‘Makin’ the same mistakes we swear we’ll never make again
Pissin’ in the wind’
Jerry Jeff Walker ‘ Pissin’ in the Wind ’
13 years ago Eddie Ramsden and Charlie Dobres spear-headed the supposed transformation of Lewes FC from a football club in financial difficulty to a self-sustained Community Football Club. Through implication the previous owner was dissed for financial overreach and the general theme of how stupid it was for football clubs to overspend in search of promised lands. They adopted the mantra of ‘At Lewes FC we like to do things differently’….no return to boom and bust!
At the Lewes FC fanzine we repeatedly bought to people’s attention that this was simply not happening. We were roundly chastised for pooping the great new Community Club party. The club were simply failing to get near to the goal of being self-sustained or follow standard procedure to build a proper self-sustained community club. The fanzine huffed and puffed about it but apparently were always wrong. We were not of course but it easy for people at the club to spout bullshit excuses for their poor financial governance with how the figures are not representative of blah blah blah when you cannot be held to account for those financial figures sometimes 18 months when accounts are published. By which time of course memories have faded and interest lost.
The previous regime, under property developer and builder Martin Elliot, did overspend his own money. It is estimated up to £400,000 pa, an enormous amount for a non-league club. His business hit rocky waters and despite, again bullshit, repeatedly put about at Lewes FC that we were nearly bankrupt, he steered the club safely through turbulent waters to community ownership. I knew what was happening financially during these times as I sat on the Supporters Trust and we were kept up to speed on the supposed precarious situation. Precarious? He turned down big bucks from Kingspan to take over the club as they ‘were not the right fit’ and let it go to community ownership for £1. Precarious? Really important to remember this when that old whiff of bullshit from those currently at the helm of nearly going out of business is put about.
For the record Martin Elliot took us to the National Conference and built and paid for our wonderful stadium, one of the best in non-league football and was undone by the Economic Crash.
12 years into community ownership and the 2021/22 accounts have just been published, they show Eddie Ramsden, yup one of the preachers of how football clubs should be self-sustained bank rolled our tiny club to the tune of £600,000. More than Elliot ever did.
‘Makin’ the same mistakes we swear we’ll never make again
Pissin’ in the wind’
Jerry Jeff Walker ‘ Pissin’ in the Wind ’
So how have we gone from trying to be self-sustained to huge operating losses?
The business model we are following is ‘build it and they will come.’ It is a model based on a film, a fantasy film. A de facto trickle-down economics based on a punt and overplaying our hand. The hope is that if we set up this new-fangled Equality FC ground breaking football club everyone will want to throw sponsorship money and become members to pay for it. This means huge investment in service and support staff to build the inner economy to be able to facilitate the supposed business model. In the interim the Board have eschewed the difficult parts of building a self-sustained community club, catering, community links etc and have taken a punt on doing it the ‘smart’ way through marketing, branding to bring in the money. The often mentioned doing it the ‘smart’ way is a terminology often bandied about at Lewes FC that generally is not smart at all.
So basically within a few years if the sponsorship money does not come in the whole thing will collapse like a pack of cards. The Board are seemingly oblivious to the ramifications of the huge financial commitments they have taken on and the huge cost of our women’s set up. Lewes FC Women’s existence at the top table is exclusively dependent on the licence arrangements with the Women’s FA. Next year they could say the licence is dependent on having a home capacity of 5000. We are out of the top tiers than and all the money we get from the Women’s FA, Barclays and other sponsorship and TV deals will see us go bust.
Sponsorship may come in and save the day. But more than likely it won’t. Either way we have no grip on our own destiny financially and are taking an economic punt, pissing in the wind.
It should have been an exciting fixture for Lewes FC. A match at home November 7th versus Brighton and Hove Albion under 23’s in the Sussex Senior Cup. Brighton and Hove Albion are the current champions of Sussex. Their 14th title.
The Rights of Fans. Lewes FC Fanzine 