Looks bad for the club, bad debts announced at the AGM - £250k in the Sun apparently - and we're in a bad way. Debts have spiralled in the last 2 years - admittedly a lot of "forgotten" bills were added during this time - but one does have to ask what the balls the committee is doing.

I could sit here and write a list of blame, but I'll save it for another time. Some committee member will come on and ask me for cash too, but am I balls giving to people who can't budget at all. In what realm, pray tell, did anyone budget that we would get more than 200 people a game last year? Oh yeah, it's OK though, as we started 3 youth teams when we were skint and that's a sure fire way to recoup the money.

There is only one option. Have the bloody gumption to change the constitution and put the club up for sale. 12 folk chasing 20 quid here and there has long since had its time, we have some good assets so why not let the club go up for sale?

Call an EGM now, pass a motion changing the constitution and have the guts to admit you'll resign en masse if a bid comes in. The old boys club has had its time, let's catch up with the 20th century - let alone the 21st.

yeah read that in the paper today lets hope they can get it sorted out,would hate to see another gretna

What would happen if the club was sold?
And who, realistically would be buying?

Yep, here's to it all getting sorted. If for no other reason than it's a fantastic road trip.

can people stop saying "the next gretna" its getting on my tits

I would hope the "end is nigh" journalism is off the mark, we should be able to still generate cash. The main issues are that for many years the social club has been run for the benefit of others and the whole election system has been a sham - we elected 2 Robert Rices as nobody realised that the 2nd guy to stand was different and so voted thinking they were keeping someone else on the committee.

In terms of why someone would buy us, we own a profitable pub in the town (though lack of spending on it and a hefty bar staff kept happy seem to have taken its toll) and we have very little outgoings bar direct team costs - the council owns the land and we pay a small rent. Of course, going up for sale does leave the risk that some clown just buys us for the pub, though I doubt that, it's not like the potential buying a Wetherspoons in the middle of Glasgow or something.

Which comes back to why I'm so pissed off, our cash flows should be reasonably predictable but it's all gone Pete Tong, I'd rather wallow in the 3rd for a few years and stick some money away than have spent trying to get out the 3rd last year only to likely get pumped this season in the 2nd with no better crowds.

Oh, and someone will come on here soon and say "you don't know the whole story". Which means he's pals with the committee (or on the committee itself) and he'll tell them everything, and everyone else can but bask in this person's self importance.

If it's such a good f**king story tell us all, otherwise don't pretend you're in on a secret plan about how this time next year we'll all be millionaires Rodney. It's a shambles. New committee/ old committee - same sh*t.

I agree. I would hate to see another team, this time a well established club within Scottish football, go down the pan because of financial incompetence on the part of those running the club.

Gretna's board didn't have a plan B when Brooks Mileson decided to pull his money out and it cost them, now it just seems as though another board have forgotten about things, which will mean they'll try and guilt-trip the fans, who already pay through the nose for the privilege of seeing them play, into helping recoup the debt they caused.

I know if I was a Stranraer fan, I'd be demanding an EGM to explain what the feck has happened.

As a member of the club everyone who attends the agm's is well aware of what has happened. Trying to fund a successful side paying reasonable wages for the level of part-time football is not sustainable if your not getting the crowds. Then the sfl/sfa decide if you don't upgrade your ground.. lights/barriers etc you will not start the season. Result £50000 to spent on new floodlights. The debt has been building up for years and it is only recently the present committee have been trying to do something about it.

It's the trendy thing to be saying this year. Might get some "The next Gretna" t-shirts made up for every club in Scotland.

Mmmmm, goose....

