For the majority of clubs it will become a case of “as you were” come August, for a couple of sides there will be the excitement of a new era in the Conference South to look forwards to, and for three sides it will be the start of a not completely unexpected new beginning at a lower level. Two-up, three-down and eighteen as you were.
It’s not cheap playing at this level of football, even less cheap to compete near the top, and if promotion is achieved then those costs will go up even higher. At the bottom clubs are paying a lot lower wages, accepting the fact that financial shrewdness is more important for a club and if relegation is what it means, then that is what has to happen. It’s not an ideal decision to have to take, but it can sometimes be the sensible one.
It is possible that relegated sides might bounce back, but there are no guarantees and we know ourselves how difficult it can be to get out of (and don’t even ask Slough Town about it!), and, let’s be frank here, playing at the likes of Weymouth, St Albans and St Neots is a more pleasurable experience than battling to get out of Step 4. I hate to sound a Ground Snob, but turning up one year at Cinderford for the first game of the season to find the pitch waterlogged with one man and a broom trying to get the game on, or spending Boxing Day at Rothwell Town where the hot food offering was a pot noodle…Yes, I can safely say I am much happier playing in this division and I appreciate the efforts made to keep us here, and I believe every effort should be made to keep us here – But not at the cost of the long term survival of the club.
We are fortunate in that we are in a position where Conference South football is a very real consideration. The past two seasons have seen us lose out in play-off semi-finals, a gut-wrenching end to a long season – the time and effort, not to mention money, that has gone into the season all becomes worthless in the lottery of 90 minutes of football. Does that make it all a waste of time? Some might argue yes, if you are not going to get promoted then you might as well finish mid-table, as long as you’re not relegated, save a few quid…Doesn’t sound very exciting does it?
In life we always ought to be looking to better ourselves; if you really are doing your very best to achieve something, but it genuinely is out of reach, then at least you can reflect on it in the comfort of knowing you did your very best. At Chesham United we have been looking upwards for the past couple of seasons rather than down, that is a great position to be in, but it does raise the question, and I hear it a lot: Do we really want to go up? Can we cope with going up?
To which the answer is of course a resounding YES.
We are very lucky in the sense that we have people around the club that are prepared to financially back us, be it supporting the playing budget, facilities or contributing to the overall running costs, that makes a massive difference to us. It turns us from a club that might have to accept relegation and a life of watching the relatively sub-standard level of football at Step 4, into a club that can seriously have a chance of promotion this season.
That is fantastic news, but it does also spawn the age-old danger of resting on our laurels, relying on the income from individuals and forgetting the basic principles of trying to better ourselves, better our club. Have we really exerted ourselves off the field this year to give ourselves the very best possible stab at promotion come the end of the season? Have we laid down the basic foundations that we can build on?
What do you think? I’m not convinced; hence The Little Things meeting last week that was like a breathe of fresh air to me – Like-minded people with the club’s interest at heart, gathering to discuss what we can do to make our club a more enjoyable place to visit, and looking at ways to generate extra income to support the foundations of the club.
It’s boring I know, and it even goes against the grain of real community spirit, but it still all comes down to money, money, money…You can create a fantastic football club without great sums of money (the Little Things), but if you are going to be successful on the pitch over a long period of time it is going to cost money. Yes, you will have a Hitchin Town come to a club like Chesham with a reported (gossiped) much smaller budget and walk away with a victory. You get that in football, that’s what makes it so great. But, over a longer period of time (a season) the likelihood is that the stronger, and yes, more expensive, squad will finish the season higher up the table. It’s not rocket science, just basic probabilities.
The more you invest in the team, the greater the chance of success, the greater the chance of success, the more people will come along and the more money you will take through the turnstiles, the more money you take over the bar, you then start to see a return on the investment and you can start to think about investing even more in the team, because if you invest more in the team the probability of promotion increases, which means more people come to watch and…the problem is that you are probably not the only club doing that which reduces the probability and means that some clubs are going to have invested in their first team, increased their chances of success and then…BOOM!
The season finishes, and come the opening day of the following season you are no better off than the team that finished fourth from bottom and survived relegation by the skin of their teeth on a fraction of the money, taking just a smattering of the risk. That feels pretty rubbish. A waste of money.
Or is it? Football would become pretty boring if we all just assumed that we are not going to be promoted and therefore we are going to subject our club, our supporters and our town to a pretty uninteresting eight months of safety which will enable us to sip our tea and nibble on the cake in the boardroom without having to work too hard to make ends meet. It’s an option, but not one I find very appealing.
Of course there is a flip side to all of this. Football clubs need to be the hub of the community, many carry a long history, memories of great days, heritage…Not to be messed with, certainly not to be lost in a gamble where the odds are not guaranteed to be in your favour. Running a football club is always a bit of a gamble, as a business proposition the numbers really don’t stack up, it’s just not viable without hard graft and good income sources.
The line between success and failure is slim. During my stint as Chairman we spent a lot of time sailing hairily close to that line which made for some pretty uncomfortable nights tossing and turning in my hammock, but, we had cashflow management accounting that was second to none, we knew where we were going, what we expected and when. Everything was tracked to budget and if it started to go in the wrong direction we knew what sails to adjust and what direction to head for, that was comforting, and something I was very proud of during my stint at the helm.
For every Bashley, Bedford or AFC Totten that has accepted their fate and cut the cloth accordingly, there is a Poole, St Albans or Hemel Hempstead with sails at full mast racing towards Castle Conference. And unfortunately there are only two spaces for docking up, which means some disappointed crews at the end of the race; but they will have had a great time getting there, learned along the way, made their ship better, brought a lot of enjoyment to many en routey, bonded as a crew and bettered themselves ready for the next journey…Is that a complete waste?
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