Workington Town’s cash struggle: Fans’ questions answered

Workington Town have gone public to answer some of the questions being posed by fans over the club’s financial plight.

The supporters have been asking for a public meeting since news of the problems surfaced and Town say they will hold a forum in the near future.

In answer Town say: “To safeguard the financial future of our great club, it has, and continues to be vitally important that the Board have focused at present on delivering a solid rescue plan.

“This is underway, so it is only right that we take some time to capture the majority of the questions that have been asked, trend them into themes, and attempt to answer them, which we hope we have done thoroughly.”

They have put forward a number of questions they say supporters have been asking and have answered.

It’s not the first time that Town have been in this position but how has the current situation developed?

There are a number contributing factors to this:
Increased costs in retaining key 2021 squad members following promotion to the Championship.
Expenditure on new players ahead of the 2022 season in an attempt to improve the squad and results on the field.
Increases in the coaching and wider performance staff remuneration following promotion to the Championship.

Progressively reduced numbers attending home games has meant subsequent secondary spend reduced. Our main cash generators are ticket sales and secondary spend on bars, merchandise etc. Average gates have fallen to around 800 (450/500 full paying people after season ticket holders, allocated complimentary tickets etc).

Forecasts were produced on a sensible model based on increased attendances due to interest created by the calibre of our Championship opposition and based on attendance figures in 2021.

The squad was supplemented with players from outside Cumbria and as such travel expenses increased from the 2021 season model.

On top of this economic factors eg, rising fuel costs, further impacted the financial situation and energy bills on the whole have risen substantially.

So what is the club doing to address the current, immediate (short term) position?

Changes have been made to the operating model to make processes leaner and cut out non-essential outgoings and the board has realised significant savings from this alone.

Coach Chris Thorman has worked with us to move to a part-time contract on reduced terms which we would like to thank him for.

With the majority of the current expenditure going towards player costs, including salary and bonus payments, the board carried out relevant analysis to understand how much of a proposed, optional reduction could be presented to the players to still give the players adequate remuneration and incentivisation as well as contributing heavily towards securing the club’s financial status.

A voluntary 33 per cent reduction across all player payments was proposed (excluding fuel costs) and overall, the response from the players, and coaching staff alike, has been very positive.

The board appreciate this hugely and would like to take the opportunity to thanks everyone for their contribution in this key cost reduction.

In summary, in the last few weeks alone, significant monthly savings have been achieved, and it is this work that has effectively enabled the club to operate in August.

The response from club patrons and supporters has been phenomenal. However there is much work still to do to navigate us through this period.

The board is now working with long term and potential new partners to demonstrate, on top of the above, a proactive ability to run the business effectively to ensure survival, in the anticipation that further investment funds can be made available in August, to ensure safety into September (and onwards).

Why have the club left it so long to announce this?

The board have been carrying out painstaking work to understand the financial situation of the club which, due to complications with the banking processes and systems, and lack of assurance in place previously, required a ‘deep dive’ over a number of weeks.

The situation is a complex one. It is also sensitive, as the numbers had to be checked, re-checked, and checked again before making life- changing decisions affecting our employees.

Outside the financial position, what other changes have been made?

Many changes have been made at ‘root cause’ level, one example of this is the recruitment structure and process.

This has been amended so that there is now more input and financial control from the Board and we are confident the amended structure will provide more efficient outcomes ahead of the 2023 season.

If/when the club secures financial stability for the remainder of 2022, what is the plan to stop this from happening again?

In order to avoid future difficulties – and to drive towards the fantastic new stadium build and sustainable business model – more action needs to be taken over the coming weeks which includes:

On the back of the rigorous work of the board already undertaken, better internal financial capability is required in the form of recruiting a local financial specialist onto the board.

Analysing and introducing required full and part-time employee roles to form an essential backbone of the club (medium to longer term objective).

Reducing single points of vulnerability (unavailability of volunteer or paid staff) within the current structure, therefore supporting current staff and volunteers to diversify roles and reduce stress points, the intention is to not allow this to affect services offered.

Delivering more value-add events and match day experiences to bring in much needed revenue and make the club more diverse in its approach.

More value-add partnership packages being made available to expand the horizons of the club and see the club truly re-integrate into the community, including introducing a Ladies team and accompanying kit partnership package.

Further developing The Workington Town RLFC Community Trust by employing a co-ordinator and linking specialist staff with club coaches and players, to provide positive messaging about improving people’s quality of life.

This will be partnered with a sustainable business with the same/similar values to WTRLFC.

Introduction of a youth development system to improve development pathways to ensure the squad can develop and grow in line with divisional needs, anticipating less risk surrounding spending larger amounts of funds on unknown commodities (increase and retain local talent).

Also, to note: The club sponsorship and commercial areas are significantly up on 2021 figures and other events, in conjunction with our support groups, have all significantly supported our ability to try to meet the demands of a difficult financial model.

It has been suggested that the club has not invested in supporting the coach in trying to retain Championship status, is this true?

The club committed on average – significantly more on wages into 2022 than it did in 2021 in an attempt to retain and attract new talent.

Unfortunately, for the reasons previously articulated, the squad was not strengthened sufficiently to compete in a very competitive Championship division in 2022.

What about the money from the fund-raising Blue Knights group?

This was always intended to be used to improve the squad and unfortunately, this season, this could not be done enough to see a positive increase in results.

From the short off-season, right through to recent loan wages and travel costs, there has been valuable learning and signings haven’t come cheap.

When you add travel and accommodation to the equation, and due to where we are located logistically, top talent is even more difficult to secure.

How can supporters help?

We have two more home games, and we really need as many supporters as possible this Sunday for the Dewsbury game and again on Sunday September 4 for the visit of Whitehaven.

How can potential partners/investors help?

Some of the opportunities were articulated earlier and there’s more available and in the pipeline.

What are the board doing to make the holistic player package more attractive to lure people to WTRLFC?

Discussions are underway in relation to bettering previous offerings and making the player package more value-add, outside of simply offering more money.

More information will be released once this has been finalized in the coming weeks.