Robins in new bid for cash bail-out
Cheltenham Town Football Club has made a fresh bid to borrow crisis funds from Cheltenham Borough Council.
The cash-strapped club is understood to have approached council chief executive Andrew North with a view to reopening negotiations over a possible £100,000 loan.
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loan bid: (l-r) Andrew North and Paul Baker in April
The move comes just months after the Robins applied for the money to ease financial strife which had put the club on the brink of admin- istration.
Councillors rubber- stamped a 10-year repayment deal in April, but the club withdrew the application after saying "alternative income streams" meant the loan was no longer required.
It was thought the sale of 15-year-old starlet Jamie Edge to Premier League giants Arsenal and a clear-out of senior players had eased the club's financial worries.
But with the club still in need of cash, officials are considering a U-turn over the decision.
Robins chairman Paul Baker said: "Everyone is aware these are difficult economic times, and we are looking at all possible solutions to address our cash-flow situation.
"We have not ruled out anything, including the council loan application."
"The council gave the chief executive the authority to negotiate with the club over a loan, and that's where we got to last time.
"If we opt to go back and take the loan, we are confident it would be considered on the same basis as before.
"We've had positive conversations with our bank manager, and are talking to other potential investors.
"But the loan deal with the council is certainly one of the options."
Council chief executive Andrew North said: "It's early days at present, but we would consider the approach in the same way we did last time.
"It's not top of my agenda at present, but there's always been a possibility the club would reapply for a loan, and it may well develop from here.
"What happened previously is not a problem. We always saw ourselves as a last resort, and were glad when the club decided they did not need to borrow the money.
"But it will now be for the appropriate people at the council to discuss whether they will go down that route again."
Clive Gowing, chairman of the Robins Trust, said: "The club is obviously in financial difficulty, and I'm not surprised to hear that it has made a second approach to the council.
"But when the football club is doing well it gives the whole town a lift, so it makes sense for the council to back the club if that is what it takes.
"The terms would need to be right but I would welcome the move."
Lifelong Robins fan Richard Moger, of Clyde Crescent, Whaddon, said: "It's no wonder we are having to go cap-in-hand to the council for the second time in a few months.
"We spent too much money on loan players last season but still didn't manage to stay up."
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by paul, Cheltenham
Tuesday, July 14 2009, 3:39PM
“Tarquin.
Exactly, if you were chairman you wouldn't have allowed the expenditure and waste.
But you weren't and they did so it's the boards fault.
PS. Why are you the self-styled "voice of CTFC"?
PPS Wasn't the Gillespie money squandered on a back tax bill? Again the boards fault”
by John, Gloucestershire
Tuesday, July 14 2009, 3:36PM
“Hi Alfredo, yes banks are starting to lend more, but it's still a lot less than it was 18 months ago.
(Didn't the councils used to lend money back in the 1950/60s?
I believe my parents had a council mortgage.)
From the BBC website
9 June 2009, Banks 'lending more to business'
Banks are lending more to small businesses, according to the British Bankers' Association (BBA).
But the deputy head of the Bank of England warned that many businesses were still facing a lending squeeze.
"It is unclear... whether the financial system can generate the expansion of credit that will most likely be necessary to support recovery," Mr Tucker said in a speech to the Association of British Insurers.
Not my words.....”
by Alfredo, Cheltenham
Tuesday, July 14 2009, 2:07PM
“*John* - banks are happy to lend money, but only where the deal makes sense. They haven't stopped lending money at all - if they did that they'd be screwed, given that lending money is how banks make money.”
by Tarquin, Voice of CTFC
Tuesday, July 14 2009, 12:56PM
“Paul if I were chairman/director I would not of allowed MA to swander all the spare cash from the gillespie transfer and any other money. If we borrow 100k from the council MA will swander it on more parasite loanees!
Actually i would have sacked MA for putting the club into such a dire financial way”
by Paul, Cheltenham
Tuesday, July 14 2009, 11:11AM
“If you're worried about where your council tax is going, remember that only 25% of council funding comes from council tax, 1/2 comes from businesses and the remainder from central government grants.
So does that mean we only get a 25% say in any grant?”