Whitehaven directors have admitted they were close to closing the doors a few months ago because of financial difficulties.
Just as neighbours Workington Town went through hard times last season, Haven also admitted a cash flow problem could have had serious consequences.
The club has taken to Facebook to explain just why they were struggling, and has also apologised over late payments to their players.
They say the decision to explain the situation was to put fans in the picture of how the off season has been going for them.
They say that director Ashley Kirkpatrick, director of rugby Gary Charlton and coach Jonty Gorley had worked tirelessly pulling a team together “on possibly the smallest budget in the league.”
To lose any of the team they have built was never the plan, but Andrew Bulman and Josh Eaves have left in the last week.
The board say: “We have to do right by the player as well as ourselves. During the off-season you will have seen three events were organised to help us generate much needed cash flow.
“For all three events we didn’t get in to double figure sales resulting in them all having to be cancelled. This isn’t us having a go at the fans, this is us trying to explain.
“Contracts run until October with games ending in early September so it’s obvious to all that cash flow would be an issue.
“None of the other bills stop either ie HMRC, PAYE, gas, electric we could go on.
“As a board the club’s future is paramount and we will admit we came close to closing those gates for good with a big cut in RFL funding and debt from the 2020/2021 financial year, but with directors putting personal money in and new sponsors we’ve managed to get by.
“Unfortunately during this time payments to players were made late but all payments to current squad members have been made.
“For this we will hold our hands up and say it’s wrong but in the grand scheme of everything else we kept our promise that the money would be paid.
“We’re going into a very, very tough year and you will have all seen what the other clubs are spending around us,
“All we can ask is that you support us and try get this great club back to where it deserves to be.
“I hope this covers everything for you and give you all a greater insight.
“We promised at our last fans’ meeting we’d make the end of the season and we did that now let’s push forward!
“The three friendly games are huge for the club so please come and take advantage of the double header tickets and enjoy great days of rugby.”
The bottom line is if Whitehaven could attract 1,200 fans for each home game they wouldn’t have a problem.
Times are particularly hard for everyone at the moment but if Whitehaven RL club – the only professional sports club in the town – can’t pull that sort of crowd on a regular basis then its days may be numbered.
