DT Election 2003 - Questionnaire

There is a need to have a dedicated Board member solely focussing on this task with more resources assigned to create and process initiatives such as approaching the ‘Great and the Good', successful businesses and other possible sources of such funds (eg Government, EEC, Overseas). Meanwhile we need to seek ways to reduce our interest payments.

It is vital that the loan outstanding is reduced as soon as possible. The Finance Working Group should be looking at reducing the amount of interest that we pay as soon as possible through sourcing cheaper loans.

On the commercial side effort needs to be made to reach out to local businesses in order to gain sponsorship. Sponsorship on all levels from naming rights of the different stands to the advertising hoardings around the pitch.

The idea of member loans needs some serious attention – from the members I have spoken to, many would be happy to help decrease the debt with the issue of personal loans.

I think it is vital that the Trust continues to spearhead fundraising activities, so that the membership and AFCW fans are involved in the debt reduction.

I believe that managing the Interest Payments is probably more important in the short term, our ability or otherwise to reduce our interest burden through re-financing will effect the PLC's profitability and ultimately our ability to develop the stadium and invest in the football club and football in the community.

Our ability to repay the loan and over how long will depend on our income generation and cost control.

I think we need to look at other options than the share issue. The extension of the issue has not raised much extra money, and I think it is unlikely that fans who have already bought shares will be able to buy many more. I am also aware from speaking to other fans that many were not prepared to contribute much to the share issue as they did not agree with the concept. For this reason I think the Trust should allow those who would like to, to donate money to the Trust which the Trust will use to buy shares, as it has already done with some of the money in the ground fund. I think there is a need to provide for different ways for fans to contribute, catering for all budgets. I can see two clear options which would allow fans to contribute further, and would hopefully draw in those not prepared to contribute to a share issue. A loan scheme could be introduced which allows fans to lend the club a lump sum on the basis that it will be paid back when the club can afford it, and with real-terms interest only. Of course, this does not necessarily reduce the debt, but does eliminate interest payments and makes the debt much more manageable. Fans who felt financially able to could provide money into the same scheme while stating that they do not want to be paid back. A regular donation scheme should also be introduced, allowing fans to set up standing orders to contribute on a monthly or quarterly basis. Businesses could also contribute, particularly as they may be able to afford more than fans who have already worked hard to give what they can. Contributions by businesses could be rewarded with advertising in the programme or around the ground – there are many unused hoardings at present that could be used for this purpose. The Trust and Club accounts should also be regularly ‘swept', with any unused money at the end of each month being paid to the ground fund. To help everyone understand how far we have come in paying off the debt, and how much more work needs to be done, updates should be given in the programme, website and on a noticeboard at Kingsmeadow.

Firstly, although this may be considered the domain of the Finance working group I believe that the members of the Trust board should all be involved with this key area. In terms of capital repayment the Dons Trust board needs to lead on fund-raising activities and should set fund-raising targets for the next few years.

There are two aspects to the Kingsmeadow debt that need to be considered. Firstly the management of the interest payment which would prevent any capital repayment.

My thoughts on how we could manage or reduce the interest burden would include the introduction of member loans. This would be at an interest rate lower that the Khosla loan. A loan of £600 from 1000 members or supporters for three or four years could save a significant amount of interest and represent the refinancing of around half of the outstanding loan.

We should also continue to look at commercial options for refinancing the debt, which could also reduce interest payments. Any interest savings could then be redirected to capital repayments.

We need to see if some of the capital required to repay the debt can be generated from operational finance. This may be achieved by way of increased match attendance or by cost reduction exercises. If each one of the three thousand at the Hartley Wintney game could persuade an 3 extra fans a year to come to game we could increase average attendances by over 10% making a significant contribution to finances.

Similarly we can work to increase further the use of the function suite and bar income to generate additional revenue.

We may also need to undertake cost reviews to ensure that an overhead costs are managed specifically with regards human resource costs. Where we can find an acceptable substitute at a lower cost the option should be considered.

Lastly, in addition to DT led fund-raising, a rights issue on the current issued shares capital In AFCW Plc needs to be considered in a couple of years time. For example, a one for four rights issue could generate a further £300k. This should not erode further the Trusts ownership interest in the Plc and the club.

I feel we are not utilising our position in the right way. We have many resources at our disposal i.e. halls, football pitch which we are not running properly. For instance when we returned from the Vase cup game at Herne Bay the club were running three coaches - got back to Kingsmeadow not one of the bars were open - so consequently everybody went and spent their money elsewhere. There are loads of commercial ways we can raise money which we need to look into, as I feel our fans have certainly done their bit and we need to look at other big organisations to help.

I have the same ideas as everybody else. A combination of share sales and fundraising. There is no magic solution, just hard work and a greater acceptance of the share issue as a pragmatic part solution.

I feel there is a limit to how much the fans can contribute through shares or fund raising events as we all have limits to the amount we can afford. I think we may have reached that limit with many fans although they may come to an occasional fund raising event. We now have to make our stadium work, we have 3 bars and need to work hard to get them hired out every evening when they are not required for football. They should be hired out at prices competitive to similar accommodation in the area. We need to spend a small amount of money on redecorating the bars as they look very tired and drab and can't expect people to want to hire them at present. I am sure we have members with interior design ideas that could make the bars attractive at very little cost.

As far as I am concerned paying of the debt is the most important issue for the Trust to address over the coming months. Paying £9000 per month in interest (which could increase from the second year depending on the path of base rates) will act as a noose around our necks, preventing us from taking the club in the direction in which we want to take it.

