As per our Christmas message last month, we committed to publish a more detailed review of the year ahead and the year just past. We would normally have held our AGM in June but the circumstances we have all faced since March has meant that we haven’t been in a position to do so. Given the prevailing conditions it appears we will have to conduct two AGMs in one in 2021, which means at the moment we are all in interim positions until elected. There is a significant demographic within our membership that isn’t of the Zoom generation so we have taken the decision not to hold an AGM under these conditions, as we believe that every member has an equal opportunity to attend, which an online meeting restricts. We hope our membership understand this as we try and steer our way through what can only be described as one of the most turbulent times in our history. Whilst our membership continues to grow we are cognisant of the reality that we have more non members amongst our support that attend New Dundas Park than members so we would like to issue a high level overview of where we are as a club to all of our of our supporters and sponsors.

Financials

Last season was a very good one for us financially, buoyed by our Scottish Cup run to the 4th round. This is despite losing six home games due to the curtailment of the season in April with an estimated loss of income of c£25k. Lockdown has cut across both last season and this and we have used all outside support available to us in order to maintain the club on a sound financial footing. Despite lockdown our season ticket sales were up by c60% for this season, which is remarkable given the circumstances at the time. Again, our season ticket holders were given a vote on if they would be comfortable with availing of a free live stream of our home games in lieu of attending New Dundas Park in person. We were once again delighted but not surprised when they voted by an overwhelming majority to take that option up. All of our main sponsors are still in place and counterintuitively given the current climate more businesses have chosen to buy advertising boards at New Dundas Park this season. I have said it on numerous occasions but it is worth repeating. We are very fortunate to have a lot of good people looking out for us.

We placed our playing squad and management team on furlough in March with the club picking up the shortfall in remuneration (as 80% of wages can be claimed through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) until the resumption of football at our level at the end of August as all of our staff are on 52 week contracts. Like most clubs we were expecting supporters in at some stage of last year but with neither that news nor any form of Government support forthcoming at the time we made the decision to ask our staff to take a voluntary rather than mandatory wage cut in October, as we recognise that everyone’s circumstances are different. It shows the sort of people we have at our club that the vast majority of our personnel felt that they were in a position to do so, with some choosing to take no wages at all for a couple of months. With the news received in late December in respect of Scottish Government/UK National Lottery funding (more on that below) all wages were fully reinstated in January as normal, although our players and management team are now placed on furlough again due to the cessation of all football activities at this level.

It is difficult to state even at this stage in the season where we will be financially at the end of it, as there are still many unknowns such as if we will see a return of supporters before the end of the season or even if we will see a return of football at all. What I can say is that we always plan on a worst case scenario (although we always hope for a best case one!) and under those particular stress tests we are still financially sound. We are and always have been a supporter owned club and spend what we can – we don’t spend what we can’t. There isn’t a dependency to continue operations based on a single benefactor or benefactors, the club is debt free and has been for many years and we hold a significant asset in the form of New Dundas Park.

Investment

There was significant investment last season in our facilities at New Dundas Park, with the successful installation of floodlights within an incredible timeframe by our main sponsors Grant Fitzsimmons and electrical contractor Alan Blair in order to attain our SFA club license. We also undertook extensive remedial pitch improvements due to the extended close season. Both of these initiatives took place with the help of our supporters through various fundraising activities such as Donate a Ticket which in total contributed c30% of the total cost, which we are truly grateful for. Season ticket holders also had the option of a partial refund for the games missed last season but not one of our ST holders took that option up.

This season we started a Supporters Wall and have exceeded all expectations in selling over 100 bricks at this stage, even with the lack of footfall at New Dundas Park due to the prevailing lockdown restrictions. Monies raised from this initiative are ringfenced as per our commitment and will be used to part fund a covered standing area on the existing terracing between the entrances opposite the Social Club and Lothian St. Partial funding has also been secured for this initiative via the Scottish Football Partnership, who do their upmost to support all levels of Scottish football despite the significant reduction in funding at their disposal due to cuts by the SFA/SPFL in place over the past couple of seasons (e.g. A club at our level could have been part funded for a £20,000 grant, such as the one given to Cove Rangers under the tenure of former SFA President Alan McRae, which was subsequently reduced by 75% to £5,000 the following season and still remains in place). The new structure has already passed the planning permission phase and construction will take place once a building warrant has been secured. It is part of our ongoing commitment to invest in our facilities every season irrespective of the circumstances, which can only be achieved with the support you have given.

Personnel

We have co-opted Donald Cameron and Lisa McFarlane on to our committee as part of our interim committee. Both Donald and Lisa have been helping us out on match days for the past few seasons, so we felt it was the right thing to do to bring them on board formally. They bring a set of fresh eyes to operations and have already demonstrated adding value to the club with running our recent Christmas raffle.

The ability to produce live streaming of our home games this season wouldn’t have been possible without a videographer. We are extremely fortunate to have managed to secure the services of someone within the community and a Rose fan all of his days in the form of Wayne Wallace through his production company Waluna Productions.

