Hereford United in serious financial trouble

12:46pm Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News

Hereford United in serious financial trouble Hereford United in serious financial trouble

HEREFORD United are unable to pay players their wages as a financial shortfall continues to cripple the club.

Chairman David Keyte told shareholders last night that, due to only one home fixture being played in November, the club is expected to be short of £140,000, including £77,000 in wages.

The club also announced that for the first time it has been unable to meet its PAYE commitments (£34,000) and, as of next week, the HMRC were likely to commence proceedings to recover the debt.

Relegation from the Football League has seriously hindered the Edgar Street club.

Last year, the Bulls received £734,000 from the League Two share of Premiership TV money, which included two payments of £108,000 in September and January.

But this season the figure is zero.

Only 1,537 people watched Hereford play Braintree at Edgar Street on Saturday, much lower than the 2,400 that Keyte had initially budgeted for.

This Saturday, the Bulls face FC United of Manchester in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round on Saturday, with the winner getting £12,500.

For the full story, see tomorrow's Hereford Times.

David Keyte's statement in full

  • What do you think of the financial situation at Edgar Street? Leave your comments below.

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Comments(29)

billyb83 says...
1:44pm Wed 17 Oct 12

well its gonna be a 10 point deduction and relegation from the blue square i do feel, Something else to disappear from hereford!!!!!!

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littlewhitebull says...
3:54pm Wed 17 Oct 12

As a lifelong Bull's Supporter, I find this situation very troubling. Let's hope that a good cup run helps. Or possibly a wealthy benefactor makes a much welcome gift?

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ad47uk says...
8:32pm Wed 17 Oct 12

I got no interest in football at all, so if they stay or go, I am not bothered. but from what people have been saying about the amount of games they have lost, then it is no wonder that they are losing supporters. Play better, win more games and then you may get more people to watch.

Oh well we could do with a better theatre , the ground would be a nice place for one.

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Lukio says...
8:00am Thu 18 Oct 12

@ ad47uk - you sir are a total arse.

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dplcv37 says...
8:43am Thu 18 Oct 12

It hasnt taken Keyte and co long has it!?
Why buy a football club if you arent willing to heavily invest in it, whats more just because hes a life long supporter doesn't mean he can successfully run a club.
What an absolute balls up!
A historical team on the brink of extinction!

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Rate contributor says...
9:42am Thu 18 Oct 12

So we have it, a successful supporters club, with a dwindling supported team. Perhaps if the activity on the pitch last season had matched the activty in refurbishing the burnt out starlight rooms you wouldn`t be in this pickle.
Keyte said it was his boyhood dream to own his local football club when purchasing the shares from the shrewd Graham Turner. Big boys toys need big boys cash, buckets of it. Stop blaming the lack of support and lack of funding from the football league. Who appointed Davy? Who appointed Pitman? What about the director of football Peters, on his cast iron alledged three year contract?
The club is owned and run by the share holders and directors as with all businesses, if the business is spending more than it is earning it perhaps begs the question who set the budget

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fordshire77 says...
11:11am Thu 18 Oct 12

it could be so much worse, we could have members of the council on the board!
i fear if we drop out of the blue square there will be no way back, as the cost of the up keep of the ground alone will be more than any money coming in, can you see anyone wanting to sponcer a team with VERY little chance of getting on TV.
Im not sure what agreement we have with the pitch but could it be taken off the club and sold from underneath them??
Fingers Crossed that a good cup run will put back on track.

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bobby47 says...
11:50am Thu 18 Oct 12

Ratecontributor,dplc
v37, You've got this wrong. There is no Poster that comes on here and is cynical and gets it wrong more than me so when it comes to getting it wrong I know what I'm talking about.
Firstly, Dave Keyte, I promise you he is a really nice chap, his heart is in the right place, he made his money and decided to put something back into his home Hereford. I promise you, this aint some toy or plaything to him and he's not trying to make money for himself. He simply wanted to create a little Club that could survive and prosper in a business area where you really dont stand much of a chance if you are playing in the lower leagues.
This Football Club, albeit, on its knees, is so very important to our City. Its a place where local people should gather, form bonds that last their lifetime and their kids grow up realising the importance of their little football club. Quite simply this little club is just as important as our Cathedral, our City and our wonderful countryside. Its a part of our heritage and culture.
To sustain their existence all David Keyte wanted was to put around Two Thousand, Five Hundred bums on seats at each and every home game. That aint much to expect or ask for and I dont think that its unreasonable for the Club to ask for that level of support.
Once again, I tell you, this is no toy or plaything to David Keyte. His heart is in the right place and he needs our help.

