It has now been four months since we made our investment into the Club and I wanted to provide an update on our time so far, the work we are currently focussing on and our plans for the future.
The first thing I would like to do is to thank you, the supporters, and everyone involved at the Club – on behalf of myself, my family and my fellow new directors – for the extremely warm welcome you have given us all. It is somewhat daunting to take the reins of an institution which means so much to so many people, but your support so far has made the process a genuine pleasure and we sincerely appreciate that. It was a real honour to step onto the pitch before the recent Woking game with my father, brother and nephew and the reception we received was truly special.
Secondly, a word about the football. You will recall one of our stated goals is to return to the EFL within a three-year period. Jimmy McNulty is fully aligned with this ambition, and we have planned accordingly including signing our Head Coach up to a new contract. We have made available a budget which we consider to be reasonable, but not reckless. A budget that has enabled Jimmy to build a squad which we hope has the strength and depth needed for a season which is likely to involve more than 50 games. The first team staff are now also operating in a stable environment where they can focus 100% on the football and not be distracted by off-field issues. There is a long way still to go this season, but it has been a pleasure to watch the first eight games. It is a credit to Jimmy and his team – not just for the excellent football on display and the results which have followed – but also the obvious team spirit and camaraderie among the group which can help so much to galvanise a team and generate the collective resolve needed over the course of a long season. That sort of team spirit is not a given, and it is a testament to Jimmy and his team’s hard work, shrewd recruitment and sound management.
The level of support at the games has been great to see. I was at the Crown Oil Arena this week for the 3-1 win against Maidenhead United and a crowd of over 2,300 on a Tuesday night was very encouraging, as well as the excellent decibel levels being generated in the Sandy Lane.
We have worked with the Dale Trust to lay on subsidised travel to away games which has been a real success. I would like to thank everyone who has worked hard to make this happen, including in particular George Brigham, Murray Knight, Gill Press, Karen Chorlton, Stuart Ashworth, Jan Marsh, Greg Jones and Anthony Field. It is something we would very much like to expand in future if the demand is there.
It was also very pleasing to see Rochdale AFC’s Women’s team start their campaign last weekend with a dominant 4-1 win over Whalley Range. Long may that form continue.
Off the pitch, there has been a lot of work going on, but I appreciate that it may not be immediately apparent to those not directly involved and so I’d like to give a high-level overview of the sorts of initiatives we are focussing on.
Before I do that, I think it’s important to set the context in which those initiatives are being pursued. Roughly speaking, if the Club remains in the National League and if we assume average attendances, average levels of success in cups, average player trading receipts and no material increase or decrease in overheads or other income, then the Club will typically lose about £500-600k per year. Bear in mind these are the levels of losses it will incur in spite of the fact that it is currently operating at a relatively skeleton level of staffing and other expenditures. It is unfortunately just a fact that running a big Club in the National League is, in the absence of non-footballing revenue or sustained extraordinary levels of crowd support, a loss-making enterprise.
We have made it one of our stated goals to get the Club into a financially sustainable position in the absence of footballing success within five years. Given what I’ve said above, this is no easy task, but we feel it is crucial. It may well be that the Club will attain promotion in the relatively near future, its finances might improve as a result, and it may be able to self-sustain for a few years. But it is the nature of football that the difficult times will inevitably hit at some point and the only way to ensure the Club does not face another existential threat is to ensure it has a stable financial platform to fall back on in a worst-case scenario. We cannot guarantee we can achieve this, but that is what we are focussed on.
It goes without saying that we will not be able to generate non-football related income at the necessary levels without significant further investment into the Club and its infrastructure. It is also the case that projects of this nature do not happen overnight and it will take some time and a lot of work – including consultations with the supporters and all other stakeholders – to get us to a point where we have a more definitive idea of what the end result will be and the investment required. Rest assured this work is ongoing and we will make sure you are all updated regularly when there is substantive news to share. We are very excited about the possibilities.
So, we have some big plans for the future and we are looking forward to sharing that vision with you in more detail. However, those plans will take some time to deliver and, in the meantime, we are aware that there are various aspects of the fan experience which are not perfect. Much of the infrastructure at the Crown Oil Arena is outdated and in need of investment. The kitchen is falling apart. The look and feel of the facilities is tired and the systems we use for ticketing, retail and other key operational processes are sub-optimal. We do not have a customer relationship management system. The hospitality experience we are able to offer given the infrastructure and resource available is good value, but not at the quality we ultimately want it to be. There is a very long list of things that we know are not right. The Club staff work extremely hard to provide the best experience they can despite these limitations.
The reason I raise this is because I want to appeal to your patience in respect of some of the above issues. It is very difficult, when we have such a sizeable annual budget deficit and when we have big plans to make material improvements to all of the facilities at the Club in the medium term, to justify any material expenditure on some of these deficient areas in the short term. I assure you it is not due to a lack of awareness or desire to improve your experience. It comes instead from a reluctance to sink costs into short-term fixes for issues that we are planning to wholesale eradicate as part of our bigger plans. Of course, if there are zero or low-cost solutions to some of the current problems, we will be very happy to consider and implement these and we will be actively seeking fan feedback and consultation as to the best way we can improve the fan experience at low cost during this interim period.
During this time of development, I would like to place on record my thanks to our commercial partners who have continued to support the Club, notably our Principal Partner Crown Oil, O’Neills for three Rochdale AFC shirt launches, JW Lees, BAPP Industrials and Castleton Timber. Energy Funding Service became our back-of-shirt sponsor for the season and Smith Metals renewed its sponsorship of the Family Stand pre-season. We appreciate your support.
We have started a concerted effort to re-engage the Club with the business community both locally, across the region and nationally. The Club has an exciting story to tell and we look forward to a wide spectrum of commercial partners and suppliers joining us for the journey ahead.
I’m also excited to share that in addition to the plans we have been developing for the football club, we have also been working with the Community Trust and are making good progress on plans which we hope will enable the Trust to significantly increase the scope of its activities within the Rochdale community – in particular in the sphere of education provision. Again, we will share more definitive details on this exciting initiative as soon as we are able to.
I’d like to end this update with a collective challenge to all stakeholders at the Club. The projects I have mentioned above are exciting and ambitious, but I acknowledge that they will take some time to implement, and it is difficult for all supporters to easily or immediately engage with them at this stage. With this in mind, we have already held preliminary talks with the Dale Trust regarding our aim to significantly grow our home attendances. This is something that every one of the Club’s supporters can help with immediately and which could – in theory at least – drive us towards sustainability without any further investment. Our aim is to find a way, in a borough of 230,000 people, to increase our average attendance from its current levels in the low 2,000s to 5,000 people. If home crowds were regularly at this level, this in itself would take us a long way to bridging the current annual budget deficit. We do not pretend that this is an easy task, and we acknowledge that the Club has a large part to play in engaging with and growing its fanbase. However, the Club has only limited resources and is made up of much more than just its Board and staff members – it is made up of all of its supporters and stakeholders – and we are calling for your assistance in this endeavour. A football club’s supporters are its best advocates and by encouraging friends, family and colleagues to make a trip to the Crown Oil Arena you will be doing your Club the best service you can. It won’t happen overnight and it is ambitious, but other clubs have proven it can be done and we need to set our sights high.
Finally, I would like to wish Jimmy and his team good luck for tomorrow’s game at home to Solihull Moors. I’m sure you will be right behind them from the off.
Up The Dale!
Cameron