When friend of the club Stephen Watson put an advertisement out on our behalf in the close season for additional media volunteers our expectations were small. We were taken back with the response such was the demand and ended up selecting three Napier University media students - Amy Canavan, Jake Gray and Seán McGill. Amy, Jake and Seán have been a breath of fresh air since arriving at the club with their over-riding enthusiasm and willingness to try new things for us. Those of you who have tuned in our live streams will have heard them on commentary, will have seen their pre and post match content on our website as well as their live match updates on our social media channels. They also produce a regular podcast discussing a range of different topics and on occasion with a selection of guests. Communication with our supporters has never been more important for us as we try and engage with you in other ways rather than in person. We realise that Amy, Jake and Seán will move on to bigger and better things once their studies are complete but we are delighted to have them for as long as they remain with us.

Scottish Government/UK National Lottery funding

We are extremely grateful to the UK & Scottish Governments and the National Lottery with the announcement last month of Emergency funding for football grants. What hasn’t been made clear is how grateful we should be to both, and how the sum of money we are due to receive (we have received 50% to date) was derived. It is telling that despite the PR machines behind the SFA, SPFL and JRG there has not been one single press release issued by any of these entities with any of this information.

There was one general press release by the SFA on National Lottery funding in December and what is apparent from it is that it is a commercial partnership; i.e. there are terms and conditions attached to it as mentioned in the release. Clubs will have to erect advertising boards at their own expense, potentially offer free entry to our grounds when safe to do so, carry the National Lottery logo on promotional activity etc. so it isn’t “free money” in the same way as the Government funding element is. This is no different to commercial partnerships that the SPFL have made recently with the likes of Glen’s Vodka, Papa Johns or the money received by Ken Anderson as that has conditions attached to it, so we are bemused as to why the National Lottery funding to clubs in the SHFL/SLFL/EoS/WoS/SoS has been treated differently. It is our contention that it should have no bearing on what we were eligible to receive via the Scottish Government grant.

On the subject of the Scottish Government grant, clubs in our league were asked (so on that basis we assume all clubs were) to submit numbers on lost league gate income based on accounts submitted in 2018/19. Notwithstanding the fact that teams could have been in different leagues from two seasons ago it seemed like a sound basis to derive an equitable metric to base funding on. It can’t possibly have been the metric that was used in the end to allocate grants to the respective leagues given the chasm in funding between the Championship and League 1 and League 2 and the Highland/Lowland League (which as mentioned above also has a commercial partnership included in those numbers). Not unless season tickets for some Championship and League 2 clubs run into thousands of pounds, which we don’t believe to be the case. It was always our concern on how these funds were going to be allocated given the significant SPFL interest on the SFA board but at this stage we don’t even know who was involved or responsible for the allocation. We therefore call on the SFA board to publish the rationale for allocating funds to respective leagues, the use of a commercial partnership within funding elements for Tiers 5 & 6 (which is based on the assumption that only Tiers 5 & 6 were allocated Lottery funding in England) and the split between Government funding and Lottery funding for those leagues in order to achieve a truer picture of Government support received.

Suspension of football activities
We fully endorse as we did last year the decision made by the SFA to suspend all footballing activity at our level which has been in place since January 12th. There was no consultation then and we weren’t expecting any this time round before decisive action was taken. What I can say is since the end of last year we became increasingly uncomfortable with continuing to play given the exponential spike in infection and death rates. This isn’t meant as a slight to any club (including our own) who have done their level best to ensure protocols are in place for the safety of all players, management and committees. Our last fixture was at Dundee in the Scottish Cup on January 9th. We were due to travel to Kelty on the 12th and then Edinburgh, Cumbernauld, Edinburgh, Motherwell and Gretna over the following month, with a team from the Borders visiting NDP on Jan 23rd. While there is no evidence to suggest that continuing to play at our level is riskier than at Premiership level there is also no evidence to suggest that it isn’t. We have a committee made up of varying ages, a playing squad which include some who are self-employed and others who work for the NHS so we believe it was the correct action taken by the SFA at the time.

It was announced yesterday via press release that all of the League 1 and League 2 clubs have put forward a written “Route to playing again” proposal to the SFA, including the introduction of PCR testing. Had our clubs received a more equitable share of the Government funding pool I imagine it would be possible for us to make a similar commitment.

We look forward to continuing our league once it is deemed safe to do so by the SFA. There have been positive discussions at league level on how to draw our season to a close in a fair way, but that will be based on the amount of time we have left in the season to do so. We are fortunate to have someone of the calibre of Kenny McLean as fixture secretary who has come up with a range of different scenarios to achieve that outcome.

We celebrate our 140th year in existence this year which we hope to do properly at some stage all being well and plan to continue on for another while yet. The club has managed to persevere over a number of dark periods in our history, including two World Wars, but just like then we will come out the other side of our horrific scenario that we all face at the moment. All we ask is for everyone to continue to follow Scottish Government guidance and stay safe, look after yourselves and keep an eye out for those that can't.

COTR!
Brendan

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