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mizza21 says...
12:14pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Dave Keyte's not got a lot of options. I was one of the 1537 who watched the Braintree game. Premier League quality football it ain't, but I was only 5 yards from the pitch and I didn't have to take out a mortgage for the admission fee and me and my daughter enjoyed the game. It was competitive and exciting for all the wrong reasons, but nonetheless enjoyable.
There's a few things like increasing the quality of the refreshments to increase sales and running schools coaching sessions with the players to increase interest and using social networking more effectively, but ultimately he needs to increase revenue with bums on seats.
I don't understand the people of Hereford. I see MANUre and Liverpool and Chelsea shirts around town.
Perhaps these are the people Dave Keyte should be trying to draw in to the club.
I'm a baggie, but I refuse to go and see them while they're in the greed league. I live in Hereford, my children were born here, so I gave them to HUFC. I saw it as my civic duty.
I'll be at every home game until I die or they don't exist.
Bobby47 you are right. It is a vital part of the culture of Hereford. Certainly more important and relevant than the Cathedral.

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bobby47 says...
2:09pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Well said mizza21. Somehow and somewhere along the way local people have got out of the habit of supporting their local team. In days gone by you went to Edgar Street even though you didn't feel like it because thats what you did each and every time the team played. It was a part of the things you did on the weekend. We've lost that and we've gotta get it back because if this Club does fold it aint coming back and our society, as knackered up as it is, will never recover from the loss of Hereford United.

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Lukio says...
4:04pm Thu 18 Oct 12

I'm guilty as I used to go and was a season ticket holder for many years. Three kids soon put paid to that as I didn't have the time or finances to keep going. For that I feel a twinge of guilt but.

It's amazing when HUFC were in the Conference last time round the gates were really high considering. They were very well supported but it seemed promotion to the Football League was when the rot set in. It seemed that people would rather watch a team doing well in a tinpot league over a team doing Ok in a real league. It doesn't make sense.

I really hold there's light at the end of the tunnel for them. It ain't looking good presently and if they were to fold it would be a catastrophic blow to the city.

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Rate contributor says...
5:27pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Blobby47, sorry, I forgot you have the monopoly on expressing opinions through the HT "have your say" website.
Please excuse me for expressing mine.

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billyb83 says...
6:58pm Thu 18 Oct 12

I been a fan for many years and always gone to home games, now i work security at the games and have since seen a dwindle in the crowd attendance and its only gonna get worse, people slagged of graham turner but he did wonders for this club if it wasnt for him they would of gone under alot sooner, The crowds wont rise anytime soon and its sad for myself and other supporters to see the club go from league football to extinction. Hope something can be sorted if i win the lottery ill invest but wont be anytime soon i know that much :) Good luck Hereford United

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bobby47 says...
7:08pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Rate contributer, Well said my friend. You've put me in my place.
My warmest regards to you.

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ad47uk says...
8:42pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Lukio wrote:
@ ad47uk - you sir are a total arse.
why, Is it not logical that people who to be fair pay a fair bit of money want to be entertained for that money? If the team they support is not winning then what is the point in spending that money?

I know someone from work who sold his season ticket last year and never been to a game since and yet he would go to a game when ever he could.

Money it tight for many people and they will not waste it. simple logic as I said, play better and more people will watch.

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bobby47 says...
9:03pm Thu 18 Oct 12

Ad47uk, To some degree kiddo you are right and I'm sure Dave Keyte would agree that Football ain't a business you get involved in if you want to make a buck.
But, this is something much more important that a sound business plan. This is about our local team who need a helping hand before its to late and they go under. This is about our way of life, our heritage and our future. Yes it's expensive to see a game nowadays but it ain't just the football you are paying to see.
It's the joy of looking to your side and watching your grandson taking in the atmosphere, the noise of the crowd, the people you meet week in and week out and the knowing that you are a part of the club. It's the walk home moaning or celebrating the result, a pint with your mates after the game.
All these silly things are a part of our lives and they are good things to support and more importantly pass on to the kids.
My warmest regards.

