and the actual minutes ....Taken from wst board yahoo group...
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From: WST-Board@yahoogroups.co.uk [mailto:WST-Board@yahoogroups.co.uk] On Behalf Of Wyn Griffiths
Sent: 17 May 2007 11:36
To: WST-Board@yahoogroups.co.uk
Subject: [WST-Board] Notes from the meeting with GM/AF , 17/05/07

Notes from meeting between Wrexham FC and WST, Colliers Park on 16/5/07.

Meeting started at approx 14.15

Attendees:
Geoff Moss (GM), Anthony Fairclough (AF) - Wrexham FC
Peter Jones (PJ), Dave Preece (DP), Wyn Griffiths (WG) - WST

The meeting began with PJ outlining the presentation that the WST were putting together to a potential consortium.

GM asked why the WST were doing this and not the club. PJ explained that WST were just trying to bring the consortium together.

GM then clarified that he thought we were looking into the structure of other clubs.
WG mentioned that we had a meeting with Dave Boyle on ways that clubs could be structured. DP mentioned that the CIC route could be a particularly good fit.

The conversation moved on to how a consortium could acquire shares, - GM stated that he would need to take advice from an accountant. The only shares are currently held by Neville Dickens and himself, and we would need to take advice as to how to transfer ownership of stadium, contracts, land

A problem that arises is that you cannot transfer an asset at an undervalue, due to tax implications. DP mentioned that it may be possible to exchange shares for a donation
GM further explained that any money coming in must go to the club and that he wasn’t sure how to achieve this without money coming to himself - which he did not want to happen.

GM then mentioned that Nev Dickens and himself were upset at 1 or 2 things. He mentioned the reluctance to hand over Trust funds and the Scaremongering that is taking place on message boards. GM was particularly upset by allegations of members of his family being potential beneficiaries.

Nev upset with 1 or 2 things. Trust Funds/Scaremongering

The accounts for the season have been calculated and the club was in profit for season. The club have repaid the council loan with interest. At the start of the year he was prepared for a loss up to 100k so the end result was welcome.

The problem this season was that any spending needed to be on revenue earners.
Of things that the club desperately needs to improve he mentioned the Ticketing (CRM) system - They had recently had a quote of £500 per month for 12 years from Synchro Systems.

GM mentioned it may be worth a circular to other clubs to see if any systems were being replaced elsewhere which may be useful to Wrexham FC. Such a system is required to create and maintain a mailing base as the club still doesn’t know who its fans are.

PJ stepped through the outline of the presentation.

When it came to the corporate governance of the club DP raised possibility of a feasibility study, as mentioned by Dave Boyle.

GM spoke about the options for the future ownership and the potential split of club/ground. he said that any investors could only expect 2/3% return maximum.
He mentioned the possibility of a sale/leaseback arrangement. GM stated that Football League had recommended that the ownership of the club and ground was split. He quoted that only 9 clubs own their own ground. The reason for the separation was primarily to protect the ground.

Owning ground can be a bad thing as the asset could attract unwelcome interest - lots more advice needed. PJ mentioned the method of splitting investment so that £1 out of every £10 investment goes to the ground owning company and the rest to the club.

GM stated very clearly that he will not even speak to the Trust should Lindsay Jones be elected back onto the board. this is because of the personal attacks made on the Red Passion message board.

The Lincoln example was discussed in particular the platinum club where members pay in 100k. These people are generally regular sponsors/supporters of the club. PJ described how the platinum club would have a elected director and the Trust would also have one, so that there were 2 supporters reps on the board.
The setups at York and Exeter were also discussed.

GM emphasized the need to get quality professionals into the club. Any new structure for the club needs to still be able to attract donations and cannot discourage the possibility of one off large investments.

GM then said that it appeared that we potentially had 2 options, that investment could come from just the WST or from a consortium including the WST.
He advised that we explore the possibilities for both options but said don’t spend fortunes doing it!

GM mentioned the input Rob Parry had with regards a possible public share issue, and that the conclusion of this was that it was too expensive. Graham Garner-Jones had spent time on this also.

PJ then stepped through the WST resolutions

The following points were raised against the indicated resolutions:

b) With regards the new stand, the club were still intending to deliver the 4,000 seater. AF mentioned that following a meeting with the council he had learned of a new UEFA regulation which increases the minimum seat size in some cases, meaning the current plans would have a reduced capacity if this comes in.

d) With regards the offer of splitting future income, Geoff Moss made it clear that he still feels that the 300k should come into the club. He would of course welcome any help with projects as proposed. He further mentioned that the club would be doing its own Player Of The Season event next year and didn’t want the Trusts activities to cut across the club.

DP - mentioned that this offer was an attempt to move in the direction that GM is looking for.

GM then mentioned that much of the club infrastructure still needs rebuilding. He said that himself and Neville Dickens will probably put some more money in towards this.

With regards the financial performance last season, GM stated that loan players had cost an extra 100k over what was planned. Paying off Denis Smith and Kevin Russell had also been an extra unplanned cost.

Next seasons budget would be 20% bigger. He stated that the level of paying 50% of turnover on players was a sensible level.

With regards the eventual ownership of the club - GM stated that he cant do anything but reassure people that when the time comes decision will be made in the best interests of Wrexham FC. They were in no rush to move the ownership on and would take as long as needed to find the best solution. One that would provide a secure and solid base for longevity by providing an infrastructure that will last.

GM stated that he would like to have a united approach to away travel. The club could benefit by making offers including pre-purchased tickets for away games.

With regards to season tickets GM said that the club has historically had a poor response to season tickets. He stated that there would be more 'Tactical offers' (probably unattractive night games) and last minute reductions next season.
He said it was agreed that football in general was too expensive.

PJ stated potential problems allocating tickets for away matches if the number of season tickets reaches the target of 3000. Last season we were allocated only 1600 tickets for Chester and 1800 for Shrewsbury away.

GM described how the club needs to make inroads into the wider North Wales area. It was difficult to get good coverage in coastal areas. They are looking at a deal with Asda to sell tickets throughout North Wales possibly with coach travel also. Cross subsidies would then be possible or some other form of discounting.
WG mentioned that on-line sales would also be useful for these areas.

PJ then completed going through the resolutions with the following comments from GM:

e) separate club
f) would only do this if the benefits proved worthwhile.
g) turf - didn’t think that it was now going to be demolished.
i) afc to fc - the club would simply refuse to discuss this after the re-branding that has taken place. The 1872 issue was raised by AF/PJ and an agreement to look at ways of incorporating this into club logs in the future should be looked at.
j) If this was implemented then it could bust football club! GM/AF would still have to pay interest payments

As an overview of the season GM said that both he and ND were disappointed that they hadn’t really sorted the team out yet. He felt that BC had made massive differences, due to the new more Sports Science approach.

However he felt they had stopped the rot and that decisiveness was key to that.

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