Mansfield Town held their AGM at Field Mill on the above date. The main business was to consider the accounts for the year ended 30th June 2010 which was the Stags’ second season in the Conference. This was also before John Radford purchased the club in late September 2010. It was explained that the club no longer legally had to hold an AGM but the board of directors felt that it was important to continue with the tradition of holding an AGM for transparency reasons and to give the shareholders and supporters an opportunity to ask questions regarding the running of the football club. This was also particularly important bearing in mind the failure to hold AGM’s by the previous owner!!The accounts showed that the Stags had lost over £1 million after losing around £555,000 the previous season although the Stags then had the benefit of a parachute payment of around £162,000. The club's turnover (sales) was £1,205,321. It then had income from other sources of £232,751. However, it spent around £2.5 million giving the club an overall loss of around £1 million. The club spent around £500,000 more than the previous season with some of the additional spending relating to the Westlife concert which took place at Field Mill in August 2010. The club was mainly funded during the 2009-2010 season by loans from the directors, Andy Saunders, Steve Hymas and Steve Middleton, of around £880,000. John Radford had then provided loans to the club to finance it during the 2010-2011 season. It was pointed out that the club had very few creditors as they had all been paid including Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs. The only outstanding creditors were the directors. Andy Saunders stated that Steve Hymas, Steve Middleton and himself had no intention of claiming their loans back from the football club. John Radford said that he was prepared to improve the football club’s balance sheet in the future by capitalising his loans and that this may even be required by new rules relating to the indebtedness of football clubs.
It was reported that club accountant, Jim Beachill, had introduced new accounting procedures and policies at the club which took effect from 1st July 2011. Jim also hoped that the club would be in a position to publish its accounts for 2010-2011 by the end of September 2011 and a further AGM could then be held to discuss these accounts. The club’s directors had also been given specific roles and were providing their services for free to assist the club. It was hoped that commercial sponsorship and catering & banqueting income would significantly improve in future seasons. It was pointed out that the football club had one of the highest stewarding costs in the Conference due to the design of the stands at the ground and that a minimum of 35 stewards were required for each game. It was noted that AFC Wimbledon had around 70/80 match day volunteers who worked for free for the club. It was also noted that policing costs were high and that the club even lost money on the televised game against Newport County due to the fact that police costs were over £10,000. It would have been financially better for the club to have played the game behind closed doors. It was noted that the court case against Stags Limited and Keith Haslam was continuing and that a court hearing would hopefully take place as soon as possible although it was likely that any hearing would not take place until early 2012.
It was explained that manager, Paul Cox, could not attend the AGM as he had to attend a manager’s meeting for the Blue Square Conference. It was noted that he was working to a budget and that he was trying to do his best to ensure that the football club obtained good value for money. John Radford concluded the meeting by saying that he would continue to financially support and do his best for the football club and that he was looking forward to an exciting season. He also appreciated all the support he had been given by the fans. Shareholders thanked him and the other directors for keeping the club in existence and ensuring that Stags fans still had a club to support.
If any SFU members would like a copy of the accounts or wish to ask further questions then they should email me at darren.shaw004@btinternet.com.
Come on you Stags!
Darren Shaw
SFU Supporter Director
