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An independent supporters' website dedicated to Mansfield Town FC
Archived News from January 2016

UPDATE FROM MTFC AGM/ £1.2m DEBT WIPED OFF
25th January 2016 22:01


UPDATE FROM MANSFIELD TOWN AGM
stagsfansunitedsociety.co.uk, 21st January 2016

Stags Fans United today attended Mansfield Town's Annual General Meeting.

The accounts for the years ended 30th June 2014 and 2015 were both available to the shareholders. This is as up to date that the club has been with producing its accounts since Keith Haslam purchased the club for £1 in 1993. Thanks to John Radford and Jim Beachill, the Finance Director for their hard work in bringing the accounts up to date. The main issues revealed by the accounts were as follows:

Read more at http://stagsfansunitedsociety.co.uk/

The football club made a loss of £721,146 for the year ended 30th June 2014 (first season back in League 2) which was significantly reduced to £74,510 for the year ended 30th June 2015 (last season). This is good news as it demonstrates that the club can be run on a sustainable basis.

Turnover (Income) increased to £2,660,215 for 2014 but fell slightly to £2,296,277 for 2015.

Money from the Football League and Media was £681,591 in 2014 and £673,366 in 2015 which demonstrates the financial importance of the club obtaining promotion from the Conference Premier in 2013.

The money received from Chesterfield for Sam Clucas has been included in the accounts for 2015 but the money from the sell on clause will be included in next year’s accounts.

Expenditure was £2,613,099 in 2014 which reduced to £1,878,504 in 2015. The largest reduction was that Wages were significantly reduced from £2,071,083 to £1,486,334.

Matchday Expenses increased dramatically from £255,502 to £644,652 in 2014 due to higher policing costs but fell again to £390,534 in 2015. The policing costs for both Chesterfield home games was around £18,000 per game.

Agents fees and expenses were reduced from £91,600 to £22,265.

Other savings included Computer Costs being reduced from £41,210 to £12,443, Light and Heat reduced from £24,666 to £5,123 and Rent and Rates reduced from £63,813 to £49,079.

Loans from One Call Insurance Services Limited and other companies controlled by John Radford amounted to £3,900,750. The loans are interest free and repayable on no specific terms.

Loans from former directors amounted to £1,161,630.

Steve Hymas and Steve Middleton have agreed to convert their existing loans to the football club into Preference Shares. John Radford has also agreed to do the same for more than £600,000 of loans which means that over £1.2 million of debt will be removed from the club's Balance Sheet.

The payments to Keith Haslam for Field Mill (One Call Stadium) are up to date.

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£1.2m debt wiped off the club’s books
mansfieldtown.net, 21st January 2016

Mansfield Town are pleased to announce that a debt of £1.2m has been written off the club’s books.

Documents have been signed to turn a total sum of £1.2m, which derived as loans from chairman John Radford and directors Steve Hymas and Steve Middleton, into preference shares.

Read more at http://www.mansfieldtown.net/news/article/directors-write-off-1.2m-of-debt-2913789.aspx#RoIbvGcdEG2OJOi7.99

The paperwork was signed after the club's Annual General Meeting, which took place at One Call Stadium this afternoon.

Company secretary Laura Bathgate (pictured) was present on behalf of Steve Middleton.

Speaking to http://www.mansfieldtown.net, Mr Radford said: “We want to improve the balance sheets of the football club. It’s not good for anyone or any business to have debts and these loans will now come off the club’s books.

“Myself, Steve Middleton and Steve Hymas have never had, nor will have, any intention of taking money out of the club and by turning these loans into preference shares it makes the club’s finances much healthier.”

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Mansfield Town delight as accounts show massive cuts to annual losses at AGM
chad.co.uk, by John Lomas, Thursday 21 January 2016

Mansfield Town Football Club is taking massive strides towards being self-sustaining, despite struggling to attract fans through the turnstiles.

The club’s annual meeting, held this afternoon, covered two sets of accounts and showed that the club’s loss of £1.1 million from 2013 had been reduced to £721,000 in 2014 and by last year had dropped dramatically to £74,510 for the year ended 2014/15.

After several years of reporting losses of over £1m, it was agreed this was a fantastic achievement.

There was further good news for the club as it was announced that owner John Radford and directors Steve Hymas and Steve Middleton have all agreed to convert loans totalling around £1.2m into preference shares in the club, wiping more debt off the books.

Read more: http://www.chad.co.uk/sport/mansfield-town/mansfield-town-news/mansfield-town-delight-as-accounts-show-massive-cuts-to-annual-losses-at-agm-1-7689277#ixzz3xttkpuuy

Stags are now hoping to persuade former director and chairman Andy Saunders to do the same with his loan.

Owner and chairman John Radford also revealed that the final staged payment for buying One Call Stadium will be paid to landlord and former club owner Keith Haslam this year.

“That money has been set aside so there is no problem with that,” he said. “That chapter’s out of our book and put behind us.

“The club is getting in better and better shape.

“As a chairman, it’s feeling more comfortable running the club.

“Everyone is working hard and the club is getting closer and closer to sustaining itself. We are in an excellent place at the moment. Hopefully things will get better and we can push on on the field as well.

“But we need to get these loans off the club’s back, so later on myself, Steve Middleton and Steve Hymas are going to transfer well over a million pounds worth of our loans into preference shares in the club.

“We still have loan accounts left on the books with Andrew Saunders, who has taken the club to court a couple of times in trying to get his loans back, but not been successful.

“Hopefully down the line Andrew will help the club and convert his loan into preference shares. If he wants to convert his I will match his. I want the loans out the books really, we are working on that and I am sure that will eventually happen.

He added: “The only issue we have right now is getting people to come back to football, though it’s not just this club that has that problem.

“Playing attractive, winning football on the pitch is all we can do.

“We were favourites to be relegated before the season started but now people are talking about play-offs if not promotion.

“I feel confident if we get into League One we’ll be in a lot better place.

“We could be a good club in League One, but my aim is still to get us into the Championship. That’s still there.

“I think we could maintain ourselves easily in League One. We could be a happy club in League One.”

The club are only allowed to spend 60 per cent of their turnover on players’ wages so are restricted in what they can do.

In 2014 turnover increased from £2.4m to £2.6m and overheads were reduced by £2.9m to £2.6m.

In last season’s accounts, turnover was down from £2.6m to £2.2m while overheads were slashed from £2.6m to £1.8m, helped by cutting wages from £2m to £1.5m.

As far as special offers are concerned to get fans back through the turnstile, operations director Paul Broughton pointed out that the club are only allowed five deals a season by the Football League with only one involving away fans.

On the club’s ticketing system and costs, it was explained that getting fans to buy tickets in advance had enabled the club to massively reduce stewards and policing costs with knowing in advance what sort of numbers would be attending.

It was also revealed that policing costs for the two games with Chesterfield had been £18,000 per game.

Before the meeting began, work finally started on the installation of the former Wembley scoreboard on the Bishop Street side of the ground towards the corner with the North Stand.

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by Steven Hymas, on facebook

Mansfield Town shares. I am 53 now and not getting any younger.last year reminded me that money is not the be all and end all.my loans have been transferred into shares that I will be able to pass on to my young grandson Kye who lost his mum as a baby.Hopefully the Mansfield gene has passed on.
Hopefully the gesture from the directors and the chairman can encourage the town to get behind the club.we are doing all we can to get this big ship back on course now and if we all pull together who knows where we can steer it.
Luton are here Saturday and have already sold over 700 so with kids for a quid should be a great atmosphere.lets get behind our club.
After all,we are all Mansfield aren't we !

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Latest | January 2016