Non League Chatter

[athywhite1958]

5 hours ago, Big E said:

It is however because these clubs exploit folk doing it for nothing they pretend it isn’t 

 Go on then, I'll bite

We do it for nothing because we want to, we want to put something back into our community, we aren't naive enough to think it is'nt about money  because we are at a level where players want paying, we also have bills to pay just the same as you or I have, we now have a band of around 30 volunteers who cover all that needs doing, we try to open the club as much as possible to bring in revenue, when you look at a club like Colls and it costs us around £150k per year to operate it's frightening to think what the likes of Barrow and South Shields cost so you just would not survive without volunteers

[Big E]

2 hours ago, athywhite1958 said:

 Go on then, I'll bite

We do it for nothing because we want to, we want to put something back into our community, we aren't naive enough to think it is'nt about money  because we are at a level where players want paying, we also have bills to pay just the same as you or I have, we now have a band of around 30 volunteers who cover all that needs doing, we try to open the club as much as possible to bring in revenue, when you look at a club like Colls and it costs us around £150k per year to operate it's frightening to think what the likes of Barrow and South Shields cost so you just would not survive without volunteers

What the difference in wages between you guys and Barrow?

[Carlos]

Good question. I know what ours are on and one lad’s brother plays for Barrow so have an idea there also. 10 times higher roughly, you can compare Barrow to Bolton really. Doesn’t compare to actual non-league. Also, only a handful of ours are actually contacted, the rest are on rolling 7 days. No play, no pay.

No football club outside the Championship could afford me anyway, I could do what Bolton do if I had their equipment, but they couldn’t afford the wages I’d want given the pressure and lack of job security.
 

Everything is about money, you can’t hide it, it’s not an insult, grass seed costs, leccy, gas, water, rent, rates, internet, tele, pies, pints, printing, paint, raw materials, all £££ as much as folk like to romanticise.

[Escobarp]

Curtis woodhouse was on twitter backing all this up. Saying at Gainsborough lads are Getting agents and coming asking for 3/400 a week. Says in National league there are now Lots of players on 100k plus that’s insane really. 
 

 

[Carlos]

I met him last month, cracking lad... A lot of Gainsborough lads have played at Boston.. In our league, £300 ain’t a lot, more than Colls pay but at mid-table I’d say it’s about the norm. In National League defo people on 2K a week but probably not loads.

[MickyD]

10 hours ago, Carlos said:

Everything is about money, you can’t hide it, it’s not an insult, grass seed costs, leccy, gas, water, rent, rates, internet, tele, pies, pints, printing, paint, raw materials, all £££ as much as folk like to romanticise.

Do you have a single wealthy benefactor, a small number of decent sponsors, a shit load of small-time sponsors or is it mainly supporter generated income? 

Do all successful non- league clubs operate the same way? 

Edited April 15, 2020 by MickyD

[Steejay]

 

18 hours ago, athywhite1958 said:

 Go on then, I'll bite

We do it for nothing because we want to, we want to put something back into our community, we aren't naive enough to think it is'nt about money  because we are at a level where players want paying, we also have bills to pay just the same as you or I have, we now have a band of around 30 volunteers who cover all that needs doing, we try to open the club as much as possible to bring in revenue, when you look at a club like Colls and it costs us around £150k per year to operate it's frightening to think what the likes of Barrow and South Shields cost so you just would not survive without volunteers

 

11 hours ago, Carlos said:

Good question. I know what ours are on and one lad’s brother plays for Barrow so have an idea there also. 10 times higher roughly, you can compare Barrow to Bolton really. Doesn’t compare to actual non-league. Also, only a handful of ours are actually contacted, the rest are on rolling 7 days. No play, no pay.

No football club outside the Championship could afford me anyway, I could do what Bolton do if I had their equipment, but they couldn’t afford the wages I’d want given the pressure and lack of job security.
 

Everything is about money, you can’t hide it, it’s not an insult, grass seed costs, leccy, gas, water, rent, rates, internet, tele, pies, pints, printing, paint, raw materials, all £££ as much as folk like to romanticise.

I just wanted to say that I really respect the level of commitment that you guys give.

I went to the pre season friendly against Chorley last year & had a great evening.

It's important that the locals have a sense of community and a thriving football club, whatever the level, really adds to that.

[L/H White]

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[Carlos]

Cheers. We are in the actual Northern Premier League, competing against teams with ambitions to be in the league. People still think we are playing at pub team level, competing with the other teams of Atherton 🤣 I've got no idea how we progress it further.

[Sweep]

9 minutes ago, Carlos said:

Cheers. We are in the actual Northern Premier League, competing against teams with ambitions to be in the league. People still think we are playing at pub team level, competing with the other teams of Atherton 🤣 I've got no idea how we progress it further.

So do Colls not have any ambition to play league football one day?  

[Carlos]

34 minutes ago, Sweep said:

So do Colls not have any ambition to play league football one day?  

It's a million miles away, I don't know. You'd have to increase your support by 10 fold and have a new ground. I'm not aware of anyone thinking this is feasible without a multi-millionaire backer.

