TUFC Annual Accounts

[portugull]

Annual Accounts published today.

Losses exceed £1,189,000 so we are loosing nearly £23,000 a week.

Need to look at the numbers but that is the reality the Club is still bleeding money.

[grubshed12]

There is one very worrying paragraph see below.
"At the time of approval of these financial
statements, it is the understanding of the director that such financial support will continue for the remainder of the
2022/23 and into the 2023/24 football season. The club has embarked on a strategic plan to ensure that is can operate
on a sustainable commercial basis"
Backing only into next season...
Strategic Plan to operate. Does this mean lower league and part time .
Very worrying statements.
Time to all join the TUST and brace ourselves.
I am not expecting any statements will be forthcoming from the owner.

[thebigp1]

Obviously terrible numbers. As a club we are not generating enough income. We should be able to generate better attendances which would help to some degree but you can hardly blame the causal fan for not turning up this season. That being said we are hardly unique in the amounts we are losing. Do any lower league clubs run at a profit? I very much doubt it.

[Colorado]

Can you tell from the report where we are losing the most money?
Does it give detail on salaries?



Thanks in advance.

[Admiral]

Unfortunately this is the way football has gone. At £15 a ticket, the club would need around 3300 extra fans in each game (without any other sales on food etc) to break even, so this isn’t all down to reduced/low attendances. It’s not like we’ve recruited players on high wages either!

I still don’t understand why the club haven’t looked at a stadium sponsor, even though I’m not a fan of them.

[Cheddargull]

I still don’t understand why the club haven’t looked at a stadium sponsor, even though I’m not a fan of them.

Under a previous regime Plainmoor became the Launa Windows Stadium. Maybe it wasn't deemed a success.

[culmstockgull]

Torquay united and a strategic plan if our past is anything to go by is rarely used in the same sentence but Its good to see that one is being contemplated,who knows at this stage what strategic means but there are many ways we can save money without any loss of ability to be a football team.
In the recent past we have had a fairy godmother, interspersed with several chancers who should have been selling second hand cars on some dodgy lot. to our present owner who it would seem much to the annoyance of many will keep his word to fund us for five years.
If strategic means having a player manager, no assistant manager , sacking half the bench warming back room staff, closing down the so called underachieving youth system then so be it, it will save considerable money and should if handled correctly not be a backward step, football wise.
Next season we have the new non league contracts, the definite possibility of 1pm kick offs during the winter to save on electricity which can ony reduce the wage bill.
Anyoner who imagines the TUST is a realistic safety net only has to look at the figures, they have on our present spending two weeks money on deposit, if they went to the bank for money they would fail on the first question, what security have you to offer, as for a possible bond, set it at 100 pounds and you would need about 11000 of us to fund a season, and thereafter what is the cunning plan.
In my mind any strategy for funding on a sustainable basis must be almost entirely based on non football activities , yes ,you can have naming rights but in the bay that would be 100K tops, hardly a dent in the debt mountain. many of us have ideas on cost reduction and revenue growth , some of them might even work,

[Brewers boy]

As much as I dislike Stadium sponsors shirt sponsors , substitute board sponsors etc, we NEED the money.

[North Curry House]

Under a previous regime Plainmoor became the Launa Windows Stadium. Maybe it wasn't deemed a success.

Like their windows, did not last more than a season.

[gullsgullsgulls]

It is not possible to read much into a set of exempt accounts, however I would make the following two observations:

- The statement "The club has embarked on a strategic plan to ensure that is can operate on a sustainable commercial basis" is utterly meaningless and probably only included to present the fig-leaf of respectability required to allow whichever entity has ultimately provided the loan to present the asset as recoverable in its own books.

- There are two companies in the TUFC corporate group which tell the story of Osborne's plans in plain English: "TORQUAY UNITED ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED" was established in 1921 with a corporate address at Plainmoor and contains the assets of the club, it is run at a huge loss funded by Osborne via its parent company "RIVIERA STADIUM LIMITED" which holds 93% of the shares in the former, was established in 2016 and has a Bristol address. Osborne has no interest in saving the former, he wants to monetise the latter, clearly in relation to the stadium - I cannot work out what the plan is here, but there will be one. I suspect the ownership of a football club helps with the Gaming International branding and allows them to claim to be a sport and leisure business rather than simply a real estate play, but that is not enough to justify £1.1m losses every year (even with a 25% corporation tax deduction available) so there will be something worth playing for (even if there is a risk it might not pay off, Osborne may consider that a worthy gamble if the potential prize is big enough).

[happytorq]

- The statement "The club has embarked on a strategic plan to ensure that is can operate on a sustainable commercial basis" is utterly meaningless

Indeed. I believe this exact phrase has been in each of last 4 or 5 account statements

[MellowYellow]

Not even Wrexham make profit as their newly-released accounts for the 12 months to the end of last June showed a loss of £2.914m despite turnover being up five times on the previous year, at almost £6m.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65142947

[Kingsgull83]

Hi would you expect them to make a profit with their wage bill?

[MellowYellow]

Hi would you expect them to make a profit with their wage bill?

No! but if our turnover was up five times on the previous year I would imagine we would turn a profit and be title chasing rather than potential relegation fodder ,

[exilegull]

There is one very worrying paragraph see below.
"At the time of approval of these financial
statements, it is the understanding of the director that such financial support will continue for the remainder of the
2022/23 and into the 2023/24 football season. The club has embarked on a strategic plan to ensure that is can operate
on a sustainable commercial basis"
Backing only into next season...
Strategic Plan to operate. Does this mean lower league and part time .
Very worrying statements.

I wouldn't worry too much about that - these comments are for the going concern basis of the company and it only needs to look forward 12 months from the date of approval of the financial statement which is the exact period outline.There is no need to commit to anything longer in these financial statements.