John Nixon, Managing Director of CUFC and co-owner, agreed to spend a couple of hours in the company of Mike Carruthers & Howard Atkinson to give Branch members an insight to the man and his hopes & fears for the club he has supported since a lad. To get John away from the stresses of the office we led him to the Beehive & half a shandy. Mike started with a rapid fire instant response session to lighten the mood. John was asked:
Been a football fan all his life & supported Carlisle since small boy. He has lived in the city nearly all his life apart from a 2 year spell when Pirelli sponsored him to attend Leicester University. He worked at Pirelli for 38 years. JN is an avid F1 fan and one of his sons worked for Ferrari at Maranello. He now works for Force India in Oxfordshire after returning to the UK for personal reasons. JN also collects Dinky cars.
They knew for some time that FS was seeking to sell the club & move on. He had failed to convince a couple of local people to buy the club and things were becoming uncertain. He and the other 3 co-owners are all long standing CUFC fans and resolution of the ownership was probably his best moment this season as it secured the future of the club.
Last season he was MD reporting to a single owner. But with joint owners the role has changed this season & it is run more on the lines of a committee now so all 4 owners have had to adapt. A key motivation for him since he joined CUFC has been to improve relation with Football League which had deteriorated badly prior to the club going into administration. In recent years relations have improved significantly. JN also enjoys the work involved in the transfer negotiations & players contracts. Being a fan means that defeats do hurt more & it is very difficult sometimes to maintain the dignity & decorum of being a director when watching games.
The atmosphere is quite good but could be described as one of hope. But over the last few weeks there has been a 'greyish cloud' hanging over the place as we just cant get the few points needed to drag us clear of the relegation places.
JN explained that the club actually lost around £100,000 season 2007/8 & that it was already committed to a £2million wage bill in anticipation of a push for promotion after reaching play-offs last season. Headline quoted fees can mislead because most are paid in installments over several years. We only actually received £250,000 in hard cash this season for Westwood as Coventry will pay the rest next season. With regard to Garner his fee is also paid in installments but in year1 out of the £300,000 we got we had to pay Blackburn the balance of the fee we owed them for buying him (£60,000) plus 50% of the installment as part of the sell on fee (£150,000) & we had to pay Garner 5% as part of the deal. So we ended up with about £90,000 when the fans think we got £1.4 million! In total this season we will probably end up with about £340,000 in hard cash from incoming transfer fees. But we do get a revenue stream in year 2 as well. We budgeted for an average crowd of 7,500 & we are getting much less than that. We lose £15,000 per game for every 1,000 fans below 7,500. Falling gates mean that we will lose £400,000 in income with another £100,000 lost by not reaching play-offs & there is the cost of John Wards contract. Even allowing for the transfer money we will lose close to £700,000 this season. We are actively seeking fresh investment from outside the club.
It is standard practice for us to have such clauses. In Westwood's case it is 25%.
The manager's view was that Bridges was recovering from injury and not fit enough to play 90 minutes. As a fan he personally wanted to see him played earlier but it is important to leave playing decisions to the manager.
The key factors were the disastrous run of form from September until the change of manager & although Greg stabilised things our failure to win since March.
Yes. The captain should be a strong leader both on and off the field. Kev Gray was such a man & it was very intimidating standing near him just before he ran down the tunnel. Paul Thirwell is another strong character in the dressing room.
He was disappointed by the lack of progress by the players. One or two have 'knocked on the door' but failed to gain a regular place, e.g. Madine. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, regime change. Different regimes can have a totally different opinion about a player. Young lads that were regularly involved with the first team squad can be excluded upon a change of manager. Secondly, it is not always a good idea to play youngsters when a team is at the wrong end of the table. Managers will opt for experience thus reducing opportunities. Finally, the lads themselves squander the chances by their immaturity. But on the positive side we have won awards for the way we develop our Youth Players and we have several coming through that look great prospects.
We have 5 or 6 scouts covering the whole country including Scotland.
Currently the police dictate strategy and the costs which can lead to very high policing costs. Millwall will see a bill over £26,000. We have been a major driver within the league of trying to alter this policy. From next season there will be some rule changes and greater understanding from the police. It will be by mutual agreement next season as to police needs.
The loan remains and we are under no pressure to repay, although we always looking at ways to do so, if only in part.
We can now get 120 in Foxys for meals there has been a 300% increase in usage on West Stand facilities for conferences, etc. The problem is the CBS Stand where it will cost over a £1 million to develop for office use & sponsors lounges. We are looking for co-sponsors to do this work but the credit crunch hasn't helped. We are looking to find tenants to help redevelop the 1st floor as office accommodation .
They are co-owners of the club. There are long standing problems going back a number of years & the Trust is still taking court action regarding recovery of costs. This involves the football club incurring costs which would be better spent on the running of the club. He has no problem with the aims of the Trust but the underlying problem is with some of the personalities on the Trust Board. If the Trust Board were comprised differently there could be a way forward.
JN admitted that if you exclude season ticket holders & LB members then very few have paid to join the scheme. Next season it is intended to replace this scheme with the TEAMCARD scheme as used by a number of clubs including Ipswich & Chelsea. It works in much the same way as a Nectar or Tesco Clubcard with points being earned based on spending. He expected that season ticket holders & LB members would get a free card but others would have to pay.
He admitted that the 'early bird' scheme for season ticket holders had not been communicated properly. Basically it had been done in a rush. All season ticket holders should have had a written letter. Lessons had been learned. The club had been pleasantly surprised that take up by season ticket holders for the 'early bird' scheme had been nearly 4 times higher than expected with over 800 renewals.
These were personal views. He was in favour to reduce spiraling costs but Andrew Jenkins was opposed. HA pointed out that travel costs were a relatively minor cost compared to wages. Surely the real issue confronting all football clubs was the unsustainable wages being paid. JN confirmed that there was no salary cap in League 1 it only applies in League 2. Unfortunately there was no consensus to restrain wages. He also believes that up to 10 clubs are on the brink of administration so something must be done to reduce costs.
Relegation would not affect our plans for the club, e.g. the pitch will be re-laid during the summer.
The most disappointing was having to lose John Ward as manager. The most satisfying was resolving the ownership of the club. The future of the club is now quite secure but we do need to improve revenue streams.
The key issue to this is funding. But we want to be in the Championship which is why our policy has been to recruit from that division rather than lower down the pyramid. If the chance to play even higher was there then we would take it.
We see the LB as vital support which we much appreciate. Especially at the southern away games it means that we know we can expect a large vocal support which encourages the players. LB provides independent support which because of the distance means that it is not involved in the politics that can occur in the local area.
Keep supporting the club. We know what we are doing & we are trying hard to strengthen the financial base of the club. We may be the owners but we are also real fans of this club. Mike Carruthers/Howard Atkinson |