Please find below the minutes from last night’s open forum below – taken by Spartans Chairman Dan Rolls.
Attendees from the board and management team – Kevin Miles (KM), Martin Trinder (MT), Peter Saleem (PS), Shad Saleem (SS), Paul Norvell (PN), Colin Blackett (CB), Dan Rolls (DR) Marc Nash (MN), Anthony Woodhouse (AW).
Apologies – Craig Richardson (CR), Stephen Southern (SS), Mark Middling (MM).
The Quarterly Forum was opened by DR at 8:05, who welcomed everyone and presented the running order for the evening before handing over to KM for the quarterly report.
KM begins by apologising for the abscence of some of the board members before presenting his report.
Steady progress off the pitch
- While on the pitch things have not gone to plan, however off the pitch, steady progress has been made.
- The main focus has been to increase the clubs revenue stream’s and rebuild the infrastructure of the club.
- Revenue has been invested into converting the offices in the Port of Blyth stand, into a new first aid and physio room – with the aim being to rent out the physio room.
- Further revenue has been invested into establishing and improving Colin’s cafes kitchen at the clubhouse.
Financial position
- KM acknowledged that financially, we are behind where we would like to be.
- While sponsorship is up on the year, extra unexpected costs to the renovations over the summer, the initial start up costs to Shield and Skillet and lower than expected income in pre-season (due to less home games being played).
- It was stressed however that grant money had partly funded the aforementioned work.
- Income through sponsorship however is well above target.
- KM is confident that the building work in both the club and the social club will pay dividends in the future.
Future building works and plans
- KM confirmed A new hospitality unit will be added in the near future – based off the unit at Whitby Town. This is mostly being funded by further grant money.
- The toilets at the PRE will also be replaced in the near future, again through grant money.
- KM is also keen to see a disabled toilet installed in the social club soon – once again down to grant monies.
- A separate catering company is currently being set up, to operate as Shield and Skillet.
- The catering arm of the club will also organise some community based events going forward, with the aim of bringing more families into Croft Park.
KM then took some time to address the change in the management team.
- States that it was not an easy decision.
- Reinforced that the boards role is to set strategic direction for the club and make the resources available for the management team.
- Stated that the board judge a managers performance on their ability to manage the playing budget and the teams performance on the pitch (in respect of points gained).
- Reinforced that Colin Myers was the best applicant for the role back in May by a distance.
- KM accepted that while the budget was well managed, there was no escaping that the performances on the pitch weren’t up to scratch – with the Blyth Town game being the final straw.
- The recruitment process was concluded much quicker this time around, with MN being the outstanding candidate this time in a much stronger field of applicants.
- Confirms the board were unanimous on the appointment of MN.
- KM then clarifies that despite rumours online, the budget has not been cut.
Club CFO MM then presents his financial update, which can be found below.
The floor is then opened to questions from the audience
Q) Would it be possible to have a copy of that (Mark’s video)?
DR) It’ll be uploaded to YouTube at some point tomorrow.
Q) The figure presented regarding sponsorship income, is that a rolling figure?
KM) That figure is how much we’ve brought in so far this season. Hopefully next time we present this information, it would have increased further.
Q) What benefit will we actually see from the building work to the main stand?
KM) The biggest advantages of the habitable and you actually exist in them without a risk to health. But we needed to upgrade the first aid facilities anyway, just to make sure they were up standard. The plan with the physio room, which has got quite a big space, is to establish a partnership with a physio practice, so that we will have a partnership with somebody who we have the physio facilities that we require for the playing staff on when it comes to training. We can also hopefully offer either free or reduced-price physio facilities for the local community as well. So, there’s a community benefit and a rental potential in there as well.
Q) Can we get some more precise figures on the breakdown of costs for the building work?
KM) I know that we got grant funding of £11,000 towards it. That’s the one that I’m off the top of my head. Most of the work we planned to do was for £11,000. It wasn’t going to cost us anything. It has cost more because of what we said before about the asbestos and the extra work that was needed.
Q) Do we know how long it will be before we start seeing a return on the investment from the building work to then invest in the playing squad?
KM) The short answer is probably no. If I’m absolutely honest about it. There’s a fair amount of it that we are predicting, not exactly sure how that will manifest. So we can’t be sure at this stage what the return will be at present. We’re looking forward to the day when we have to discuss the surplus it’ll eventually generate though. We do still believe that the budget we have for the league we’re in is already competitive and above average.
Q) Ideally that would generate the budget for the league above (NPL Premier Division) to then get back to where we were a couple of years ago?
KM) It is part of the long-term plan. We would have to of course maintain those levels of expenditure, and get the crowds that would be typical of the league above. It’s a constant battle to get the balance of this right. We don’t have any sugar daddy’s righting off £100,000 at the end of every season. We want to build the foundations of a solid football club, that we can sustain.
Q) We don’t have Sky or TNT anymore for live football and we’re losing customers to the Masons and Sports Club. Should we not be making an effort to have live football on? As the social club has been dead recently.
