Ask the club! You ask the questions, they get answered... | Vital Football

Ask the club! You ask the questions, they get answered...

pompeyrug

pompeyrug

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i was approached by micah hall yesterday to ask if i wanted to put up a forum thread for fans to ask their questions, which he will then answer direct online!

so, if you have questions to ask of PFC then put them here and micah will check in from time to time and look to answer them.

fire away...
 
this is a chance to get the questions you want answered, answered. and what is better they will be answered here so others can see too!
 
Will there be a blue army membership scheme next season? I think there's a demand for it so surely its easy money for the club?
 
Re the financial forecast and the fact that the Trust says we will lose money next season, my question

"Is the income going forward needed to pay off some of the legacy debts?"

I ask as I am surprised that even with the high gates, sensible contract offers, we are still predicting a loss
 
Thanks for posting the thread for me guys!

As for blue army memberships: we are looking at a rewards based system for next season which may well have a membership element in it. The question is slightly problematic, because if its about priority for tickets, we wouldn't want to sell people a membership and then find thye had not managed to buy an away ticket all season.

Equally, if we put them on sale and shareholders, season ticket holders and regular away travellers dip out but then we put them in sale to members we are in trouble.

And finally, if demand falls away because of disappointing on field performances (hope not but hey...) then tickets will be plentiful.

There is a lot of discussion to have around memberships once we know what the season ticket sales are but rest assured, it's under consideration. However, we want to do the right thing to make sure we are selling something of value to people.
 
Difficult one this. Basically, forget the real world for a minute and go to the agreements we have for a budget with the FL, PFA and PCC.

We have two types of income, budgeted and unbudgeted.

Budgeted is income we currently receive, which is more or less just tickets and parachute payments.

Unbudgeted is the revenue we have done from the Sondico deal and from launching a website that works in June.

However, the reason for the distinction is that our unbudgeted revenue is part of the agreement with our creditors - so any extra money we make is mostly used to pay off historic debts. That helps us in future years because we've paid off debts earlier than expected and have more cash available. It doesn't really help in years 1 and 2 though.

At this level clubs should have about 60% ticket revenue and 40% everything else. For instance, quite a few clubs at this level make between £1100k and £200k from their website. We make a substantial loss. Other clubs make money from selling shirts, but we haven't had merchandise revenue for two years.

Basically, that 40% is non-existent here.

Our new website goes live on June 19th. We have a great deal with Sondico. Catering is under review and new announcements will be made. Corporate hospitality will radically increase. New sponsorships will come in which raise new money. We will be implementing new systems that radically cut costs and will generate extra revenue.

Unfortunately, it's going to take some time for the benefit to be felt, and that is why we need people to bear with us during this difficult first and second years.

We are talking about a club that had to pay £1.50 every time a fan printed a ticket out at home - and no-one knew about it. That is enough revenue to sign a player over a year. It's going to take time to sort out, but people should rest assured a huge amount of work is going in to get things right.

Most clubs would consider a new website to be the main work of the summer. In Pompey world where we have to have three new kits, a new shop, a new ticket supplier etc etc its not even my main work, it's just one of the things I'm doing.

Come next year this club will start to gather its full power - but we need to nurse it back to health.

Hth! :14:
 
thanks for the full answer Micah, as good as Vital is it would be worth spreading the word about how bad things were, especially printing ticket costs, perhaps you could sue as when i printed tickets they never worked!

Another question re unbudgeted income paying off creditors early is their a set total amount?

thanks again
 
No problem guys, it's what I'm here for. To be honest, I think the club was every bit as badly run as we thought. That's not the staffs fault, or even the managements fault really - it's the inevitable consequence of short term ownership eating the club.

There is a set figure on the debts - basically, we just pay them off early, we don't pay more. There are no 'success factors' except the one to Portpin in the event of promotion to the Premier League within 10 years.
 
Hi Mike,

As you know I'm leading Jimmy Dickinson's sporting statue. Back in October I asked for an official statement from the Trust and I'm still waiting so can you possibly arrange this for me? Secondly, I enquired with Ken Brown and Johnny Moore about hiring Fratton Park for a fundraising tribute match. I have a UEFA match agent license and arranged the necessary insurance so I'm just waiting for the dust to settle on the Trust's takeover for engagment in this matter. Can you help with traction and feedback? Thirdly and most importantly. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the FA, and research suggests Jimmy Dickinson's fair play record is statistically the finest in 150 years. I have promoted this fact to the FA and there is a chance they will recommend him posthumously for the 2013 FIFA Fair Play Award. Being associated with this international award would obviously boost the club's international standing and help restore some of its down-graded public image. So can I get a statement from the board on this matter also as the sculptor begins the full scale model shortly and my feeling is we would be stronger together on this one. Cheers
 
Mike

Thanks for the answers to member's questions and relaying some of the facts I have been reporting from the Fan's conference etc. They never believe me you know!

I was going to get in touch about popping in to see you and maybe doing an article on your role at the club etc. I know you are up to here with it but does not need to be fo a while.

Dave
 
FA Cup Triumph - it's a great project and yes I'm well aware of it. The structure we have tentatively agreed with the fans conference means that all such suggestions should really come through there to avoid us being deluged in similar requests.

So what I would suggest is to bring it before the next fans conference and once it has the support of our consultative body we will provide them everything they need to make it happen.

Sorry to put red tape in your way, it's just that having agreed a structure with supporters groups we need to keep to the agreement and not run off bringing in new projects which they have not been consulted on!
 
Dave, absolutely no problem at all - once we've had a couple of weeks of season ticket sales, things should be easier, just the new website and ticket system to do then:-)
 
That's a fair point and I will certainly bring details of our progress along to the next meeting if red tape doesn't already preclude us lol. Congratulations and good luck in the future by the way.
 
Hi mike, another quick one. We've all heard the rumour that Pompey were making something like 2% of the total price on the sale of shirts and other merchandise. Will the club be making more money from the sale of shirts under the new sondico agreement?
 
Hi Mike - I fancy some corporate hospitality, but not if I have to sit with the boring bees in the South Stand. Could some system be introduced whereby we can incorporate AND sit where we want to?
 
good question so far, with some good answers back (Jake and Gandor i am sure Mike will get back to you shortly!)

a VERY worthwhile thread so far, and one that WILL remain to that way i would hope...
 
Jake, I think 2% on the last deal was optimistic sadly. I can't really talk about the commercials but I can say the club was getting nothing for ages and ages.

It would be easy to blame Kappa for that but far too easy. There were many complex factors at play.

The new deal gives Pompey a reliable and predictable revenue stream that many championship clubs would be pleased with. At 6am when you go out and buy your new shirt online, please remember how much you are helping the club!

It's an absolutely fabulous deal for us and what is more, the shirts are great (IMHO of course).

Already, we have seen Sondico/Sports Direct achieve things we simply couldn't - because they are a massive and successful group with expertise and power. With the best will in the world, PFC are unlikely to be the nations most successful sports retailer, so we have partnered with them.

I tried to get a few things done with things like premises and stock and got nowhere. Sondico made a few phone calls and it was all done.

Equally, they understand our desire to do things like have the cheapest shirts in England. Other major brands just didnt think we were being serious. Some clubs/brands will be selling shirts at £65 this season - we are £30 cheaper, and the kids prices we demanded made some manufacturers faint dead away :14:
 
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