D & D face the questions.
Last updated : 25 May 2006 By Bigrich.....
The owners of Rotherham United faced the questions for nearly a hour in the Radio Sheffield studio, heres some of the questions they faced and their replies.
Asked about the players contracts, and that they should re-sign after all the effort the fans put in to save thier jobs!
DC "Most of the players have been offered lesser deals, they have to go away and think about that and they also have agents hunting around. Paul Shaw comes in tomorrow, we've had most of the others in. The talks have gone alright and they have 7 days to come back to us otherwise we will look for other players, simple as that."
DM "Its difficult but we have to look forward."
 | not happening |
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We were told under the previous board that the money for the new stand was ringfenced, now we are told that the stand needs more money to be completed. Where has the money gone for the main stand?
DC "The money was never always in place, the premier club money never materialised. There is problems and a shortfall on the stand and it wont be finished in the foreseeable future, but what we will try and do is to get better facilities in there and make the best of what we have got."
The same caller moves onto the ticket prices, and asks, The spectators have put pounds and pounds into the club to keep it going, I'd like to know why a £75 - 25% price rise after everything people have put in, and the wage bill dropping by a million pounds supposidly, that surely is more than adequate for what the loss the club is making on a day to day basis?
DC "If you care to come down to the ground, I'll sit with you and show you how all that works because we will be on here till gone 7. By cutting the wage bill by £1m, that doesnt get rid of the situation! We're still paying old contracts until the end of June/July, Things like that will change, you say we've lost £25k, we'll put in a lot more money than that, and we'll have to to keep this club going. We said from the minute we walked in, We're not Multi-Millionaires, we'll do our best and we have a business plan, if the fans get behind us it will work, if they don't there wont be a club."
What stage are we at with moving to a new ground?
DC "We've had regular meetings with the council, we had one yesterday with the council and the rugby club. We had one last night with Mr Booth and his son about buying Millmoor, the reality is we need asset's so we can get finance off people. We're at early stage but we have to talk."
Where will we get the money to buy Millmoor?
DC "We can raise money if theres an asset there, we can raise money against the asset, but at the moment no bank will lend you more without no security."
On the creditors list from the recent CVA, Colin Murdock was owed £100,000, he's only been here a season. So does that mean that he's not been paid at all while been here?
DC "No, thats how much it would have cost to pay up their contract should the club have gone into liquidation."
 | Council house extension? |
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What about Mr Booth, when 05 bought the club he got the ground to pay off the debts so how come we owed him £2.8m
DC "Mr Booth owens the ground at thats where the lease is."
Why did we build a new stand on somebody else ground anyway?
DC "I cant answer that, my opinion is why build an extension on a council house?"
DM "We would have left it as it was, the facilities were there so why build a new stand?"
Before the club could take part payment for season tickets uptil July, why do the club want full payment for season tickets after 7 days now?
DC "That's rubbish, people can leave thier name, we dont want no money as deposit because it becomes to complicated as the computer system we have cannot take deposits and it would make too much work for the lads in there. So we have said, we wont take deposits but we will take your name and hold your ticket for 7 days."
Surely the 2 businessmen have property they could give as security, how involved do you want to get?
DC "Maybe the unamed texter would like to chuck his house in?"
How many season tickets do you really think will be bought - Gino
DC "Is that Gino off the website that likes to cause trouble with everybody? Gino why don't you come down and give us a visit sometime at Millmoor?"
DM "We're hoping to sell 2500+, we've budgeted on the same as last year which was 2,600 so anything above that will be a bonus.
How much have you got to raise for the contracts you have to honour till the end of July?
DC "Our wage bill for last year was £2.1m so from the end of the season to the end of July is a quarter of that."
DM "We dont want people collecting in buckets and stuff like that."
DC "There was 180 people walked to Huddersfield, only 80 have handed the money in, theres 100 people with money, come on lads, get the money collected and hand it in, need we say more?"
Is it ture that a certain local scrap dealer wont allow access to his land for drains for the new stand?
Both "No, thats not true."
Whats happening with pre-season games, Blades, Gretna and anything else?
DC "Blades is confirmed, Gretna - we dont know how that one leaked out! The fact of the matter is, we've been doing some dealings with the Gretna chairman and we've got a bit of sponsorship money out of. We said that we would try and get a friendly arranged, nothings been arranged as yet but hopefully once the deals all signed up its something we will do."
ERM?????
I think you've scored an own goal in regards to the season ticket pricing, for all the people who have like yourself helped this club out, don't you think you've given them a backhanded slap?
DC "No, not at all. The reality is, we need this money in to make the club survive! We'd love to put the season tickets down, RUFC have been averaging 4000-5000, if we were averageing 9-10000 we could charge half the price. We have to base the figures on what we think we will get and thats the figures we need to match up."
DC "What people have'nt said in all this is that we have put kids
prices down. We're letting under 5's in free, we're building for the future and if people have got to pay a little bit more for this year then thats it, or otherwise get the buckets back out."
I understand the kids bit, so that they come along with a parent, but what I'm saying is that for somebody to sit in the Tiv and your wanting to charge them £360.
DC "Donny's tickets are £400 and thats in the old ground."
 | Ticket Office - Busy today |
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You will struggle to get 1200 season tickets sold at this price, isnt it better to sell them cheaper and get more coming and spending in the ground?
DM "Well we've been quite busy today, its been going all day with season tickets, people have been talking but they're happy to do it as they know the situation the club is in."
DM "Our average spend at Rotherham is 93p in the ground."
DC "Come down and have a look, we'll show you, make an appointment, we've nothing to hide."
If you keep going to the well (fans) so many times, the well will be empty.
DC "We put money in the same as you and many others, what we have to say is that if you dont want that to be the same case next year you have to run along with us. If not theres nothing we can do about it, we've done our plan and if the fans back us it will work, if they dont it wont and we cant do nothing about that."
 | New Kit, again |
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What kit supplier are the club using next season? This will be 3 shirts in 3 years and that is unfair.
DC "It's not a case of being unfair, the Nike shirts we had, we didnt get any revenue on that. We needed a new kit into the club and get the club shop back in our hands so we can make some money out of it. We took the club on and got nothing from the Tea-Bars, the club shop and the tivoli."
When will the kit be available?
DM "About 4 or 5 weeks, we've done a deal with a kit sponsor and manufactuor, its bespoke made for Rotherham United and its official merchandise and we're looking to sell it into other shops so you can get it anywhere."
Whatever happened to the brick money from RUST?
DM "The brick money actually went into the stand to help build it, its gone into that. If the stand gets finished, me and Dennis will honour the bricks."
Why did you sacrifice all the shareholders of RUFC in the CVA?
DC "We have'nt got rid of any shareholders, they were shareholders in the old company."
While prices have gone up, next season is there any chance of doing a better deal for existing season ticket holders?
DM "Well next season we will look at it again and if there's a crowd increase then we probably dont need as much so we can probably give a reduction or a better discount or whatever, but at the moment we have these fixed costs and we need this money for Rotherham United to survive."
Other snippets:
The club are looking at bringing in a loyalty card scheme.
Nothing has been heard from the ITV digital case, although it is still going on.
