half, tier 5 football.

Shahid has continually said in the past "We are sustainable"

We're not..
He did say he wanted us in the Football League but no idea how that is achievable.
No idea what's going on with the ground.

Think the chairman needs to come out and tell it as it is. We are now a relatively small National League club and our goal is to stay up each year.

Sad times.

[SteveyAsp]

Increasing the ticket prices will probably affect the attendances and push people to watching games on dodgy firesticks.

[Martin Patfield]

I'd rather a "ticket sponsor" be found to make up the difference in whatever their proposed new pricing be and keeping ticket prices the same or even giving a quid or two off.

Their attitude to the people of Aldershot is not positive. People will pay £25 knowing that losing a few fans here and there it won't matter because the ones still going will make up the numbers by paying more.

It's not sustainable just putting the price up.

Build a culture, but it takes years to nurture and get people back on side and new faces coming back again and again.

[redblueuptoyou]

Like people have said on before, there’s a lot of goodwill and potential new regulars at Wembley next week. The worst thing to do would be to lose this opportunity.

[Weybourne Shot]

Like people have said on before, there’s a lot of goodwill and potential new regulars at Wembley next week. The worst thing to do would be to lose this opportunity.

Marketing has never been our strongest point sadly

[Fuggletim]

A football club is a business, and like any other business responds to rising costs by raising prices. No, I don’t want to pay more to go to football, but then again I don’t want to pay more for my groceries, utilities, beers etc, but it is a fact of life. Unfortunately rising prices (aka inflation) is a reality for everyone and we need to understand this, even if we don’t like it.

Regarding the pitch, through postponements and an extended period out of the UK, I hadn’t seen the pitch from early February until mid April, but it does look a bit “rough meadow” at the moment I will say. Hopefully something can be done with it over the Summer.

I think we had one of the longest threads on here a few years ago was about the ongoing pitch renovation, so it might keep us all going during the close season!

[Silasgoldeen]

There's a psychological barrier though. Once you get to £25 and beyond people will start to question things I think. At the moment you're under that which feels okay but given the cost of living etc I think they need to tread a bit carefully on this.

For a lot of people the appeal of national league football is seeing a decent game at a good price. You have to watch that second bit in case you start seeing diminishing returns.

They must believe that they're working with a very sticky customer base, and they may be right, but to me theyre right at the ceiling of where prices can go.

5%, which is now above inflation, would go to £24 or so.

[Fuggletim]

Can’t say I necessarily agree. I remember in about 1981 when Guinness reached 80p a pint and I refused to pay it. That didn’t last long and I still have a pint or two at often £6+ a pint nowadays.

If somebody wants something, they will pay.

[willberto02]

If what Deane is saying is correct the P&L at the end of this season will have a cumulative £3,000,000 loss.

So no way can the ground development leave us debt free.

No way can we within the confines of any land / build opportunity build a stadium of any benefit long term.

I propose they turn the club into a Trust.

Everyone including myself write off their shares.

All loans to be paid on a 5 year drip at 50p in the £.

Or just put the club into administration because that's where we're going if we continue this absolute charade.

I don't see any possibility that the club can survive long term in the National League operating as a Trust or run by the supporters without the league imposing some kind of Financial Fair play.

There is so much investment and overspending in the National League, unless you strike lucky with an exceptionally good manager/recruitment team, you can't sustain National League football long term and not make loses unless you have average attendances of 4,000+ I would say, and even then that kind of supporter base size would put pressure to overspend to fight for the play offs.

Sadly, that is the state of non-league football these days.

I know Deane Wood gave the club a loan over covid which is to be/being paid back - but regarding the money invested by the board, do we know if this is loans or just investment?

[Dom Sterlings Left Leg]

Only at Aldershot where the chairman has made his money from IT could an online ticketing company allegedly owe the club £200k .

[Aldershot_Rob]

I'd rather a "ticket sponsor" be found to make up the difference in whatever their proposed new pricing be and keeping ticket prices the same or even giving a quid or two off.

Their attitude to the people of Aldershot is not positive. People will pay £25 knowing that losing a few fans here and there it won't matter because the ones still going will make up the numbers by paying more.

It's not sustainable just putting the price up.

Build a culture, but it takes years to nurture and get people back on side and new faces coming back again and again.

Great post, Martin.

[shotsboy66]

In truth thank goodness for last season, as that helped re energise a lot of fans that had stayed away due to various reasons.

It would help the club if even a small % of fans going to Wembley were to watch the club regularly. At least with the message in the programme it puts the story out there, whereas by not saying anything, supporters will rightly speculate.

Good that it is on the directors for putting in ££ the reality is this can only last so long..

[RC-Moderator]

The club finances are unfortunately a football problem, not specifically an Aldershot problem.

The cost of being competitive in the National League is a long way away from where we were at in 2013. I think I heard Kieran Maguire say only 2 of the national league clubs are actually running at zero loss or even profit now.

Whilst I have been super critical of the chairman; I do now feel sorry for him now.

The incredible millions available in football do not flow freely down the pyramid. It is now expected that chairman/owners will provide significant annual funds just to exist in the top 116 teams...

In contrast to the NL there are about half a dozen clubs in League 1 and League 2 who break even and run sustainably (due to the TV contact at that level). Burton, Peterborough, Stevenage I believe are some.

So chances of running a sustainable, sensible club that "washes its own face" is increased in L1, L2. ... but if you want to compete/push for the NL promotion, then that will cost several million and require luck (due to 2-up, 2-down bottleneck).

[shotsboy66]

The scrapping of FA Cup replays was a shocker.

Lower down the pyramid, these games were a massive lifeline for clubs when they got a draw.

It's hard to believe that pitch perimeter advertising only came along around 1972 time.

These days it's nigh on impossible to rely on gate receipts alone.

The old Aldershot FC had some very healthy contributions from the AFC supporters club back in the 50s/60s

[WTF]

Interesting. I'm guessing then we are not a sustainably run football club. Did he say why we are losing so much money. I think £23 is already a lot for bottom half, tier 5 football.

Shahid has continually said in the past "We are sustainable"

We're not..
He did say he wanted us in the Football League but no idea how that is achievable.
No idea what's going on with the ground.

Think the chairman needs to come out and tell it as it is. We are now a relatively small National League club and our goal is to stay up each year.

Sad times.

I think the major question is why are the accounts still overdue at Companies House? Or do other Shots fans think it doesn't matter..........