Hereford United held their Annual General Meeting in the VP club earlier this evening starting at 7pm. Chairman David Keyte took the meeting. Vice-chairman Tim Russon, director Grenville Smith and Kevin Tong from accountants Thorne Widgery were also present along with around 30 shareholders.
After the formalities of apologies and approving last year's accounts, the Chairman presented the latest accounts (for more details see BN's earlier articles).
For the first time for many years, there was a positive figure on the balance sheet, but the Chairman noted that the club was 'too heavily reliant' on gate receipts. He gave the meeting some figures which illustrated the problem. Of the amount taken at the gate last Saturday, virtually all went out on player's wages on Monday and there were all the other staff to pay.
He spoke about the 55% wage cap. The 'terms' of the cap had slightly changed and he was confident the club would come through the next review and so no transfer embargo would be placed on the club in the New Year. But it wasn't easy at present which is why the club needs more income from off-pitch activities.
Some costs from last season hopefully won't occur again. The Chairman mentioned what the sacking of Simon Davey had cost. In essence the club had to stand 21 months of management costs in the twelve month period.
Asked by a shareholder how the club had found Gary Peters, the Chairman said his name had initially come from a search on the internet. Later they spoke to the chairman of Shrewsbury Town who said they would have had Peters back, had Graham Turner not taken over.
The club is owed some money from Bournemouth for the transfer of Mark Pugh. A clause in the deal related to appearances and Pugh is now over the required starts. Janos Kovacs will soon be off the books. But there was no other news about any loan deals out of Edgar Street. And the club was still hoping that Mathieu Manset could become a regular starter for Reading as he has to make 25 starts to release another £25,000. To date he's only started nine games.
The chairman admitted that should any reasonable offer came for a player either to go out on loan or for sale, the club would agree. However when asked specifically about Harry Pell, the chairman said that there had been 'no offers to date'.
The Accrington game which was to be on Saturday December 31st had been brought forward to the Friday evening after a request from Accrington. The chairman said that Jamie Pitman felt this would give his players an extra day before the Burton game on January 2nd.
Two other items of note. Firstly the club now hopes that the Sportsman Club, which will be called the Starlite Rooms, will be partly open on Boxing Day for the Port Vale match. The chairman revealed that the cost of the renovations was around £300,000 and all of this money had come from four supporters who had made loans to cover this amount. Radfords would continue to operate as it was hoped with two facilites more supporters could be persuaded to have a pre-match pint which would bring in more income for the club.
Secondly the club had hired Savills to try and find a developer for the Blackfriars End with the possible aim of building a business class hotel in conjunction with the stand. An amount of up to £750,000 was still available from the Football Foundation to help with the cost of the stand. The club had agreed details with the Council about a sub-lease for the project which could be 250 years long.
Grenville Smith was re-elected as a director.
The meeting closed at 8.45pm.
Please note this report doesn't cover anywhere near everything that was said at the meeting. Some facts and figures were given to the shareholders which it would not be appropiate to publish. However, to his credit, the Chairman was very open about the finances at the club and he did not flinch from answering any question from the floor. Currently the club was going through a difficult position with gates lower than budgeted, no Cup income and some players wages higher than the club can probably afford. Unless gate and other income suddenly increases, and/or players are sold, the club will lose money this season. However there is some light at the end of the tunnel with costs expected to be somewhat lower next season and a steady income from the Starlite Rooms.
Text at top (next game etc)
Next Game: Marine At Edgar Street On Saturday 9th November At 3.00pm