I would worry if they were a complete shock to the club, because anyone with half a brain could have foreseen such losses because of the facts I pointed out.
I fail to see what the club could have done in that first year other than what they did, maybe your 20 years in business could point this out to someone clearly as thick as I?

Fair enough. I for one don't know of any start up company that immediately trades i the black.

Further to this Mr Glover is the sole owner of the club, there are no shareholders so the only person he is putting at risk is himself. We are only customers and as such I can only see that we are getting a great deal. With a half decent tam and half price season tickets available we certainly can't complain. Perhaps if the season ticket holder such as this chap all paid full price for their match day experience then I'd suggest the loss would be far less. Clearly Glover is speculating to accumulate. Yes he has to tread very carefully but that's the risk HE takes. Seeing as we don't own the ground and there are no shareholders money being risked then I see no real issue, that is business. Even if the Glover regime goes t*ts up it's not like we have lost the family silver.

The only risk is that we are somehow not in a position to move into NM when it comes on line - the fear being that there is another club who would happily take our spot - that I must admit is a bit of a fear.

How the heck are the mind numbingly bad - this is a start up company, exactly what don't you get?

A 1.2 million loss is never great but it should have been expected.

A ten year plan was the aim. Newmarket crucial, as the future has to be bright if you can go into a new stadium with a strong hardcore support, combined with fewer overheads (lower rent and less maintenance). If the attendance is high, Newmarket soon becomes a desirable place to spend a Sunday afternoon, and so the money keeps rolling in, which buys better players, and so the people keep coming, etc.

So to take the hits now and get people behind the club is a strong way to start the ten year plan. Different example, but Amazon didn't expect to be in profit for more than ten years when they started out. Their view was that they had to take the early hits to become the main player. I suppose that's how a ten year plan works.

If the aim was to be profitable now, then the club would excite less interest on the pitch and Belle Vue would not have had the upgrades. So we would go into Newmarket with a 5K support base and it would just be a smaller version of the Galpharm, modern but lacking in excitement, and would stop the club growing. Go there with 10K in every week and it can maintain itself as a bigger player than it currently is.

Warrington is probably the best example, where it's buzz was transformed by the ground but the on-field stuff was done by the coach. If Tony Smith hadn't gone there, they might still be scrapping for 6th or 7th and maybe not be attracting the players they do. We will never be a Wigan or a Leeds, but we could be a Warrington.

It was not a new start up it was a continuation of an existing business with new owners.

Everything remain the same? Other thanthe initial reduction of playing and admin staff?

I don’t think the capital costs are taken into the first year’s accounts. As the work wasn’t done until the year after.

So I am perplexed how you think a loss of this magnitude is expected?



Good point of increasing attendances and running loss leaders season tickets to attract a wider audience

Which will bear fruit for the future as long as the present is sustainable?

We all hope this is so and we are in for a great season of rugby league

No it certainly isn't, there is no connection with the old club in financial terms. A team had to be built from scratch yet as already pointed out by many others without that years season ticket sales, advanced bookings and merchandise sales. Added to that some debtors were paid and a good deal of upfront investment on the ground. Although much of the latter is window dressing IMHO it still comes at a price.

An accountant which you clearly aren't would describe this as a one off extraordinary loss due to restructuring which if Glover is a good business man will reap fruit in the future.

It's Glovers club/company, I can't imagine he is deliberately losing what is effectively his own money.

I can see the dangers I really can and I have preached caution from the start - but no one can work miracles including AG.

However Im not going to be churlish and jump on some bandwagon and have a go at the club/owner just because the fantasy woven around the guy by others turns out not to be true and he's only human.

As I say if we lose the same next year I'd start to be more worried. At the moment NM and the state of RL in general worries me more.

Maybe we shouldn't believe all the hype so much.

Quote ="Tigerade"I know this is from the Casforum site but looking at this you can see how charitable Andrew Glover has been over the last 12 months. Well done indeed. www.casforum.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... =7&t=23287'" I cant believe nobody has said it yet #obsessed !!!

Quote ="Tigerade"I know this is from the Casforum site but looking at this you can see how charitable Andrew Glover has been over the last 12 months. Well done indeed. www.casforum.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... =7&t=23287'" I cant believe nobody has said it yet #obsessed !!!

The one thing I take from this is that bigalf or whatever the pricks name is one bitter, sad, obsessed freak.

This,

I remember having a few conversations at the time with various people about how much that first year will have cost AG. Basically s has been mentioned he had the Sky money and walk up money and that's it that first year, while at the same time he had outgoings of the debts he choice to pay from the previous regime as well as season tickets he honored, the Cats bar and other things that got done up around the ground, as well as all the ins and outs of restructuring the business.

