@ JG why would tourists spend £75 to watch L1 football when they can go to e.g. Wet Ham vs Brighton for under £35?

WIJG - you are right that I am making an assumption there, though it doesn't seem an unreasonable one, given that it is the model adopted by virtually every other club in the league.

I presume that the flood damage was covered by insurance, so my question, out of curiosity is, what happened to the money that Graham Stacey (Doobs) helped to raise ?

Lol that's proper prissy 😂

Don't judge me by your standards Mad

Nick W - you are of course making the assumption that a loss making model is sustainable under a single owner scenario. I don't believe that to be the case. Whoever invested or bought the Club would wish to reach breakeven and profitability at some point. Nothing wrong with that! To do so they would immediately look at the bursaries handed out to the over 66s and children as well as the overall pricing and price differentiation. For example - could we differentiate and sell 1000 tickets to London tourists at £75 per ticket? I suspect so.

OI - oh absolutely and I imagine there will be a lot of ire directed their way. But that also sort of sums up my feelings on ownership now. We talk about the dangers of selling out yet somehow believe fan-ownership protects us from existential threats. Yet five years after the last crisis, here we are again.

NickD - it is a pity they didn't start sending out multiple warnings when it was becoming clear that the annual losses were systemic a couple of years ago

LD - do you think the Wrexham fans regret giving up fan ownership? Are they worried about doing well till their owners' money runs out?

The Trust has sent out multiple warning signs over the past month. Who owns the club is irrelevant if there is no club left to own.

I think Wrexham fans also care about who owns their club.

Kitey - the emoji that you've used for Mr Galt - it's the one you send to the lady when you've got the horn 😂

No fan cares about the ownership until the club is having a bad season or the club is continually under-performing or the club is in financial problems. For example, the West Ham fans want the Sullivan regime gone. And the Plymouth fans weren't happy with their owners when we beat them.

I'm sure we had exactly the same discussions and ideas about raising prices the last few times the issue of running out of cash came up. Which maybe highlights a big problem...

TF - fair point. Using "us" was probably too wide as there is only so much "us" can do. It is those amongst "us", who have been entrusted with ensuring the solvency of our club that should be hanging their heads, not the likes of you who have been persecuted or me who, whilst I may come across as negative and may sound like I am over-dramatising at times, is only because I can see what is going to happen and feel powerless to prevent it. Watching football is supposed to be fun. Yes, for every Peterborough away you get a last minute winner against Franchise at home. It's not supposed to be continually worrying about existing, raising money and ownership. Having been a Wimbledon supporter (WFC and now AFCW) for getting on 50 years, that seems to be the most consistent topic rather than what is happening on the pitch.

It's dubious as to whether higher prices will deliver increased income anyway. It depends on price elasticity of demand. For example, if prices go up say 50%, then crowd losses 33% will deliver net losses. Plus we won't get the non ticket match day income that is high margin

I am certainly not willing to pay a £10+ per game premium on my ticket - over and above current prices- simply for the “privilege” of the club being fan owned (which has no value to me whatsoever). If that is a widely-shared view (no idea if it is, I only know my perspective) then an increase in ticket prices won’t make us sustainable. If that means the club collapses because those who control it don’t want to try to follow the route used by basically every other club (ie an owner who funds the losses in exchange for the ego boost of ownership and the remote chance of promotion to the big time) then so be it.

Welcome back Galty! May your scratchcards deliver us from evil 😈

Alan IoW - any (non-AFCW) reaction to it seems to be lamenting the whole amount of money needed in the lower leagues these days. It doesn't matter if the BBC publishes something like that, because the club/DT should know that anything posted in public like the OS is going to be mentioned - if they don't like that, then don't publish it to begin with...

Rob, I agree about the decent story on a slow news weekend. There's also room for further stories such as; where's the ceiling for fan ownership or does being a fan make you a better football club owners? The BBC article is presented more suscintually than our musing in my view, and indeed does help further understanding. Whether it does does or not help the DTB who knows. We do know they read here, but seldom comment. In my view their attitude to WUP users is Dilligaf or gtfoh rather than AMA

🙈🙈 Wondered how long it would be

Stuart D - I am in 100% agreement with your last post. It is time to pay for the product.

I tense up a bit at the “shame on us” in your moral 6mdm. I totally understand the point you’re making but it’s clear that the fan base is made up of people with differing views on ownership across the spectrum from enshrinement to full sale.

My ticket prices increase along with increasing everything was serious if we want to be sustainable. I keep hearing that the IFR will change football and allow us to be sustainable. It’s absolute crazy and we all need to pay more if we want to be sustainable and not keep begging for donations and rich people to invest in us because they like giving money away.

The DTB want to find a minority investor (assuming 50% + 1) goes through who will also chuck additional money in on an ongoing basis for no return other than publicity, ego, altruism or insanity. If they find somebody, great, it will be a useful temporary hold until they decide they can no longer chuck money in. Then we will be back to where we are now. We need to decide what we want this club to be. I'm not sure now we know. Some want us to reach as high a level as we can, however we can. Some just want to remain in the EFL, whatever it takes. Some want to watch a financially stable club in our own control at whatever level that may be. Some want the best of all options and ignore the consequences.