Are Rochdale history?

E

Eternaloptimist

Well-known member
Rochdale chairman Simon Gauge has warned that the club could go out of business by the end of next month if they don’t find an nvestor to inject £2 million for 90 percent of the club. Always sad when this happens.
Formed in 1907 they have never been anything remotely like a glamour club and have only reached the heights of League 3 (today’s league 1).
Not a big town so not a big catchment area which would definitely deter any prospective buyers but a lot of clubs who get in this situation tend to get a last minute reprieve so I hope that happens to them.
Maybe if they do go out of business the supporters can sort a Phoenix club (like Bury) but it is a tall order.
And we think we have problems !
 
Hope they can sort out their problems. Always had time for fans of Rochdale/Oldham/Bury/Stockport given their proximity to Manchester, good on their fans for supporting their home town club, would be all to easy to jump on the bandwagon of one of the big Manchester clubs.
God knows we have problems with people from this town preferring to support a club from Manchester and we’re 50 miles away!
 
Hope they find a buyer, this just really highlight's how football is unsustainable apart from the clubs owned by billionaires & states. The problem is from top to bottom & can't be resolved nationally as it's mainly around the crazy wages & transfer fees & to impose wage limits would just mean players moved abroad. So any such a mandate would have to come from FIFA & I can't see them wanting to come out of the trough.
 
Eternaloptimist said:
Rochdale chairman Simon Gauge has warned that the club could go out of business by the end of next month if they don’t find an nvestor to inject £2 million for 90 percent of the club. Always sad when this happens.
Formed in 1907 they have never been anything remotely like a glamour club and have only reached the heights of League 3 (today’s league 1).
Not a big town so not a big catchment area which would definitely deter any prospective buyers but a lot of clubs who get in this situation tend to get a last minute reprieve so I hope that happens to them.
Maybe if they do go out of business the supporters can sort a Phoenix club (like Bury) but it is a tall order.
And we think we have problems !
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The population of Rochdale is actually around 220,000 so many more than Blackpool. The problem isn’t really the numbers it’s the demographics of said population.
 
I thought they were already fan owned, or is it that the owner is a local fan of the club (like ours).

I know many are challenging SS on how much he invests each year, but at least we’ve got a stable club to watch - good or bad. It’s getting harder and harder to find owners that want to spend £10-20 million of their own money every year on lower league football.
 
Albert Ross said:
The population of Rochdale is actually around 220,000 so many more than Blackpool. The problem isn’t really the numbers it’s the demographics of said population.
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I think the fact that the two Manchester clubs are only a Metro ride away doesn't help.

I feel for their Trust. They have fought long and hard to ward off predators and all sorts of other problems.
 
Rochdale are fan owned but they have run out of cash. They own their own ground which is free of loans etc but can't get traditional banks to lend on the equity. The EGM on 07/03/24 is to ask the shareholders to dilute their current shareholding to virtually worthless shares and create new voting shares for any incoming investor to pay £2 million and move the club forward. The club would move away from the fan owned model and have new owners with 90% ownership of the club and the ground.

There will be opposition to this by long term shareholders.
 
Hadley said:
Rochdale are fan owned but they have run out of cash. They own their own ground which is free of loans etc but can't get traditional banks to lend on the equity. The EGM on 07/03/24 is to ask the shareholders to dilute their current shareholding to virtually worthless shares and create new voting shares for any incoming investor to pay £2 million and move the club forward. The club would move away from the fan owned model and have new owners with 90% ownership of the club and the ground.

There will be opposition to this by long term shareholders.
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If the club is to survive then the only way forward is for the long term shareholders to agree to that suggestion.
I fully understand their reasons for opposing it but then they would need other resources to raise £2 million.
Really is a sad situation for them when you think the big boys down the road could give them £1 million each which would be a drop in the ocean
 
It reflects terribly on the football industry that there are clubs like Rochdale, Bury and God knows how many others who are in such financial peril, when other clubs and even some individual players, have so much money that they could contribute to ensure their continued survival.
And that one of the worlds richest clubs with its billionaire new stakeholder is asking for public money to help them build a new ground.
Something's wrong.
 
What Fester says.

I can never get away from thinking, all the Prem players who earn a minimum amount, say £50kpw. If they all paid £1000 to a fund controlled by the EFL, then quite quickly you would build up a fund sizeable enough to help any club in Rochdale's position and guarantee their survival.

I'm not including in that any club who've cause their own downfall by overspending, eg. Reading, or Bradford back in the day. But for a deduction that no player in that pay bracket is ever going to miss a club, who struggles solely because of the factors in their existence, is going to be saved.

I can't think of a higher reason why I detest the Premiership so much. Of course this will never happen because they don't care, until the next potential superstar comes along that they can cherry pick, or they need to give a young talented player game time because their first team squad is already packed out with overhyped tossers from Darkest Inner Somewhere. And while I like to think I'm fair minded person, sometimes when one of them is really struggling, I can't help but smile about it. You made your bed - lie in it.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
Demographics....interesting. Explain please.
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You know what demographics means. You are seeking an explanation of why I think it’s relevant? It is because there are thousands of people in Rochdale, and other northern towns, who haven’t been brought following football in general let alone particular teams. Most of us went to Bloomers with our dads or with our mates from being very young. If a club doesn’t attract people from a young age, those people aren’t likely to go when they’re grown up. All clubs to survive and thrive need to attract the next generation of fans. As the world changes so do young people’s hobbies and interests, if these youngsters don’t enjoy or get introduced to football it’s highly unlikely they will when they get older. Attendances therefore dwindle and the club starts to die. This has happened and is happening at clubs like Rochdale.
 
Albert Ross said:
You know what demographics means. You are seeking an explanation of why I think it’s relevant? It is because there are thousands of people in Rochdale, and other northern towns, who haven’t been brought following football in general let alone particular teams. Most of us went to Bloomers with our dads or with our mates from being very young. If a club doesn’t attract people from a young age, those people aren’t likely to go when they’re grown up. All clubs to survive and thrive need to attract the next generation of fans. As the world changes so do young people’s hobbies and interests, if these youngsters don’t enjoy or get introduced to football it’s highly unlikely they will when they get older. Attendances therefore dwindle and the club starts to die. This has happened and is happening at clubs like Rochdale.
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Thanks. Yes, I meant in this context.
 
basilrobbie3 said:
I think the fact that the two Manchester clubs are only a Metro ride away doesn't help.

I feel for their Trust. They have fought long and hard to ward off predators and all sorts of other problems.
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Another examples of fans owned clubs being skint

And to think some on this site wanted us to go down the fans owned route
 
Albert Ross said:
You know what demographics means. You are seeking an explanation of why I think it’s relevant? It is because there are thousands of people in Rochdale, and other northern towns, who haven’t been brought following football in general let alone particular teams. Most of us went to Bloomers with our dads or with our mates from being very young. If a club doesn’t attract people from a young age, those people aren’t likely to go when they’re grown up. All clubs to survive and thrive need to attract the next generation of fans. As the world changes so do young people’s hobbies and interests, if these youngsters don’t enjoy or get introduced to football it’s highly unlikely they will when they get older. Attendances therefore dwindle and the club starts to die. This has happened and is happening at clubs like Rochdale.
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Would rather form their own cricket leagues, in the main.
 
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