Gills in 1995 - financial issues | Vital Football

Gills in 1995 - financial issues

MedwayModernist

Vital Squad Member
Alright gents, I was a mere nipper in 1995. Can anyone recall how and why exactly we were in such dire financial straights before Scally moved in to secure our debts?

Saw a clip today from Meridian news at the time that said we agreed a 26p in the pound deal to come out of receivership.
 
From memory the club had relied on money from the owner (Tony Smith) to stay afloat and he decided that he could no longer bankroll it.

Crowds were dwindling, the stadium was falling apart and it was all very depressing.

I don't think there was any more to it than that but happy to be corrected
 
I think Tony Smith loaned Scally / the club about £750k as well interest free to help the deal go through? As for the creditors, it was a case of having to accept 26p in the pound of what they were owed as the alternative was nothing.
 
On the second clip from the supporters meeting in the main stand, the guy who asked how much was the cost of the floodlights and handed over £50 was myself!
Good man! Who knows where we would be without the donations to keep the club going.
 
Good man! Who knows where we would be without the donations to keep the club going.

Thank you! I was interviewed by Tony Hudd and Andy Bradley for the local papers! My best quote from the interviews never made the papers! I said “It was like my best friend was on a life support machine and the £50 was to help keep the electricity running”
 
On the second clip from the supporters meeting in the main stand, the guy who asked how much was the cost of the floodlights and handed over £50 was myself!

I was at the meeting in the main stand. Well done you.

We had season tickets but used chuck a fiver in the collection bucket as we came through the turnstiles if I recall correctly.
 
I was at the meeting in the main stand. Well done you.

We had season tickets but used chuck a fiver in the collection bucket as we came through the turnstiles if I recall correctly.

I took my mum to the Lincoln City home game a few days (4th Feb) after the meeting and that was her first match since Saturday7th March 1964 v Chester! Her waters broke in Barnsole Road and I was born in Canada House in the early hours of the Sunday morning!
 
I think Tony Smith loaned Scally / the club about £750k as well interest free to help the deal go through? As for the creditors, it was a case of having to accept 26p in the pound of what they were owed as the alternative was nothing.

I always wondered why Tony Smith, a guy that brought Gillingham to its knees with debt and delivered some of the poorest football in our history, is always depicted as a hero.

But the guy who actually saved the club, improved the facilities, gave us trips to Wembley, some memorable cup runs and promotions, divides opinion.

Shows how bad PS is with public relations.
 
I always wondered why Tony Smith, a guy that brought Gillingham to its knees with debt and delivered some of the poorest football in our history, is always depicted as a hero.

But the guy who actually saved the club, improved the facilities, gave us trips to Wembley, some memorable cup runs and promotions, divides opinion.

Shows how bad PS is with public relations.


I believe its because he facilitated the deal for scally to save the club. I believe it would have been cheaper for him to have let it die.

You are right about scally and PR though.
 
I always wondered why Tony Smith, a guy that brought Gillingham to its knees with debt and delivered some of the poorest football in our history, is always depicted as a hero.

But the guy who actually saved the club, improved the facilities, gave us trips to Wembley, some memorable cup runs and promotions, divides opinion.

Shows how bad PS is with public relations.
That is a good point I admit.
Perhaps its down to the knowledge we have of Scally’s consultancy fee over the past seasons being somewhat at odds with the playing budget given to the managers in that time.
I have no idea what Smith paid himself if anything at all, but Gills has made Scally a wealthy man.
 
I always wondered why Tony Smith, a guy that brought Gillingham to its knees with debt and delivered some of the poorest football in our history, is always depicted as a hero.

But the guy who actually saved the club, improved the facilities, gave us trips to Wembley, some memorable cup runs and promotions, divides opinion.

Shows how bad PS is with public relations.

Tony Smith was a fan who put his own money in to keep it alive, no more no less, the debts were not run up under Tonys watch. As Lark says the Scally takeover would almost certainly not have happened had it not been for Tony Smith's 'support' and good will. Tony Smith never made a penny out of GFC and lost plenty.

Scally has done well for GFC, he's had to to a certain extent, he had self interest. One thing that tends to go unnoticed the charity work that Scally/GFC did in the early days in Sri Lanka. One the football side he's done well and Priestfield is a different place now to when he took over but he's done alright out of being chairman of GFC too.

His PR is something that needs a lot of work but he's got the next 25 years to work on that apparently.
 
Tony Smith was a fan who put his own money in to keep it alive, no more no less, the debts were not run up under Tonys watch. As Lark says the Scally takeover would almost certainly not have happened had it not been for Tony Smith's 'support' and good will. Tony Smith never made a penny out of GFC and lost plenty.

Scally has done well for GFC, he's had to to a certain extent, he had self interest. One thing that tends to go unnoticed the charity work that Scally/GFC did in the early days in Sri Lanka. One the football side he's done well and Priestfield is a different place now to when he took over but he's done alright out of being chairman of GFC too.

His PR is something that needs a lot of work but he's got the next 25 years to work on that apparently.

Point still stands. Tony Smith, despite pumping cash in to the club failed to turn it around.

Maybe fans prefer a trier over someone who actually delivers success.
 
Point still stands. Tony Smith, despite pumping cash in to the club failed to turn it around.

Maybe fans prefer a trier over someone who actually delivers success.

Tony Smith didn't take over at Gills to ' turn it around', he put his own cash into it to keep it afloat until it got to the point he couldn't sustain it anymore.

Without wishing to go over old ground how much of our success over the last 25 years has been down to Scallys personal investment. I'd wager TS invested far more from his own pocket in his brief stint as Chairman than PS has in 25 years, and took far less out to. And before you say it, that's not Scally bashing. PS has done well spending other people's money, fair play to him for it.
 
Tony Smith didn't take over at Gills to ' turn it around', he put his own cash into it to keep it afloat until it got to the point he couldn't sustain it anymore.

Without wishing to go over old ground how much of our success over the last 25 years has been down to Scallys personal investment. I'd wager TS invested far more from his own pocket in his brief stint as Chairman than PS has in 25 years, and took far less out to. And before you say it, that's not Scally bashing. PS has done well spending other people's money, fair play to him for it.

I hardly think that Smith pumped in £1.55m of his own cash with the intention of losing it.

I prefer to judge on outcomes not inputs.

In Scally v Smith:
Scally wins on outcomes
Smith wins on inputs

Same with the NHS. The general public consider investment as a measure of success rather than the patient outcomes. As Scally v Smith demonstrates, inputs and outcomes are not necessarily directly correlated.