Wrexham to get 99 year lease on their ground

[Football Purist]

I realise that FL academies get central funding but I'm sure I have read that Crewe's costs them £1m a season even after funding.

To make that work they really need to sell a player for big money every one or two seasons and that seems to be happening less and less. They also need to have a first team full of players from the youth system who are good enough, and judging from their league position they don't currently.

Our academy has produced Danny Ward, who is now on the bench for Liverpool week in and week out, having made his Wales debut in a friendly recently. If and when he makes his competitive debut for Liverpool and Wales we will apparently be in line for quite a lot of money. However it is frustrating that whenever a half decent player comes along they are sold, and you do have to question what the point of producing players for other teams to snap up really is.

Yeh,you're pretty much spot on re the costs of our academy,etc and yes,there is a section of our support that question whether it's really worth maintaining it at the level it's been at for many years now.
It's hard to call,really.I can see both sides of the argument.

 

[BeesKnees]

The figures I can find show Crews academy costs 700k pa after the grant and they average £300k pa in transfer fees from selling academy players. For us I think it's currently around 3-400k and will go up this summer if we move back to Cat 2. A decent chunk of our squad is from the academy and helps the club run on a smaller first team budget, as you mention there is also the clauses which bring money later. An academies value is often underrated even if it doesnt always lead to success and often the lack of success is due to the quality of experienced pros signed to help lead and support the kids coming through.

 

[Luke Imp]

Just been looking on Devachat ahead of this weekends game and there's a figure of £100k/year for Wrexham on the Racecourse. That correct? Apologies if it's already been mentioned and I've missed it!

 

[iesty wfc]

Yes that's right

Rough maths though based on a 4k attendance at league games only on a £12 average ticket price would get us over a £million in revenue though which we wouldn't recognise previously

 

[Luke Imp]

Why, weren't you getting all the ticket sales previously?

 

[iesty wfc]

Just checked last year's accounts and apparently we did so ignore me!

 

[CPD_Wrecsam]

Just been looking on Devachat ahead of this weekends game and there's a figure of £100k/year for Wrexham on the Racecourse. That correct? Apologies if it's already been mentioned and I've missed it!

Yes, but it was going to increase to £260k, so it is a no brainer really for us to take on the lease at £100k a season instead - that figure cannot increase over the 99 year period. Last year we were charged £205k, so you can see how good of a deal it really is.

Plus, we will now receive revenue that previously went to the Uni; Advertising hoardings above pitch level, income from food & drink and rent from the Crusaders RL. We will also receive all income from when the ground is used for non-sporting events, for example, concerts - Stereophonics are playing at the Racecourse in the summer. Business conferences can be held at the Stadium as well as hosting Birthday's/Wedding do's/wakes etc.

We will now also be able to seek sponsorship for our shirts, stadium and stands, of which we will receive 100%.

 

[Gibber_McGee]

Yes, it'll essentially be our ground for the next 99 years to do with what we wish - including hopefully redevelopment of the Kop.

We wanted to buy the freehold but the University are not willing to sell it, so the 99 year lease was the best option.

The value of the 99 year lease is £1.3 million, which we don't have as a lump sum. Apparently £100k a year over 99 years works out at the same value when you take into account inflation and the falling value of money over the years. We also have the option of paying the £1.3m off early if we come into some football fortune - just like a mortgage.

The stadium is in need of quite a lot of repair and maintenance based on a survey the club paid for. It's a big commitment but the people running the club have already shown their abilities - the way they have turned the club around in such a short space of time is really remarkable.

 

[Luke Imp]

Oh yeah, I'm not saying it's an extortionate amount. What's included in that £100k?

 

[Gibber_McGee]

That's purely the lease. We then have to pay rates, insurance, staff costs, maintenance and everything else on top so it will work out costing us a lot more than £100k a year.

The plan is to turn it into a venue which is used every day of the year for events, conferences, weddings, concerts, drinking, dining etc. The plan is that by 2019 it will be augmenting the club's playing budget. Since the university bought it, it's been completely underused. It's only used at the moment when we play there or the rugby league team play there.

The ground is going to be marketed separately from the club as a venue called "My Racecourse": http://mobile.wrexhamafc.co.uk/news/article/my-racecourse-3032094.aspx

 

[Luke Imp]

But that potential £260k figure wouldn't have included those costs either?

 

[SGW]

But that potential £260k figure wouldn't have included those costs either?

I haven't followed all the ins and outs of this but I think the £260k figure was going to be a bottom line cost figure (presumably excluding rates though). Apparently we haven't been on a proper lease, just a licence to occupy, and we've ended up getting stiffed for some costs which you would expect a landlord to cover, but that was going to change if we'd gone for the proper lease route paying the £260k pa (the university would have effectively just amortised the cost of the 10 year repair programme to them through the increased rent to us).

Now we're going for a very long lease which effectively amounts to the same as ownership and means we pretty much enjoy all the upsides and all the downsides too of ownership.

 

[Luke Imp]

Another thing is, without firing too many questions (just interested), that you looked into buying? I'm assuming the Racecourse is valued at more than £1.3m or you wouldn't be able to agree on payments if you did buy it of around the same monthly outlay?

 

[Gibber_McGee]

Another thing is, without firing too many questions (just interested), that you looked into buying? I'm assuming the Racecourse is valued at more than £1.3m or you wouldn't be able to agree on payments if you did buy it of around the same monthly outlay?

The club wanted to buy the ground but the university were not willing to sell at this time unfortunately, despite it being raised with them on a number of occasions apparently. Hopefully they will be at some point in the future though - if and when we get back in the league we'd probably be in a better position to make them an offer they'd accept.

I don't think the freehold value would be a great deal more than the leasehold value - I'd guess that we'd have to pay a couple of hundred thousand more for the freehold. When our ground was almost stolen from us previously we had a 125 year lease on the ground which we'd paid Marston's Brewery about £900k for a few years earlier. The vultures that came in and bought the club (Alex Hamilton and Mark Guterman) bought the freehold in the club's name for an additional £200k, before attempting to transfer it to their own company.

We then got the ground back after a court case. Little did we know that the next owner, local businessman and "supporter" of the club, Geoff Moss, would attempt the same trick again, and this time succeed...