Like you say the main thing is what the accounts show in the next couple of years, not now and also having a good fans base behind us to move on to bigger and better things, which tbf is what he seems to be achieving and I reckon that's the most important thing at present.

It must be small town mentality I'm afraid, obsessed with your more glamorous neighbouring City that and trying to devalue WTRLFC to distract the mess cas are in.

Well done to AG and his team. In his time he has brought the club along way from the brink. There needs to be more realism. The hard work re: marketing and building up support for WTW through grass roots schools/ARL clubs needs to continue. He seems a very astute businessman.



We have a population of 325,000 in the Wakefield District and we should be able eventually to sustain a 10,000 fan base. I remember the Challenge Cup in 1979 and we helped fill Wembley with a 100,000 attendance. We can get back to those sort of days again.



I like whats being done through the internet and it'd be good idea to show more footage of training sessions/interviews etc. Maybe a weekly pre-season 15 mins video to promote the club & players?

To be honest, I was expecting that when we got the pre-pre season training video we would be getting regular updates!

The 'losses' were predicted; all it means is that instead of buying the club for the much-publisided figure of £30k, he actually bought it for about £1.2 million. We're now like many other clubs, in that we have Directors loans showing against our accounts that in reality, will never be called in.

That's unless the club is sold to Steve Parkin in a years time of course, in which case AG will make a tremongous return on his investment and will still be the saviour of WTW.

why does anybody reply to this idiot? 20 posts only and confesses to be a wakefield fan personally think that factsareus is 1 idiot....never miind..looking forward to next season and could somebody please wipe the window that factsareus has been licking?

What do you mean sold to Steve Parkin in a years time when we are a lot more advanced with Newmarket and he wants to be involved with the sporting Wakefield group that will be formed

What do you mean sold to Steve Parkin in a years time when we are a lot more advanced with Newmarket and he wants to be involved with the sporting Wakefield group that will be formed

Yes.

Twice.

Must admit to being a little concerned about this - not overly but it is clearly worthy of discussion. My main worry is that we have seen the cheap season ticket "experiment" fail spectacularly very recently at Bradford and not exactly setting the world alight at Huddersfield. Granted its as good as irrelevant for Hudds while ever Davy is throwing his loose change their way, but Glover doesn't appear to have this sort of poke.

Getting the value back into Season Tickets is the key here, how do we convince the paying public to pay a sustainable price for their tickets when the cheapo offer runs it's course? Granted there will always the hardcore of fans who will shell out £150-£200 or whatever regardless, but its the rest that need to be persuaded. Looks like he is gambling on success on the pitch to me, hoping that the carrot of play off rugby for 2 years (or more) on the bounce will persuade the masses, all well and good if we do manage to hold it together on the park but it is most definately a gamble. It's all "if's and but's " at the moment and Glover may well have got it absolutely right.

As has already being pointed out, the roof is nice for atmosphere and keeping the rain off our backs on the odd occasion it rains but it really is basically money down the drain in terms of return on investment but unfortunately it was a neccesery evil but I dont think would be included in the figures we are looking at

Its all a big gamble but one that needed to be taken imo.

Could be used elsewhere, maybe Newmarket.

... and if not i'm sure the main shirt sponsor of the club my be interested.

Given that the RFL appear to be changing their stance on stadium criteria (again) for 2013, it does stick in the craw a bit that AG was forced to spend a couple of hundred grand that could have been much better spent elsewhere.

The only saving grace is that, al Al points out, it might have some resale value.

Yep that one worries me a bit, at some point people will have to pay.

I expected a loss but this is definitely at the very top end of the scale so it's a definite worry.

Agree bren2K, Cas also spent a 6-figure sum on getting planning permission for something most of us knew would never be built and, like Wakefield, we could have invested that money on improving either the squad or the current ground.

From an outsiders view, Glover seems to have got it right so far.
The most important thing I think for you was to increase your average attendance. In his first season Glover benefited from a 25% increase to 8100+, that is very impressive. You need another 10% roughly to get to over 9000.
To me however poor your ground is an average crowd of over 9000 will secure your Super League status.
There's no way the RFL/SL will dump a club out of SL with an average gate of over 9k, no way!
Glover's pricing policy is based on get 'em in and let them enjoy good rugby.
Although your start to the season was poor due no doubt to all the signings made your end of season was terrific and surely will bring many walk up fans back next season.
When he's got a crowd of over 9000 Glover will adjust the prices over the next few seasons. This will be for season tickets, walk up, sponsorship and corporate. Short term he may lose some money, long term he will make a profit year on year which will secure Trinity's future in SL for the foreseable future.
Glover seems to have achieved a lot in a short time (one season) so I'd say just trust him.
Things are going well for you atm so stick with it and support your club.

2 seasons