Totally agree with Sanny i think we need to scrap the system of a 'Comittee' if we are to survive

The club has always been run by a comittee to my knowledge, but the problem with a comittee is the idea is for the club to be run by the 'supporters' when instead the committee think they run the club, were infact, they are just the 12 members elected to represent the supporters

Important decisions really should pe put to the rest of the members..however this has never been the case with the commitee always making key decisions which IMO is wrong

Yes obviously thats the general idea of the committee...but i think other members should get more of a say in the general running of the club, as this is the way the club is supposed to be run after all

I think if we can sort out the Short term problems, Long term will take care of itself as there are many other clubs in Scotland at the moment in a worse finincial state than ourselfs, and they somehow find a way to keep on thier feet for the meantime.

IMO it all dates back to when Niel Watt was at the helm, when he could spend lots of money on things Stranraer could simply not afford. And while this came with success, the ''Old'' Committe put these bills to the back of their minds..and it has come back to hunt the ''new'' committe badly These bills should never of been aloud to lie for as long as they have.

I have to admit i was first to slag the committee off when they ended our under 17 side, but this was just due to the lack of communication taken place by all partys, with the money situation which is in place, i fully understand thier decision to cut back on such luxirous, but am just afraid this could happen to other youth sides in the near future with the lack of funds Also i think far too much money was spent on the reserves last year which could of been saved up to help such younger teams this season.

Back to the short term future of the club..we must look for a buyer IMO thats how serious times have got and just dont believe the old scheme in place will work for much longer in our situation am also aware there are very little ( if any ) partys intrested in taking the club ober, and this could be also a dangerous path to go down, but there is no other or very little routes to go down.

Change is most needed IMO! remember that..this is just my oponion a dont for one minute want to start an argument with anyone, as can often happen over the internet

Anyone intrested in buying Stranraer FC

Once again....

Its a shame to see another club in crisis. Raith were in the same boat but luckily they have a big fan base, which all pulled together when times were tough. Stranraer aint so lucky though..

I just hope they can get it sorted.

Aw chill out man I heard there was a nice wee car boot sale planned for next month. Should solve all the financial problems

Seriously its a pretty dire situation and doesn't make good reading for anyone who cares about the club.

It seems ironic that only a few years ago you were laughing at us having huge debts and thinking we might not be around for long!!

Unlike yourself, I hate to see any club going out the game, so I wish you all the best.

PS.It didn't help that your security/turnstyle operator were on the take a few years ago when we last played you!

I too agree with the statements that I hope you all get it sorted. Like them or love them Scottish Football NEEDS Stranraer FC and the like.

I don't want to make it sound worse but are these figures from this year or last? Figures like these usually run a year behind. And does the £40k that you spent on the floodlights come into this or will you take that hit in next years figures? £250k is an awful lot of money. Our last set of figures was a debt of about half that. I also understand that Gerry Britton cost you a fair whack of money. The figure that was being thrown about was it was going to cost the club £40k to sack him during his contract. I don't know how much truth was in that, but if it is accurate then a fair whack of this debt would be due to hiring him.

On the plus side (I haven't seen this story) journalists always make it sound a hell of a lot worse than it is, and you will get bigger crowds this season.

Ironically enough you'll now be hoping for Ayr to have a right good season as the crowd we will bring down, should we be doing well, will wipe out a good few thousand of that.

I hope you guys get through these tough times, although I always suspected you were a pub team.

Seriously though, as long as the club, fans and townsfolk all pull in the same direction you will get through it.

All the best.

As I say, I don’t think the end is here for the club, the plan to remortgage the social club will give us cash though it will not change debts and it will up our operating expenses, so one would hope there’s a proper business plan behind it. Note the word proper in that sentence.

What is most worrying is that it appears “suddenly” the club has realised what a mess it was in – as typified by shutting down the U17 team a couple of weeks ago when they realised they couldn’t pay for it. How can 12 people go a whole year without noticing what a big bloody hole the club is getting in to? On the plus side, the people who think putting local boys in the team will boost crowds will likely get their wish, most likely though this latest set of calamitous results will hit confidence yet further so expect home crowds to dwindle yet further. Forget one man and his dog, if Fido wants to see pish on a Saturday afternoon he’ll go and spray a London Road lamppost instead.

