No profit at Northwich
Another Conference club has reported a large loss for the last season.
Northwich Victoria have just announced an operating loss of £245,210 for the 2002/3 season. The wage bill for the team and admin ran at £263,000 - more than £5,000-a-week, roughly the amount the club was losing.
They have said that Vale Royal Borough Council must take a share of the blame for large financial losses at the club which is currently in the second season of a groundshare deal at Witton Albion's Wincham Park ground, and gates have suffered. They had hoped to complete the move in one season.
The club are also bottom of the Conference.
Northwich are financing the move by the sale of their former ground at the Drill Field to property developers Wilcon Homes for £2.3million on top of which they are getting £200,000 in sponsorship from Wilcon and a further £500,000 from the Football Trust. With an interim sum of £1.3m already received for the ground Northwich actually made a profit on the 2002-03 season, but the losses on the field have already eaten heavily into that sum.