CB) The price of Sky was £600 a month last season, which was just too much. While Newcastle games brought a few in, other football didn’t really draw many in. The money we brought in just didn’t cover the bills and the price was going to increase to £1,000 a month for this season.
Q) At the start of the season we saw two budgets had put together, once conservative (crowds of 500) and one higher (crowds of 700). We’re currently averaging just 600 after having gone with the lower budget, but we’re still saying we need more through the gate?
DR) You make an excellent point and I’m sure Kev will explain in more detail, but one of the main reasons the finances have taken a hit is due to unexpected costs involved in the building work.
KM) You’re correct we did do a projection based on those figures, and we are clearer nearer the bottom target than we are the top one. We’ve not been helped by a few things. There are a couple of things that annoy me. For instance, the Matlock game was obviously moved from a Saturday because they proceeded in the FA Cup. You’re going to generate less money, generally speaking, on a midweek game to start with. But what was even worse was that it was scheduled for the Tuesday night up against the Newcastle Champions League match being live at the same time. We approached Matlock and asked if they would be prepared to move the match to the Wednesday. Matlock agreed that they would. So we approached the league for permission to move the match to the Wednesday and the league said, no we couldn’t now – because it’s the rule that we designate a certain evening for midweek fixtures, and then you then have to stick to it.
Now, I find that incredible that a league which is supposed to be looked after the interest of its member clubs would say no, when it’s at no cost to the league whatsoever. They’ve got nothing to lose. There’s no question of sporting integrity or an advantage of playing the Wednesday or the Tuesday. I can’t understand why they did that. I’ve since raised that with the FA and they are looking to change the rules to make sure that the league, if they do deny permission for a change, have to be able to justify why it’s in the interest of the game to refuse the permission. So in future, that shouldn’t happen again.
Moving Saturday games is different, as one of the one of the reasons you can do that is actually specifically says in the league rules that you can move a Saturday game to a Friday and the reason that that’s in there is because they have this deal with Clubber TV, which is the Irish streaming service that partner with the league.
So we’ve exploited that rule, obviously, with the agreement of Consett for that game and we are also applying to have that match streamed on Clubber TV, because there’s nothing to lose. Clubber TV will pay the club £1000 for the facility to come and stream the match.
We also explored with the league, moving the Lincoln United game because of the International break, as we’re in the strange position of playing at this level with international players. We raised it with the league to find out, we didn’t make a formal application. We asked them what the position was and they said no – you can’t, because if you’re international players are away, you’ve got plenty of U19’s you can draw on, which obviously would have put us at a sporting disadvantage.
So again, we’ve raised this with the FA and they are looking to change the rules, because if you’re an EFL club, if you’ve got three players called up – you have the automatic right to have your match called off. I personally cannot see how the NPL could not see that was a brilliant advert for their league that you got in the eighth tier of English football, that you’ve got people going away on international duty. That should be a really positive, good news story for the league. Instead of which no – they’re very, very rigid on the rules.
So anyway, what we what we’re planning to do in December is to go back over all of the figures that will have the projection at the start the season and then to work out exactly what the crowd figures are looking like. But one thing I will say with absolute confidence is the more people come through the gate, the more money we generate.
There’s an interesting debate that we can have later about what makes the biggest impact on the gates? Because there’s a strong school of thought that says it’s performances and results to drive attendances, and there’s an equally strong theory that actually, it has very little bearing on attendances – and the attendances are more likely more down to the match the experience
I think there is probably a sweet spot in the middle where you have to try to address both, but it doesn’t automatically follow the progress on the pitch. In fact, there’s a lot of clubs who when they get promoted, the crowds actually drop. Partly because the results get more challenging, but also the away travel obviously gets a lot, bigger. People having to travel further, so you’re visiting fans and visiting fans drop off as well.
DR) Before we end this section of tonight, I just want to quickly say thank you very, very much for the support you show us so far this season.
To be second bottom in the league after another relegation, charging one of the highest gate prices in the league while having the second or third highest crowd in the league is incredible. The loyalty you’ve shown this club is has been outstanding.
There’s been plenty of teams that we’ve seen around us over the years vanish when they’ve had similar problems. So again, thank you very much the support you showed us so far this season.
Women’s head of football Linda Bush then provided an update on their successes so far this season. A further update on that will follow via the club’s website shortly.
Following a short drink break, manager Marc Nash and his assistant Anthony Woodhouse took to the stage.
Q) Firstly, welcome to Blyth – you’re the 6th manager in the last 2 years! Looking at the league table, we’ve got a chance to stay up, we’ve got a chance to win the next 4 or 5 games. Draws are no good mind, so good luck!
MN) Thanks for that brilliant welcome! I think we see every game as winnable. We’re in this transitional period of trying to pick up results as we go. I’m not tempted to pinpoint specific game or a certain run – we’ll treat every opponent the same.
Q) The recruitment has been a lot more positive over the last week or so – what’s the median term plan to bring players in?
