The New Raith Rovers Thread

[SirJimmyofNic]

1 minute ago, johnnydun said:

Just thought of a supporter with heaps of cash. I would say that he knows how to work to a budget but we all know that's a lie.

Dear prudence is what we definitely don't need

[RRFC_Liam]

Wouldn’t read much into it but apparently Poplatnik Is back in fife and will be at the game tomorrow……  rumours of him backing back is already doing the rounds

[Michael W]

Reading that statement again and it brings home what a mess the whole situation is.

Average loss of £150k a season. Board mismanagement, nothing we don't know. 

'Deferred maintenance that must be dealt with' = Sim at fault for this one. Thought he would maybe want to ensure his asset was in top condition whilst a whole load of shite was dumped in the football club's accounts. Seemingly that's not great either. 

"seek further ways to change the economic business model by bringing in outside investors with funds and expertise." Do you mean like putting in a synthetic surface so it can be rented out and generate income? Or how about ever-more-ambitious clubhouse building plans? What about someone that actually bothers their arse to sell matchday hospitality and try and actually get some income for the stadium advertising? Has Sim finally admitted defeated on his grand plans? 

It is exactly what happens when control rests with one person, and a distant person at that. Benign neglect. 

Perhaps laying all the doom for all to see was not the most sensible way to try and sell the club. Essentially what is being sold is a stadium (in need of work) with an insolvent football club attached to it. Not exactly a promising start.

 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Michael W

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

10 minutes ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

Dear prudence is what we definitely don't need

I wouldn't get het up about him. he's ages with Mr Sim and probably couldn't be arsed with the hassle.

[pub car king]

We are one club who should run as far as far away as we can from fan ownership. Our fans can't agree on the colour of shite never mind how to take forward a massive financial liability. 

It's quite apparent we are living outwith our means and need cash.

The sticking point will be the stadium and all the leveraged debt as well as the poor state it is in. The main stand is old as f**k and not really fit for the modern day but it soldiers on. Both stands behind the goals are 35 years old and had bare minimal maintenance. We don't even need to talk about the railway stand that's been out of commission for what 15 years? 

 

 

[bobbykdy]

3 minutes ago, pub car king said:

We are one club who should run as far as far away as we can from fan ownership. Our fans can't agree on the colour of shite never mind how to take forward a massive financial liability. 

It's quite apparent we are living outwith our means and need cash.

The sticking point will be the stadium and all the leveraged debt as well as the poor state it is in. The main stand is old as f**k and not really fit for the modern day but it soldiers on. Both stands behind the goals are 35 years old and had bare minimal maintenance. We don't even need to talk about the railway stand that's been out of commission for what 15 years? 

 

 

26 & half, opened summer of 1996.

[vikingTON]

5 minutes ago, pub car king said:

We are one club who should run as far as far away as we can from fan ownership. Our fans can't agree on the colour of shite never mind how to take forward a massive financial liability. 

Unless your fanbase has been segregated within the away stand into two separate groups to stop folk leathering each other (Inverness away) or run roughly 17 independent travel groups in the seaside leagues because nobody can stand being on the same bus to Forfar then you might want to rethink that claim tbqhwy. 

[CountryBumpkin]

2 hours ago, johnnydun said:

Would Val not step in?

The same Val that part of our arsehole section within the fan base derided due to her stance in January? I bet she'd love to come back and face that abuse again.

Unless we can consistently achieve a home crowd of 2500+ we should not be looking at being full time, we've badly mismanaged the cash we received last two seasons that has left us in this position so it needs to be changed. If sustainability on our budget means part time or back to the seaside league for a while, that's what it should be until we can bring more money in and not run up a deficit year on year. 

[JaketheSnake]

It's not all doom and gloom. We've still got the Titan Portacabin and big John. 

[Rovers_Lad]

32 minutes ago, CountryBumpkin said:

The same Val that part of our arsehole section within the fan base derided due to her stance in January? I bet she'd love to come back and face that abuse again.

Unless we can consistently achieve a home crowd of 2500+ we should not be looking at being full time, we've badly mismanaged the cash we received last two seasons that has left us in this position so it needs to be changed. If sustainability on our budget means part time or back to the seaside league for a while, that's what it should be until we can bring more money in and not run up a deficit year on year. 

Count me in as one of the arseholes.

We,ve have owners/BOD who have mismanaged cash for years not just the last two seasons

[philpy]

Stick the portacabin up front. It might be more effective. 

[Broken Algorithms]

2 hours ago, johnnydun said:

Would Val not step in?

Her twitter has been full of folk claiming that she used the Goodwillie situation for her own gain with (and I'm not suggesting it's everyone pinging her an @) some horrendous abuse. There's absolutely no chance that she'll be investing. I'd be quite surprised that even when Sims gone if she'll come back to games. 

