Athlone Town will hold a public meeting of fans in the town tonight at 8.30pm. The gathering will lay out the financial problems facing the club and question whether it can continue to play in the SSE Airtricity League First Division.
What the directors wouldn’t give for a tiny fraction of the €50 million a year that the Yokohama Rubber Company are paying to be on Chelsea’s Premier League and Champions’ League shirts next season.
But that is a world away from the challenges facing Athlone Town.
Relegation last year was a huge blow to the club but the circumstances of playing in the second tier are hardly new, their having gained promotion only the previous season.
The Athlone Town Stadium has a capacity of only 2,500 making it one of the smaller in the League in terms of potential but if that was to be doubled it might not make an appreciable difference in the short term at least with an average attendance of less than 500 during their last promotion season in 2013.
This time last year the club announced that Nitro Sports had signed a three year deal to come on board as main sponsors and to bring along Nike as the kit manufacturer. Ambitious plans were put in place to upgrade the club shops and to increase the sale of kits.
This season the team has played without a shirt sponsor in place.
The commercial page of the clubs official website is entirely blank, hardly a welcoming sign for anyone who might otherwise answer the crisis call to come and help.
Filling that with a statement of what is needed is a simple first step that needs to be undertaken straight away so that people who might want to help know what is available and what is required.
The clubs newest entrants Cabinteely FC have shown what is possible with a simple page outlining opportunities that are available. Asking never guarantees a positive answer but not asking does ensure that nothing will happen.
The club statement urging fans and community leaders to attend tonight states:
“At this moment in time the club is struggling within severe financial constraints to continue operate at this high level and although there have been appeals for more public involvement the level of support it needs for its adequate survival has not been forthcoming.
Again it has only been through the generous support of our committees, our patrons and our loyal supporters that we’ve been able to operate and successfully compete to date and of course the continuing importance and survival of our club with its prestige and pride to the people of the town cannot be underestimated.
Finally, we would again appeal to the public, the business community, our councillors, TD’s and all other organisations in Athlone Town, The Home of the Oldest Senior Football Club in the Republic of Ireland to come out and show your support at this important meeting.”
This comes though off the back of pre season optimistic talk about the club having assembled perhaps its best ever squad of players.
That comes at a cost and it seems bizarre that the club should have set out to spend on the back of estimated income that was known as likely to be less than comfortable.
Any business, including those who the club hopes will back it and enable its survival, must be mindful to spend what they can afford, to budget prudently and to build up their resources one step at a time.
The FAI as the regulating body has a duty of care to ensure that these common sense rules of business are adhered to by clubs, and that if ambition leads to extending the finances that it never does so beyond breaking point.
We do not know what the financial needs of the club are. Nor what amount from a white knight could be required in order to carry on this season and hope to attract bigger attendance and draw in other commercial partners from either the local, regional or national community.
The numbers may become apparent at tonight’s public meeting. If they do they should be made available on the club’s own media so that potential sponsors can at least have an indication of what might be required.
Expenses need to be brought under control and if that requires short term pain, so be it. Fans need to play their part through whatever means they can, be it a subscription to the club lotto or a loan that is based on following their heart over their head.
The FAI will be placed in the unenviable position of having to defend expenditure in other areas that might well be enough to save the countries oldest club. But if they do then what will be the next call, and the one after.
Close to 50,000 Irish soccer fans will be at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday week for the Euro 2016 qualifier against Poland. It is hoped that some form of activity, be it in the shape of a traditional bucket collection or some small cut of the proceeds from commercial income on the night might be made available to the club.
These challenges are always more complex than they appear, never as simple as commentators like us can judge from afar. Every solution though begins with one step forward, be it tentative or bold. It needs to be sure though and a simple first step in our humble eyes would be to lay out what is needed.
That blank page under the commercial section of the website needs to be filled. Quickly.