The excuses of blaming it on the old regime cannot be solely to blame for this, they’re long gone. Do something radical, mortgaging the social so as to pass the debts on to the next generation to worry about is not going to solve it.

Comedy genius.


Good luck Stranraer.

Be able to change the thread title to East Fife next season

Unfortunately Stranraer will be paying decent(for the league) wages.This is purely geographical as players just will not travel unless there is the money on the table.
The public/buisnesses of Stranraer must get behind the club.As far as players are concerned they need to look to local youngsters to bring through.
All the very best to Stranraer, in what are testing times.

STRANRAER???!!!! IN SCOTLAND???!!!

Sell hot air balloon rides.

Just get a second hand balloon and ask your manager about his wee brother: Hey Presto! An instant and endless supply of hot air.

Excellent restraint shown there. It takes a full 20 posts before someone tries to take a serious thread about the future of a club into another wacky EF v RR roller coaster. Get a grip.

I've always enjoyed the trips to Stranraer, and personally I think it's disappointing that so few in the area go along to support their team. Hopefully there are a few involved with the running of the club who can sort the situation out. Best of luck.

I was being serious

Well said that man.


And oh yeah, best of luck Strannie

Stevo that avatar that you have looks suspiciously like Monster!!!

As I understand it, Stranraer are the last truly `community' club, organised like local bowling clubs. at senior level. Arbroath were the other one until 2-3 years ago. Despite many misgivings, we transformed ourselves into a private company with season ticket holders (the former owners) issues shares and other invited to participate.

It's still more or less the same committee in charge but a share issue helped wipe out the debt so that was an option not available as a mere `club'. And it does mean that onwership is still quite deep and wide across the supporters/community. The new legal entity/structure has not really been put to the test yet so it's too early to judge the impact long-term - the danger is a commercial predator with ulterior motives

Personally it's sad to see this community model that Stranraer follow proving difficult to sustain (though don't Barcelona make it work?) but you can see in this league that, from player signings alone, money talks and unless you have a real local public-spirited benefactor, you're forced into the fully commercial realm.

What's a small overdraft anyway? Isn't it the norm?

How about you help out? We hold a gala day, put you on the ground and use you as a bouncy castle.
After watching the you tube videos Im reckoning you could get 50 people on at a time. Charge £2 and thats £100. For 5 minutes slots by my reckoning you would only need to stay there for around about 208 hours and we would be free from debt

Actually, it was more that four times that according to the Ayrshire Post a month ago.

Luckily most of it is loans from directors which they will get back as long as the sale of Somerset goes through, although then we will reportedly be borrowing from a back to get the stadium built.

Hope Stranny get sorted for the sake of their fans. Always enjoy a trip down the road.

Thanks for all the messages of support

Things are not quite at a desparate stage yet but

dick!!

Things would be better if people in the town could give a f*uck! As it is not enough do. Things are tough at the moment but it is fact there are clubs worse off than us and have been. Hopefully with one or two new faces involved things can freshin up a bit and we'll move in the right direction on and off the park.

could you please expand on that a wee bit please?Cos I'm a bit thick and can't see it,how do these new faces freshen it up a bit?How can you have a £850k a year business run by a committee formed by people of various aptitudes?Things will pick up next year when there are business folk on board again to whip arses(if it's good enough for Max Mosley,it's good enough for the toon)The Gub will be back!!!!!!

With new idias. I am not saying it will slove the problem as we all know it will not, but may ease things a little.

You're right gub, the committee members seem to have all lost their P&B logins magically at the same time, how can such forgetful folks be trusted with the club!? Strange, as it seems over 50% of the posts on our own forum come from them.

That we still manage to lose tens of thousands each year on that revenue is terrible, one would hope it's just a result of inexperience/ mild incompetence. Genuinely, how can at least one of the twelve not notice the Dumfries* in the business plan year after year. Bailing themselves out by mortgaging our only main asset is a disgrace too, it should never have got to this stage.