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ad47uk says...
7:01am Fri 19 Oct 12

You could be right bobby47, as I said I am not a football fan, so i so I don't see this way of life, our heritage and our future thing, I just see it it as some people kicking a ball around a field.

But all this way of life, our heritage and our future stuff is not going to save the club if people don't pay the money and watch the games.

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Lukio says...
7:20am Fri 19 Oct 12

@ad47uk - firstly, my apologies for my vitriolic post yesterday. You have an opinion as do I and the right to express it. Truth is, I'm having a bad week. Work is not going so well and it's doing my head in. However,that doesn't give me the right to rebuke someone's opinion in an immature and rude manner. What I'm trying to say is that although to some people, football means nothing and losing a local club will have no effect on them but others feel strongly and passionately about this and whatever side you happen to be on, losing it will be a very bad thing.

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Rate contributor says...
9:49am Fri 19 Oct 12

This is better, a true debate in a civil manner.

You name me any other business sector (banks excluded) that receives £734,000 per annum without striking a blow of effort in return, (This is the share of TV revenue handed to each and every team playing in the fourth teir of English league football, the current league division two, the old fourth division.) then manages to get themselves relegated from this cosy little arrangement and proceeds to moan about it.

Now,you can consider Keyte a nice man with his heart in the right place or not, but please explain how under his chairmanship two costly failures of manager have had to be bought out of their contracts, with a director of football providing the square root of zero, refusing to leave his post let alone contribute to it? I am reliably informed that the cost of buying him out of his contract would be a considerable sum, six figures.

So in losing this vast sum of money by being relegated from the football league Keyte is now suggesting that 2000 people each donate £100 pounds each, for what, to buy him some short term fix?

My earlier analysis of a business spending more than it earns is a true fact of life, it will fail, and HUFC is no different.

You can discuss heritage all you like, but please don`t compare our catherdral to HUFC, we are a city because we have a cathedral not because we have an ailing football club.

For me, an ex member of the vice-president club of HUFC its a walk to AllPay Park to watch Westfields or Old School Lane to watch Pegasus, where you can lean against a hand rail one metre from the pitch, or sit in a seat dead opposite the halfway line, have a drink in the bar, good refreshments, good company, and all for a five pound note!

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Andrew Warmington says...
10:09am Fri 19 Oct 12

Other than the fact that a team with some decent players sank into relegation for no good reason, the really sad thing is, as somone mentioned earlier, the hordes of Man Ure, Chavski and other PL shirts around town.

Guys, you can be a plastic fan at a distance (and I can't talk, I haven't been to White Hart Lane in a decade), you are not going to set these teams live any time soon living in Herefordshire.

Our nearest PL team, West Brom, are over an hour away and I don't think there's much support for them around here. Meanwhile, you have a local team bleeding to death for want of a little support. If everyone in Herefordshire who follows football at all went to three games a year, this problem would not exist.

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Hugh-G-Rection says...
3:17pm Fri 19 Oct 12

keyte should hang his head in shame. I pay out of my hard earned benefits, to watch us home and away, but may stop if keyte remains as chairman

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bobby47 says...
7:49pm Fri 19 Oct 12

Rate contributor, I just noticed your posting where you took the letter 'L' and incorporated it into my Poster name.
You really shouldn't have done that. That was a mistake.
It was also a mistake to disclose to us Posters that you were a former member of Hereford United Vice Presidents Club. I'm guessing you did this for two reasons. Firstly to give us the impression you knew better than us and secondly, to satisfy your own ego. Disclosures like yours are often unhelpful and in your case they can bring about a little punishment.
Now, of course, I've no idea why you were expelled or asked to leave the VPC and I do appreciate that sipping a fine Port in amongst the great and the good is something that can be missed, particularly now you are to be found leaning up against some handrail watching local amateur football. But, that said, I am somewhat dismayed that someone who was a former member of the VPC can become so bitter, vitriolic and unsympathetic to the Clubs current plight.
My very warmest regards to you.