The share offer is ongoing but it is likely that we already have the vast majority of the money from this source. We have exhausted the funds of our fans, and we have found that the vast majority of fans of other clubs are not interested. Therefore we must explore other avenues.

One idea that has been raised is of fans loaning the club money at a lower rate than that being paid to the Khoslas. This idea could work but in order to protect itself, the club would have to insist on paying back the loans only when it could afford it, and fixing the rate of interest payable now. This could make the loans unattractive to the fans because they would have little control over when they would repaid and, with interest rates on an upward path, they would be likely to yield less interest than they would get from a bank. Loaning money to the club rather than putting it in the bank would also be more risky. Borrowing the money from a financial institution has also been mentioned but, even if such an offer was forthcoming, it is unlikely that we could secure such finance at an interest rate that would make a significant difference to our monthly interest payments.

The corporate sector remains an option for raising funds. Three of the stands at Kingsmeadow are without sponsors, while we also have a number of advertising boards unsold. The stadium name itself could be made available for sponsorship – in our situation we must try to take advantage of money from practically any source.

The Dons Trust can also work with AFC Wimbledon to make use of Kingsmeadow for fundraising events. Past experience shows that events like the Comedy night have made good money for the Stadium Fund. We now have facilities to put on similar events, with the added bonus that we will also keep the bar takings. Possible events could include bands, quiz nights, etc. In the summer the pitch could even be used for open-air concerts.

We must also look at ways of generating more money from present activities. For example we have SKY so should be encouraging our fans to watch games in our bar. We could also introduce more fruit and quiz machines to the bars, and try to increase the use of our function facilities by people outside of the football club.

n my opinion there is no magic way of generating the £1.3 million from one source. Instead we should be trying to generate money from a number of different sources, and make better use of the facilities we already own. It is a case of thinking ‘outside the box' and coming up with imaginative ways of bringing in funds.

Keep the share issue open and facilitate an initiative for sharesave – so that members can pay small regular amounts into the Trust bank account ie: £10 a month and when they reach £90.00 they can then purchase shares. Increase the revenue by hiring the facilities (not the pitch) at Kingsmeadow.

To many to list

•  Increasing income, principally through attracting more commercial sponsorship and increasing crowds towards an average of 3,500.

•  Re-structuring outstanding debt.

•  Controlling and reducing costs – a great start has been made on this, it needs to be reinforced to all areas of the organisation

•  Fundraising – having an appointed fundraising leader with the time and skills to keep the money flowing in.

•  Innovation, e.g. supporting appeals to the wider football supporting community

A final push for shares to be sold.

Exploration of the possibility of supporter loans (at favourable rates for the club).

Naming rights for the stadium.

I would like to see if we could get the Fans Stadium Sponsored by a Company or Individuals for £1million ( they would get their name put up on the stadium for 10 years ie . The Sony Fans Stadium etc.) or getting 1,000 members donating £100 per year for the next 10 years.

I think corporate sponsorship is the first avenue to be looked at. If we can sell all the advertising hoardings, get a stand named, or even the stadium, then this will undoubtedly help. I think the club facilities need to be used more in the week by local residents which again generate income not specifically from our own fan base. I think in some instances the Trust has to be prepared to spend money to make money. Events such as the comedy night raised vast sums and should be encouraged.

I think we need to raise loans from DT members. In addition we could consider donations and raising money from special events eg sportmans dinners etc. I think we also need to raise money to improve the appearance of the public areas at KM. This would then help to improve its earning potential (for wedding receptions, parties, conferences etc) .

For starters I sincerely hope we are gearing up to milk Kingsmeadow for all it's worth over Christmas both within and without our own community of interest and Kingstonian's. In the long term I'd like to look into development partnerships that won't compromise overall control of the Kingsmeadow Stadium and if a good opportunity exists to put that to the membership, Savings for shares / fund raising schemes, larger fund raising events in our own community, better promotion, development and use of the Kingsmeadow resources to bring in greater income and possibly the idea of a loan scheme from fans to the Trust / Club that we can repay at a far better rate of interest.

Several. First, we need to make someone on the DT Board responsible for leading and co-ordinating efforts in this area. The lack of a named person with this responsibility is a major failure by the old board (and yes, I am one of that board – it is a collective failure on our part) and the absence of reporting to the board and members on how much we've raised, and where from, is totally unacceptable.

Second, we are having a push before the end of the year to raise more money from the share offer – we think there is more money to be raised from that.

Third, we should seek ways to reduce the interest cost and use the saved interest to repay the capital. The Finance Working Group is currently preparing some proposals for consideration by the DT on borrowing money a lot cheaper, both from fans/members and from institutions. It is very hard, however, for football clubs to borrow from banks so the SG plans are to be much more innovative in who we approach in future. We can't name them yet, but they are reputable and have a strong interest in community matters, which is in line with our objectives.

Fourth, we should approach sponsors who are willing to put in substantial amounts of money in return for a long-term deal with us. This should include ground naming rights (and of course Asda isn't acceptable) or similar.

Last, we are now implementing plans to make more money from the stadium itself, with a clear budget and a small amount of money available to spend on upgrading the facilities and marketing into the local community. There are working groups involved in this already. At the same time, we are keeping a close watch on spending to avoid unnecessary expenditure.

The idea of asking supporters to loan money to the club has already been suggested and I support this. I think the new board will need, as a matter or urgency, to come up with a new plan for repayment.