The upside is that we at least know where we stand. For years we've been in a situation where we've had a hugely convoluted business model and an owner who refused to explain what would happen if he passed away. There hasn't been any visible continuity plan for years and it's something which has been spoken about quite widely. As an owner, Sim had it relatively easy from our fans prior to January 31st last year. Most fans will still acknowledge for all that went wrong in that one decision, overall he's kept us floating as a club and for that 

We're not alone in the position that we're in. We're tied in with a stadium which has a great history, but practically speaking it's a bit of an elephant. There's been some investment in recent years but there's an absolute dearth of any atmosphere unless it's a derby. 

I'd be delighted if we got a new investor who wanted to take us away from Stark's and build a smaller capacity stadium, but frankly there's f**k all chance of that happening. For all the positives and negatives Sim has done with the club, the most important bit is that it's passed on to someone who won't bullshit the fans or have more interest in levelling our ground for property with no alternative. 

[CountryBumpkin]

2 minutes ago, Rovers_Lad said:

Count me in as one of the arseholes.

We,ve have owners/BOD who have mismanaged cash for years not just the last two seasons

Well yeah I think that's fair to say, however if you look at the cash we picked up since coming back to the Championship, we've pissed it up the wall at best. Sale of Tait, income from 2 ties away at Celtic, playoff finish and TV cash in 1st season back. That's a lot of additional income that has been managed poorly if we look at return on that investment on the pitch. 

[grumswall]

Remember the good ol days when people where moaning about this being a transitional season? 

[Rovers_Lad]

39 minutes ago, CountryBumpkin said:

Well yeah I think that's fair to say, however if you look at the cash we picked up since coming back to the Championship, we've pissed it up the wall at best. Sale of Tait, income from 2 ties away at Celtic, playoff finish and TV cash in 1st season back. That's a lot of additional income that has been managed poorly if we look at return on that investment on the pitch. 

Fair enough comment 

Season 2015/16 we had the likes of Rangers and Hibs in our league,drawn against Celtic in the LC and we reached a two leg play off with Hibs and still made a loss that season

Historically we have mismanaged our finances

[Been going too long]

45 minutes ago, grumswall said:

Remember the good ol days when people where moaning about this being a transitional season? 

The last 12 months really have been something , be interesting to see if anyone answers the call to invest, would love to see us away from starks park but that decision should have happened back in the 90’s, if we go part time we go part time , no business can expect to make substantial losses each year without reaching breaking point. Given current cost of living crisis not sure a fan buy out would be well supported this time, people have quite rightly got more pressing uses for money and although we all love football/rovers it is just a hobby/passion  at the end of the day. @Txrover do you not have any rich uncles looking to buy a piece of Scottish football folklore

Edited December 16, 2022 by Been going too long

[Been going too long]

22 minutes ago, Rovers_Lad said:

Fair enough comment 

Season 2015/16 we had the likes of Rangers and Hibs in our league,drawn against Celtic in the LC and we reached a two leg play off with Hibs and still made a loss that season

Historically we have mismanaged our finances

Yeah that was peak rovers to make a loss that season 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

27 minutes ago, Rovers_Lad said:

Fair enough comment 

Season 2015/16 we had the likes of Rangers and Hibs in our league,drawn against Celtic in the LC and we reached a two leg play off with Hibs and still made a loss that season

Historically we have mismanaged our finances

Despite the campaign to save the Rovers after Anelka and the West Coast mob, Mr Sim came in and saved the day as it were, there was always a debt.

John Sim only came to influence the club after Mario sold his shares, if the quote that the debt has been reduced by £500K is surely down to him.

If the previous is true, surely in recent history, finances are being managed.

[Rovers_Lad]

Not dissing JS cause if it wasn,t for him we may well have been down the grubber

Dinosaur when it comes to finances but if we are continually make loss on loss they aren,t being managed and with our complicated make up of who owns what and who owes what,and what money gets bounced between club and stadium its difficult to come up with an answer

 

[roverthemoon]

Big question is the ownership of the stadium. My understanding is that it lies with Stark’s Park Properties which is basically just Sim. Is he selling the club but hanging onto the stadium? He’s referred to it many a time as his ‘pension’, so don’t think he’ll hand that over easily.

Sim is slippery as f**k and still have a fear that he’ll do the football club over for his own financial benefit in some way, especially given that he feels he was unjustly criticised over the DG debacle. 

Realistically, Colin Smart is the best way forward. Someone local who is a genuine fan and gets the club. Whether he’s interested or not is another matter entirely. Val I think is a non starter and doubt that Sim would even sell to her after she called him out over the DG signing.