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A message to supporters

I would be surprised that Scally is the highest earner.

It would be difficult to substantiate. For a start, are the figures comparing like-for-like? I imagine a lot of the club owners’s remuneration is disguised. For instance in the form of pensions / consultancy fees (as Scally does) / loan arrangements / share incentive schemes etc. I’d say that it is impossible to compare because of the lack of transparency.

That aside, I can walk in to a permanent job as FD on £150k + bonus + car + pension + shares. I wouldn’t have any risk. So, considering that - £200k doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Here we go again, Scally bashing. At Slough there was one idiot with a Scally out banner with unintelligent comments
 
I don't think he's committed the "all true Scotsmen" fallacy at all. He's asked for reasonable dissent reasonably expressed. Perhaps someone should go down to one of his clinics and say, it's very hard for some people to see how your GBP 200K pa take is justifiable given the performance of the club over the years, listen to what he has to say, and come back here with a report.

He has held other similar sessions irregularly in the past. I did try something along the lines you suggest and he got very defensive, which I expected. I tried to tell him that I was putting some of the commonly aired complaints and offering him a chance to reply. He asked me if I was a well known purveyor of abuse and bile and then calmed down and gave a reasoned response.

I'm not sure whether he would win over some critics but he is comitted and he does involve himself in a lot of stuff. He has a bit of a blind spot about information and involvement and he's a with me or against me type.

I believe EagerExile has a potential way out when he says:

" Spot on VBS. This a reaction and it feels like an eruption of ‘stuff’. It’s welcome but much better to embed some systems to ensure regular proactive communication. Not hard to do if you have the will. "

But who is the person to persuade him.
 
I went to the last open forum 4/5 years ago, I'm sure I was in the same meeting as MarkinKent. I'll try and get down next week and ask the same questions and look forward to hearing the same waffling answers.
 
Yep I was there Billy. Some good suggestions (cash turnstile and sit anywhere blocks) which he said he would look into and then nothing happened.

To be fair if people are thinking of going then go. It was a nice evening, good discussion on gills and if you aren't critical It will be fine. If you want answers to the tougher questions then as Billy says don't expect much..

I did get a prized photo of me with the league 2 trophy though ?
 
Finally had a chance to read the whole document and to me it smacks of the same key message. People will speculate because you don't communicate. These "letters" are fine and they come out once in a while but people want regular updates on what's going on.

Get someone to write a regular update or get someone to join the forums in an official capacity to acts as a communication channel between the club and the fans. You give us snippets and then no more. In the summer you were off to America to speak to investors - what happened ? Last week it was Italians, will we ever get told the outcome ?

Most people all want the best for the club but communication is two way and you really could be better at it. As I said in the post above people should go to these meetings with him, he's a good host and its a relaxed atmosphere.

Personally I won't be going this time around. In all honesty I think I can guess the responses before the questions are asked and GFC is rapidly become less of an interest for me.
 
J

According to the ticket office people ticket sales are going very well and the attendance is on track to be 10,000. I told him fair play if we do sell out then I will be proven totally wrong but I highly doubt we'll get that figure.


If we get 10,000 I will be the first to say he should have charged £35 ;)

Actually this will be a good test of just how good our marketing and sales team are. They've pitched the standard product at an increased price and they still think they will sell out.

If they do fair play.

If they are left with lots of stock (unsold seats in case you aren't with me on this analogy) then they called it wrong.

Scally's break down of prices was interesting though. Really not much to be gained (in terms of gate receipts) by progressing in the cup with home draws. Looks like we will have to fall back on the prize money then.
 
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If we get 10,000 I will be the first to say he should have charged £35 ;)

Actually this will be a good test of just how good our marketing and sales team are. They've pitched the standard product at an increased price and they still think they will sell out.

If they do fair play.

If they are left with lots of stock (unsold seats in case you aren't with me on this analogy) then they called it wrong.

