New owners' top 5 priorities

[Stranded]

I probably should wait until a takeover is confirmed, but hopefully Dai is on his way out. In terms of how I'd like to see incoming owners go about business, I think there are several priorities to focus on:

5) Back the women's team
If the men have had it bad, the women's team has been ruined. Back to back relegations is very possible, and we're miles away from the team that produced Fran Kirby or the underdogs who held our own in the WSL for years. It's not as simple as going back to full time - the women's Championship doesn't bring in anything like enough revenue to be full time, so we'd need the owner to underwrite guaranteed losses. But we can bring in better planning, strategic thinking, staff structure etc., to at the very least get them to hold their own at the upper end of the Championship.This is just net cost with no benefit to the performance of the men's team or the finances. This doesn't mean we shouldn't do it of course.

I'd argue virtually nothing in your post directly improves revenue. And between 1 and 2 fifths actually harms it.

On this point, I'd like to argue to the contrary. I took my two step children to their first Reading game yesterday (age 6 and 9). They have never shown an interest to watch a match with me at home or go to a game. I managed to talk them into going to this game away at Blackburn as an experiment to see if they preferred live football. They loved the experience, and why? Because the players came over to the stands, posed for photos with them, gave them high fives and chatted with them after the game. You don't get that kind of interaction at the men's game, but because of that, my two step children, who have no interest in sport at all (well until yesterday), now want to go to more games. Both men's and women's. Women's football is important, and I've always been proud of our club for championing it.

Also, I'd argue if you get 1-4 right, just see those flans flock back through the turnstiles.

I can only speak from experience but there does seem to be a fairly noticeable shift in kids around my sons age who simply want to watch football and couldn't care less if it is men or women who are playing, they see zero difference. If that continues as those kids get older then gates at the womens game, at all levels, in many countries, will continue to increase, and revenue will follow as a result.

[BarryWhiteRFC]

I'd argue virtually nothing in your post directly improves revenue. And between 1 and 2 fifths actually harms it.

On this point, I'd like to argue to the contrary. I took my two step children to their first Reading game yesterday (age 6 and 9). They have never shown an interest to watch a match with me at home or go to a game. I managed to talk them into going to this game away at Blackburn as an experiment to see if they preferred live football. They loved the experience, and why? Because the players came over to the stands, posed for photos with them, gave them high fives and chatted with them after the game. You don't get that kind of interaction at the men's game, but because of that, my two step children, who have no interest in sport at all (well until yesterday), now want to go to more games. Both men's and women's. Women's football is important, and I've always been proud of our club for championing it.

Also, I'd argue if you get 1-4 right, just see those flans flock back through the turnstiles.

I can only speak from experience but there does seem to be a fairly noticeable shift in kids around my sons age who simply want to watch football and couldn't care less if it is men or women who are playing, they see zero difference. If that continues as those kids get older then gates at the womens game, at all levels, in many countries, will continue to increase, and revenue will follow as a result.

Considering yesterday was a 0-0, and not a lot really happened, the kids enjoyed the whole experience. As the women's game grows, so does potential revenue from the game. It certainly also helps inspire girls as well. It is very much a different experience than that with the men's game. Which is a good thing.

[SCIAG]

2) Bring back professionalism and normal
Not much to say here. Let all staff and players know they'll be paid, remove uncertainty, bring back away day hotels. Tim Kilpatrick revealed to TTE this week that members of HR are getting in at 6am to cook players' breakfast in the absence of caterers. Good to hear everyone is mucking in, but things like this simply shouldn't be happening.
Arguably, actually paying for everything doesn't increase revenue, it makes net spend worse. Although I can at least see this helping performances by keeping everyone happier. So possibly better performances, therefore better attendance and income

While it’s correct that, in the very short term, not paying suppliers and staff helps cash flow, that’s not a sustainable position. People will simply refuse to do business with you or work for you.

If you get a reputation for not paying people then suppliers and potential employees will start charging you a premium compared to more reliable customers.

Now you could say that we could act like a non-league club and get unskilled people (generalist staff or volunteers) to do a lot of the work that we previously paid specialists for. As you say, that’s likely to harm performance. The #1 thing we can do to boost revenue is get promoted. Let’s not be penny wise and pound foolish.

[leon]

Fcuk me, you create threads to start debate but I didn't expect the idea that new owners should start paying bills and bringing normality back to be controversial.

It's just certain people have to disagree with everything to demonstrate their supposed intellect.

[Snowflake Royal]

Fcuk me, you create threads to start debate but I didn't expect the idea that new owners should start paying bills and bringing normality back to be controversial.

It's just certain people have to disagree with everything to demonstrate their supposed intellect.