I'll repeat it again as they seemed to miss the point. Before you go to the bank, be man enough to admit the club is a mess and that it is the committee structure and membership that is the primary reason. The grand statements about representing the club's members that get trotted out now and again - well, listen to your own rhetoric. Do what's in the best interests of everyone and make some radical change. That will probably involve some of the following: an independent internal review/ audit and apportioning blame (you can't fix it unless you know what the problem is), admitting it is not working (instead of tired statements through aliases about what a "great job" everyone is doing), a new business and operating model, some resignations, maybe some sackings, completely new committee and social club constitutions, an EGM, documented authorities and accountabilities and the necessary checks and balances to be put in place going forward to make sure it doesn't happen again. Oh, and a completely new business plan. My guess is none of this is happening as it's too hard, let's take the easy option of the mortgage instead, eh?

Being a supporter does not mean you can run a £850k business, get the egos out of the way and ask yourself if you're truly up to the job or just playing a fun game that you otherwise wouldn't have a chance to do in life. Please don't ruin our club so you can have a bit of a jolly.



*Big hole

Alternatively we could hold out for a few kind draws in the early stages of the Scottish Cup setting up a money spinning away tie at Celtic Park to ease the financial strain.

I wonder how much of a crowd we'd bring though. Our typical townsfolk will happily travel to Glasgow to watch a different team in blue shirts right enough

I was part of the committee that allowed one man far too much power,and the end result is there for us all to see.I'm sure it'll never happen again,controls need to be in place to ensure that it doesn't.The committee has people on it with ideas and talents but you need to have a way of structuring these ideas and seek advice from those who know the right way to do things.
We should look to Arbroath as the way we need to change the structure and get some real investment.

Without doubt, Stranraer punted their place in the first division when they punted Jenkins to Gretna. They would possibly have been in the first the following season, instead of successive relegations. I accept that they might have need the funds that Gretna were willing to pay; but if the choice had been first division status, would not that have been a better option financially?

To be fair, Jenky started at Stranraer aged 16, became club captain and loved the club. The one thing the club couldn't offer him was full-time football. We took the money, we can have no regrets, let alone his many great games the goal he scored v Morton to promote us was as magical a moment as I've felt as a Stranraer supporter. We'll doubtless see Allan in an SFC shirt again someday, whether he has the stamina that made his game so great then is a moot point, he'll be a returning hero.

We lost money playing first division football, paying jokers like Leigh Hinds 400 quid a week may sound like nothing for most 1st Division clubs but we couldn't afford it. We left the 1st with a debt of about £100k, probably about £40k-£50k of that incurred that one season (though we can't be sure as our committee still uses abacuses and their 12 fingers to add up). It was great fun, and the only reason we wanted to stay up was to say we'd done it, regardless of what happened Watt was leaving as were many of the players, we would have been pummelled that 2nd season had we stayed up. The only plus point would have been seeing Queens relegated in our place.

Unfortunately, our financial mismanagement runs deep and has gone on for years. It's sad to say that the best thing that can happen to us is to get relegated, bum around the bottom of the 3rd for a few years then come back on an even keel. We'll be back though, I can't wait.

Agree 100% with what you say,was at a meeting last night and I said that best to get relegated and start again with wages we can afford.We can't survive paying what we are,the wages need to be cut 50% to be a break even figure.This shows how bad the budget was for this season,I don't think that there was any thought or formula put into the calculation.

We will be back,and what a cracking wee project for someone with a few bob and a good business mind to turn us around.

Respect to both of you guys. I really do hope that things work out.

All the best.

Cheers,it's amazing the support we're getting from fans throughout football nationwide.If more of the locals felt the same we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

No, you were being a bawbag.

Back on track, despite all that has gone on between my club and Stranraer of late, I wish them well. I hope you get the debt sorted and survive, beacuse I'd hate to think of any club going to the wall.

Spot on Gub, I don't know why but I've been suprised at the way people i the town couldn't care even in tough times like this nothing still changes just folk joking and laughing about the club.