Hartlepool Utd
Letter to Pools chairman Ken Hodcroft
By Clarence Rode
February 11 2009
Dear Ken, I hope you don't mind me writing to you like this, but I believe Pools are at a crossroad and it's time to let you know what I am thinking about my football team and how you are running it. I know I don't own Hartlepool United, you and IOR do, but I have been watching them for years and because of this I feel as if I have a right to a bit of ownership.
And that, I believe, gives me a right to express my opinions on the team, the players, the manager and the club. So pay attention and I'll let you know what a typical supporter thinks. I don't expect you'll take a lot of notice, but it's worth a try.
Football is all about opinions, most of them different, and mine is just one - but believe me, many other fans agree with me.
First, the club - I believe Pools, IOR as the owners and you as chairman are at a crossroads. Pools appear to have gone as far as they can go for a small club and while the never-ending wrangling over the purchase of Victoria Park is holding things back, it's time to make a decision.
Do you want to go further, achieving what the likes of Scunthorpe, Colchester and one or two other similar clubs have done recently, or do you want to play safe?
The sizes of the crowds currently, linked with the global downturn, hardly encourages risk-taking, Ken, but unless we are to have season after season of worrying about relegation, it's a decision you need to make.
Now, the manager - is Chris Turner doing the job on a permanent basis, just until the end of the season or what? His current quotes suggest he thinks he's there for good - or at least for as long as any manager dare think he can keep a job.
So how about letting us know what's what?
Now the team - this goes hand in hand with the above about the club, but you really do need to get the squad sorted so that it's not left short-handed like it has been this season. Chris Turner has been talking about looking at Norwegian players, which is a great idea, but shoulodnlt he have kept his gob shut for fear of alerting other clubs to the idea?
It all boils down to the simple question - do you want to plod on and survive, or do you want to make further progress? I know it isn't a little job and these things take time, but now is the time to make the big decision, so you, the manager (whoever he is), the team and the club are all ready to have a go.
I await your reply.
Yours in anticipation
Clarence Rode
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So your statement to Ken is really that you want him to significantly increase the the amount of money that they are ploughing into the club so that we can compete at a level even further out of our depth. So that when IOR pull out of the club (maybe this won't happen soon, but they will do sometime), we will be left with an infrastructure and wage bill which will put us into administration.
If they don't fancy this, then I guess you are inviting him to sell the club to one of the many multi-millionaires who are currently looking to buy a League 1 football club so that they don't have the headache of working out how to spend all of their cash.
The only way that we can invest in more expensive players is to increase the level of the clubs income, if the crowds aren't going to increase, then this must be found elsewhere, by building facilities as part of the Vic to generate revenue on non-matchdays, this can only be done if we own the ground. The Ground purchase is not a side-issue, it is the ONLY way that would allow the club to compete at this or higher levels on a sustainable basis.
I know money is tight, but it's been reported that Pools made more than £300,000 from the cup this season ... how about some of that? Other clubs are going through the recession as well.
IOR have saved the club and keep it alive, but are they satisfied with mere survival?
they are the best thing to happen to this club becaue we always know we wont wake up to find the club cant pay its PAYE, income tax or Vat.
We've achieved stability in a league where we are the 2nd worst supported club, we are getting an average crowd of around 3500, 9 of the teams in the division are getting 7,000+. The 3 best supported teams are getting 23,000 (Leeds), 18,500 (Leicester) and 13,000 (Huddersfield). How can you expect us to compete with these teams when they are getting up to 6.5 times the gate income that we are? Leeds get about 20,000 more than us per home game, assuming £15 per ticket, this amounts to £300k extra every home game - £6.9million per year, just from league games. Add on the cup games, tv coverage, merchandising and sponsorship and you're getting close to £10m per year difference.
We will have made good money on the cup run, but that will just reduce the loss that we make this year that IOR have to pay for. £300k will not put us into profit. Also I would guess that Nardiello and Lange will both be earning good money, so some of this £300k will be going to foot their wages.
If IOR did decide to plunge more money into the club and we got into the Championship, would you then be calling on them to put even more in to get into the Prem, and then even more to win the league? If it wasn't for them putting in the millions that they already have, then (assuming that we would still be in business) we would be lower half of League 2 or even in the conference , as that is the level that matches our average crowds.
IOR are ambitious, but it seems that the town isn't. Perhaps mid-table stability in League 1 is as far as ambition and an almost-sustainable business model can take a club the size of ours. Unless you know of a benefactor who wants to give the club the £10million each season?
I still argue with your use of the word stability - we were too close to the drop last season and there's a danger again this season, especially based on current form and results - eight points ahead of the bottom four and six points from six games this year.
I don't think we should be a Chamiopnship team, the club is not big enough, but the PR is absolute rubbish, because Hodcroft clearly believes in telling the paying customers as little as possible.