To state the blindingly obvious, no one is saying that it is a bad thing or it shouldn't be done.

[Forbury Lion]

1. Finances - Pay the Wages and Tax on time & sort out funding, Make sure we adhere to FFP.
2. Appoint a new CEO with experience (Nigel Howe may be available)
3. Football Advisors - Should really be the Director of Football, don't listen to Kia or any agent.
4. Manager - Ideally back Selles, but they need to have a plan.
5. Players out of contract - Try and keep the ones the manager wants before they walk on a free

[Forbury Lion]

Fcuk me, you create threads to start debate but I didn't expect the idea that new owners should start paying bills and bringing normality back to be controversial.

It's just certain people have to disagree with everything to demonstrate their supposed intellect.

I disagree with that

[Forbury Lion]

5) Back the women's team

Womens football is in it's infancy, a massive area of growth. If it becomes half as popular as the mens game then there is big money to be made here for relatively little outlay compared to the mens game.

[Royal_jimmy]

4) Improve matchday experience
Bring back programmes, involve local suppliers, get rid of Compass and their appalling food. Think of initiatives to make matchday more enjoyable and bring fans back.

In addition to this point, I'd say basic stadium maintenance should be included in that list.

Things like the hand driers, the taps, the soap dispensers, etc. in the toilets need to be fixed or replaced; re-painting of certain concourse areas; general cleaning of the stadium; etc. Possibly thinking about the 'flow' of the concourse: an example would be where put down drinks to add milk and sugar to tea and coffee - currently it's between the toilets and vomitoria which blocks people easily moving between both.

It's not something that will cost a huge amount, but will have a massive impact on fan experience in and around the ground.

The stadium needs a big paint job definitely. Would like to see the club install drinking water into the stadium too as it's a nuisance paying £3 for a bottle.

[Hendo]

4) Improve matchday experience
Bring back programmes, involve local suppliers, get rid of Compass and their appalling food. Think of initiatives to make matchday more enjoyable and bring fans back.

In addition to this point, I'd say basic stadium maintenance should be included in that list.

Things like the hand driers, the taps, the soap dispensers, etc. in the toilets need to be fixed or replaced; re-painting of certain concourse areas; general cleaning of the stadium; etc. Possibly thinking about the 'flow' of the concourse: an example would be where put down drinks to add milk and sugar to tea and coffee - currently it's between the toilets and vomitoria which blocks people easily moving between both.

It's not something that will cost a huge amount, but will have a massive impact on fan experience in and around the ground.

The stadium needs a big paint job definitely. Would like to see the club install drinking water into the stadium too as it's a nuisance paying £3 for a bottle.

Can you not just go to the bar anymore and ask for a tap water?

[Crusader Royal]

In addition to this point, I'd say basic stadium maintenance should be included in that list.

Things like the hand driers, the taps, the soap dispensers, etc. in the toilets need to be fixed or replaced; re-painting of certain concourse areas; general cleaning of the stadium; etc. Possibly thinking about the 'flow' of the concourse: an example would be where put down drinks to add milk and sugar to tea and coffee - currently it's between the toilets and vomitoria which blocks people easily moving between both.

It's not something that will cost a huge amount, but will have a massive impact on fan experience in and around the ground.

The stadium needs a big paint job definitely. Would like to see the club install drinking water into the stadium too as it's a nuisance paying £3 for a bottle.

Can you not just go to the bar anymore and ask for a tap water?

Or just bring a bottle of water from home…

[West Stand Man]

I appreciate that what this thread actually means is "what we, the fans, would like priorities to be". The truth is that the owners will have different priorities. Number one will be to get the finances sorted out so that the club is sustainable. Literally everything else is dependent on that so I suspect we will see some serious changes to a club that is structured like a PL club while playing in the third tier. For a start there are more coaches than players (or it certainly looks that way).
The playing staff list has already been hacked about and that is a good thing (we had too many players and too many of the players we had were paid far more than their true worth. That has changed and probably needs to continue to change for a while.
I have little doubt that getting out of this league will be viewed as a reasonable priority but not by arbitrarily throwing cash at the problem. I wasn't sold on Selles at the start but I think he has shown that he knows how to make good use of a young inexperienced squad. So, hoepfully they'll let him continue his good work (which is, in itself, a saving on redundancy and recruitment of a new manager).
As to the Womens team, it will be interesting to see what they do. The club has a track record of producing excellent young female players and it would be great to see that pick up again. However, if you are trying to save money you would want to be quite hard nosed about it by not funding a major loss maker. How they treat the women's squad could be a strong indicator of their real intent for the whole club; by funding it properly and rebuilding it to a top team would show they want a big successful club for all.