[athywhite1958]

As far as I'm concerned Colls have reached, some woiuld say over reached their level, I've prety much been at the club since I played there at 18 [i'm now 61] and this level was a pipe dream only 5 years ago, with a successful management team and players brought up together we achieved the impossible, the team have been outstanding. Behind the scenes we can only do so much raising revenue, we all bought shares at £100 each which helped the funds a bit, different people have made generous donations and every bit does help, god knows what situation we are going to be in when we can eventually reopen the club, we'll have to have a 'do' on every day for a year to raise funds

[Sweep]

52 minutes ago, Carlos said:

It's a million miles away, I don't know. You'd have to increase your support by 10 fold and have a new ground. I'm not aware of anyone thinking this is feasible without a multi-millionaire backer.

So in reality, for a club like Colls, it would require a very wealthy backer to invest in order to climb further - there's no way it can happen organically?

[athywhite1958]

30 minutes ago, Sweep said:

So in reality, for a club like Colls, it would require a very wealthy backer to invest in order to climb further - there's no way it can happen organically?

No, the people of Atherton are decent working class folk who want a successful club but they won't pay any more than they have to, £8 to get in, £2.50 for pie and peas and less than £3 for a pint, we put the ale up by 10p the other week, the first increase for 3 years and folk went mad at us. We get that many trying to get in free it's unreal, we have 12 junior teams and every player and one adul has a free season ticket you want to see them at the gate on match days asking why does their partner and 3 other kids have to pay, we have to be as hard nosed as they are

[Carlos]

In this league, you've got teams like South Shields who on their last game reported an attendance of 3274!

To compete with that, you'd need a squad all on a grand a week. So you'd need to pump in million quid just to get into the Conf North. Or alternatively a fucking genius manager doing it on a shoestring, who by definition themselves would then get recruited elsewhere along with their players. Vicious circle.

Like Ricky says, you can't get people to pay £8, there's teams in the league above charging £20.

[Carlos]

6 hours ago, MickyD said:

Do you have a single wealthy benefactor, a small number of decent sponsors, a shit load of small-time sponsors or is it mainly supporter generated income? 

Do all successful non- league clubs operate the same way? 

A combination of the above. I can't really comment on other clubs in depth but match day revenue and sponsorship are your main streams. Some clubs have benefactors, some use their facilities for functions, hire out training pitches etc.

[Leyther_Matt]

There’s always a conveyor belt of 2-3 teams with a benefactor, all of whom reach their plateau at some point. For every Fleetwood there’s a Colne Dynamoes, for every AFC Fylde an Eastwood Town. For Colls to even reach NPL Prem, never mind compete, is a serious achievement when you consider the number of long-standing, established clubs at that level. 

[Ghana White]

Are Colls well placed to survive this? Always seemed really well run club.. Up here I've been watching stockton and theyve put early bird season tickets on sale this week..they're big success story at the moment but as it drags on theyll have to sell alot of season tickets or merchandise to survive. I agree with carlos I'm not sure theres going to be a season, can see it starting 21-22 season.. god knows what football will be left by then

[Sweep]

1 hour ago, Carlos said:

In this league, you've got teams like South Shields who on their last game reported an attendance of 3274!

 

Blimey, there are some league teams who don't get that.

what sort of crowd do Colls get? I honestly wouldn't know if it was 100 or 1000

[Escobarp]

@Carlos what would be a typical playing budget at the level colls are at?

[leigh white]

47 minutes ago, Sweep said:

Blimey, there are some league teams who don't get that.

what sort of crowd do Colls get? I honestly wouldn't know if it was 100 or 1000

Ave about 400.

Edited April 15, 2020 by leigh white

[Ghana White]

Lower Breck have released a statement today, 2 of the step 3 leagues leaned towards PPG but the FA said that steps 5-7 were backing null and void so they decided to go null and void.. steps 5-7 hadn't been consulted by that point, be interesting to see what else comes out

[Carlos]

41 minutes ago, Escobarp said:

@Carlos what would be a typical playing budget at the level colls are at?

Total guesswork on my behalf but typical, I'd say 5k a week.

[Sweep]

2 minutes ago, Carlos said:

Total guesswork on my behalf but typical, I'd say 5k a week.

So potentially £250K a year, or one week of a top players wages...

I know there will be a reason, but why would a tiny town like Atherton actually need two teams. If they merged, would it not increase support and possibly allow them to get further.

I live near Biggleswade, which has three different semi-pro teams, all playing at a half reasonable level. It makes no sense to me at all that there are three teams in such a small place. They should merge, but I guess they never will

[Carlos]

12 minutes ago, Ghana White said:

Lower Breck have released a statement today, 2 of the step 3 leagues leaned towards PPG but the FA said that steps 5-7 were backing null and void so they decided to go null and void.. steps 5-7 hadn't been consulted by that point, be interesting to see what else comes out

I don't think Lower Breck would be privy to that, we certainly aren't, given I've seen all correspondence from the NPL. The NPL wanted a consensus with Steps 1-4.