A) There’s no tougher job than taking on a new club before the halfway mark of a season and trying to bring players in, especially when there’s contracts involved. We’re pretty happy with what we’ve recruited so far – we would have loved a pre-season to let things gel together, but we can’t dwell on that.
We’re not quite finished yet in terms of upgrading the squad, we’ve just come in and assessed how we can upgrade the squad quickly to ensure we aren’t getting out played week after week and try get things turned around. The midterm goal is to get out the relegation zone as quickly as possible so we can relax come the end of the season and have one eye on having a really good summer.
It’s going to be a tough ask, but we’re trying to work as fast as we can to turn things around for you guys. Speaking candidly, it’s been tough for you’s – but you’ll get the absolute best from us and we hope to reward you with some results sooner rather than later.
AW) The level we’re at now is swamped with teams from around the area, we’re all fighting for the same quality player. Sometimes you need to take a gamble on a younger player, but we’ve brought in lads that we know and trust we can trust and rely on.
Some of them were very close to coming to the league last year with Blue Star. We were only two minutes away from a second successive promotion before losing on penalties,
Q) First of all, thanks for taking the job – by the way, are you mental!? We knew the squad wasn’t going to be strong enough in the summer and you’ve already recruited some stronger players. Going forward, what will your squad look like?
MN) The situation at the minute was more about just tightening up. You’ve probably seen a little bit more organisation at the back. We need to work things at the other end now which our new players will sort out, but they’ll need time to gel.
Generally as a manager I’m very attacking , on the front foot playing possession-based football that’s good to watch. At the moment we can’t really do that due to the goal difference, so we have to address things step by step. We’ve got a lot to work on going forward, but we can’t do it all at once.
You’re paying good money to watch us, and we’ll be good to watch once we’re settled.
Q) Again thank you for coming – you really must be mental! I’m feeling reasonably optimistic. Would you say 46 points is a good tally?
MN) Again I would say most of the games are winnable. In general, there’s much of a muchness in this league – 46 points is tough but achievable. I’m not looking at a specific point total, it’s all about taking it one game at a time. It’s a challenge but we’re up for it.. and I’m not mental! I wouldn’t have taken the job if I was confident.
I’ve probably had chances in the past to get involved, but I feel now is the right time. I want turn things round for you guys as well, because you’ve been through it over the years.
Q) Why were players told about being released over text?
MN) After coming out of my previous job and everything that comes with that, to be thrust into a new job not even a week later was certainly a tough one – especially when you have to prepare for a game, getting interview for the role permanently and getting training organised.
The club said they would inform the players on my behalf, but in hindsight I should have delayed it a little bit and done it myself. I did write to the players on the Sunday and they accepted my apology. I did feel poor about it to be honest, but I’ve learnt from it – and going forward we need to avoid that, but it’s addressed and dealt with.
Q) In terms of the current crop, is there much here that excites you?
MN) There’s certainly some decent players here. They probably didn’t have a lot of direction previously, I don’t want to be disrespectful of the previous management but that’s just what we found. We’re close to having a strong starting XI once everyone is back.
There’s a core of players who are good enough for this level, it’s just about getting them to gel together.
Q) We’ve only got one goalkeeper who’s signed and he’s on loan – are we going to actually sign one?
MN) Callum has no recall clause on his loan so we’re safe there. Max Campbell has already registered for us, who’s playing for Birtley Town. We’re really happy with Callum and Phil (Hogg) has been brilliant with him.
Q) Are there anymore signings in the pipeline?
MN) We’re probably at the stage now where we’re very comfortable with the starting XI we’ve put together now. I think a lot of the lads that come in now will be players I know and trust that will improve the overall squad. We’ve been very fortunate with the players we’ve brought in so far and they’re all good characters – they understand the clubs position and realise how serious the situation is. The dressing room culture here is huge for us, having strong characters dressing room is important.
Speaking candidly there was a bit of stigma about coming to Spartans previously, but I’d like to think that’s being taken away quickly. We want this place to become the place to be at once again.
AW) If you look at where we’ve been in terms of our background, at Whitley Bay I think 5th in the league, which was heavily competitive with Morpeth, Stockton’s and Darlington’s at that point. At North Shields we won the league and went into the NPL East finishing 7th, then as I touched on before – went to Blue Star and nearly got back-to-back promotions.
What you’ll find is a lot of the players who play for us follow us around because of the standards we set and the loyalty we show them. If you follow Mark Carruthers, you may have seen his article today he put out about the badge and what it means to play for Blyth Spartans and making this place a difficult place to come.
In terms of the fans and having that support behind us, it’s really important to have everyone behind us as it certainly helps. As an ex-player here, it was huge for me. You could hear Tony Young before you saw him. Starting on Saturday against Bishop’s, we need you guys fully behind us and hopefully with another 850 to get that budget through the roof for us! It does make a huge difference. So come Saturday, bring a mate! Bring the missus, if you really have to.
There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that you won’t really see – we all work tirelessly at the club on and off the pitch. Once we get the place bouncing with some good football again, we need you!
DR closes forum at 9:30pm and thanks everyone for attending.