Scally's break down of prices was interesting though. Really not much to be gained (in terms of gate receipts) by progressing in the cup with home draws. Looks like we will have to fall back on the prize money then.
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I doubt we will sell out - cant remember the last match we did.

We will be lucky to make a profit unless we win.
 
[QUOTE="Trashbat, post: 1651900, member: 13525"

Serious questions to people who criticise the £200k:

- what do you believe Scally deserves to be paid?
- do you feel it is right that some players will earn more than the chairman?
- if Scally were to take a back-seat and appoint a CEO, what do you think the market rate would be for that CEO?[/QUOTE]



What the club can afford (while living within its means) and still afford to invest in the core product - players.

I think it should be heavily performance based - just some simple examples here :

(1) Top half finish +15% of base salary (which would be a lot lower than it is today)
(2) Bottom half +5% of base
(3) Relegated - +0% of base
4) Promoted - + 25% of base.

You could even do it on season average attendance

(1) <5K = + 0% of base
(2) 5-7K = + 10% of base
(3) 7-9K = + 25% of base.


That might encourage more investment in the playing squad and more effort to get people through the gate.
 
[QUOTE="Trashbat, post: 1651900, member: 13525"

Serious questions to people who criticise the £200k:

- what do you believe Scally deserves to be paid?
- do you feel it is right that some players will earn more than the chairman?
- if Scally were to take a back-seat and appoint a CEO, what do you think the market rate would be for that CEO?



What the club can afford (while living within its means) and still afford to invest in the core product - players.

I think it should be heavily performance based - just some simple examples here :

(1) Top half finish +15% of base salary (which would be a lot lower than it is today)
(2) Bottom half +5% of base
(3) Relegated - +0% of base
4) Promoted - + 25% of base.

You could even do it on season average attendance

(1) <5K = + 0% of base
(2) 5-7K = + 10% of base
(3) 7-9K = + 25% of base.


That might encourage more investment in the playing squad and more effort to get people through the gate.[/QUOTE]

Something like that should apply to the manager and players (who can leave with a nice little payout if we are relegated) rather than the owner.
 
While the accounts discussion was on this board, there’s a Gills Fan Forum closed group on Facebook that is spouting pure negative comments on Scally that is probably fed back.
 
Something like that should apply to the manager and players (who can leave with a nice little payout if we are relegated) rather than the owner.

I agree - although I would expect the win bonus, league position bonus, etc. is part of their salary deal wouldn't you ?

I think all I am suggesting is better linking of the package to the performance of the club in a tangible way. In all honesty its all a bit irrelevant anyway but makes a break from Brexit.
 
I would be surprised that Scally is the highest earner.

It would be difficult to substantiate. For a start, are the figures comparing like-for-like? I imagine a lot of the club owners’s remuneration is disguised. For instance in the form of pensions / consultancy fees (as Scally does) / loan arrangements / share incentive schemes etc. I’d say that it is impossible to compare because of the lack of transparency.

That aside, I can walk in to a permanent job as FD on £150k + bonus + car + pension + shares. I wouldn’t have any risk. So, considering that - £200k doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Here is the thread where it was discussed last month:
https://forums.vitalfootball.co.uk/threads/directors-pay.87136/

Check out the Price of Football Twitter page.

I believe all the figures were taken from published clubs' accounts.
 
One other point I forgot is that someone said on here recently that the banks will not lend to us any more, and Scally has said the same in this report. So we cannot use loans to splash out on player wages and transfer fees in a gamble that we could get promoted and recoup the expense, as the bank will not sanction it.
However we did have £450k-£500k sitting in the account which was used for the pitch - although it was only at the end of September that they realised they would need to replace it. So the question is why was this money not added to the Summer's transfer budget so that Lovell could bring in higher calibre players than the usual non league/cast offs that he was left with?
Perhaps it was kept as a just in case of emergencies type fund, which I suppose was sensible.