Silk - hence the club's update this week. Which I see as a natural progression in the club's development more than anything...

$6m - we stand a better chance of servicing £2m at PL than £1m at KM. Don't forget how restricted we were at our old place...

REPD - I do not disagree we would lose those two and we would be bottom half L2 at best but if we do not find a way to cover our losses as a fan-owned club we will not survive for many more seasons. It is either sell out or cut our budget and our expectations.

For clubs to become established it needs a generation at a level. Parents need to have their kids growing up watching the club to make them season ticket holder fans. Harrogate had an average attendance of 510 in 2015. Their attendance would slip to similar levels if they went back down to level 6.

Silk, again it depends on whether the Club's financstrategy is to break even in cash terms or absolute terms. Crucial difference

Perhaps the Finance Committee can furnish us with some detail on the PLC income and expenditure.

We were told how Plough Lane was needed to help generate the income and profitability that was not possible at Kingsmeadow. Now we are told how expensive Plough Lane is to run. What we are not told is whether Plough Lane generates more income and, more importantly, profitability than Kingsmeadow. Playing budgets would have spiralled if we wanted to compete wherever we played. What I want to know is are our ongoing £2m losses made worse by being at Plough Lane or woukd they have been less at Kingsmeadow or we simply had just built a larger ground without all the stuff that we were told woukd make us money to fund the playing budget.

Silk - except that if we were to cut our budget to their level, we'd not only have to get shot of JJ but also CC wouldn't work with that level of budget.

Ipswich v Norwich live on itv 1

REPD - if we are cut our current losses we would have to cut our player budget by £1 million to £ 1.5 million per year unless we can find other persistent revenue. That would put our playing budget on a par with Harrogate whose £3 million turnover means a budget of £1.5 million/year so they are the correct team to compare against

Yeah it was just an observation - they’re not an “established” L2 club but they could be in the process of becoming one.

Also, and judging by the size of the crowds we get as it is - our expectations are (or should be) higher than Harrogate and others.

Silk - I'm not sure how much outstanding debt Harrogate have, although I expect once their purple patch of a club ends they'll end up out of the EFL. Same with most clubs their size (Bromley too, although they might annoy us all and do a St Evenage). So I wouldn't necessarily use them as an example

Shane - not too sure what that has to do with anything. They have learned how to survive in L2 on a small(est) budget. When they came into L2 is irrelevant.

Harrogate only got into L2 in 2021 though.

And before anybody thinks this is a pro-fan ownership thing or anti-success thing it is not. In fact it is opposite we have to be honest to what we can achieve living within our means and it is the level of Harrogate. With selling out it could range from being the next Bournemouth, or even Man City or the next Southend. In truth we would probably be like Wycombe with the spending ability of the average owner.

REPD - one thing that I do not agree on with your article is that living within our means does not mean we will be playing in the National League or National League South. Look at Harrogate - because of the EFL rules on turnover to wages their budget is at least £1 million less than ours and maybe even be £1.5 million less depending on what we are spending. They are pretty comfortable in EFL League 2. They have 14 points so far and are way ahead of the bottom two. Like us they play football that matches their budget. What it would mean is that season's like this one would be beyond us. Remaining L2 is doable.

Good write up Rob. Interesting times ahead.

Post99 - regarding travel probs and refunds, probably not - they’d be told that if they’d travelled the previous day, they’d have seen the match. But maybe the club might be generous and refund them (or give them a credit voucher for future use against tickets…), that would be a nice gesture…

Padd - exactly, I think single undateables watched it and then went to the bathroom for a w*nk afterwards… 🤪💦

Yeah it was definitely viewing avec kebab.

Probably why its charms eluded me, Spit 😉.

Eurotrash was the programme you would watch on a Friday night pissed after an evening in the pub, hoping to see some bouncy tits on screen.

And Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Good write up Rob.