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Keith B says...
9:04pm Fri 19 Oct 12

Some may remember me as a former Club Commercial Manager in the time of John Newman.

Life has always been a financial tightrope at Hereford United ... but it is getting more difficult as other clubs, often with little football pedigree and often in areas already served by an established "big" club, such as Fleetwood, are financed by one man into the football league .... and then usually fall away when interest is lost, a business fails or a wife simply says to her husbands that she is fed up with him throwing "their" money at his football club. (Yes, that happened not too far away).

Rushden & D (who always looked down their noses at "poor" Northampton Town, who are still around) is a case in point. Crawley, I suspect, will be another.

Graham Turner, who I worked with at Wolves, did a fantastic job at Hereford because he had real knowledge of how to run a football club from top to toe. Joan Fennersey too on the administration side. They cut their cloth to income and were 100% realistic about not overstretching, despite the pressure for on field success. Graham also had the gift of being a really great football Manager.

All the riches in the world can't give an owner that sort of knowledge - and a football club can swallow up riches very quickly. How to make a small fortune is to start with a big one and buy a football club.

There is a way back, but it might mean taking a step backwards. My business supplies both Halifax and Darlington, both of whom have taken that step backwards and are building back .... slowly, one step at a time. At Darlington their supporters are (for the first time in years) really enjoying their club again, despite playing in the Northern League at someone else's ground. But it's THEIR Club.

Sometimes, a Club must cut it's cloth to it's income and build again.

Aldershot have done a remarkable job,
York too look strong, I suspect Luton and Grimsby will be League Clubs again soon. And I'm am sure Hereford will challenge for a League spot again, though it may be a little way away.

Good financial management is the key, with good football people taking a behind the scenes role ... (there are many in Herefordshire) .... .after which the playing side will look after itself whether that means falling a division to come back stronger or not.

But it needs to survive it's latest crisis first (for which I don't have an answer) .... then look at the longer term future for the Club as a business first and foremost - it might be boring but it's how to survive so that your children and their children still have a Hereford United to watch and aspire to play for.

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bobby47 says...
9:34pm Fri 19 Oct 12

Keith B, Thanks for your constructive comments mate. I for one appreciate you taking the time and trouble to post your piece.
My very warmest regards to you.

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ad47uk says...
11:41am Sat 20 Oct 12

Lukio wrote:
@ad47uk - firstly, my apologies for my vitriolic post yesterday. You have an opinion as do I and the right to express it. Truth is, I'm having a bad week. Work is not going so well and it's doing my head in. However,that doesn't give me the right to rebuke someone's opinion in an immature and rude manner. What I'm trying to say is that although to some people, football means nothing and losing a local club will have no effect on them but others feel strongly and passionately about this and whatever side you happen to be on, losing it will be a very bad thing.
Not a problem, work seems to do these things to us :)

i know you think that Hereford united Football club is our heritage, but at the end of the day it is a business and like all businses, if it can't balance the books then it will go under.

I doubt very much if it will go under and something will come up. I know some people think that it should be supported by our council, but I don't agree with that, no more than I think the racecourse should be. Well not by public money anyway.


As I said I don't follow football, my mum used to watch Hereford United and she used to enjoy going to watch them play.

I was told yesterday from someone at work, that the club have still not reduced their prices, which to be honest they should, maybe then they will get more bums on seats.

i have just had a look to see how much the tickets are and even the lowest price of £16 is a fair bit of money, certainly for people in Hereford where wages are to be honest, naff.

Anyway, I hope that all goes well and that they keep going, but only for the people who follows the club, for myself, I am not bothered either way as it don't affect me.

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billy wizz says...
2:57pm Sat 20 Oct 12

HUFC its my club my home town and have followed them for 50 years so yes it does matter ad47uk as far as a new courtyard how much did the council pump into that !!!
10000 went to the walker in our play off game the cost did not bother them then !!! HUFC is a big part of this city and to see it go would be a bitter pill for many !! many the council can pump in the ammount they gave to the courtyard what do you think ad47uk

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billy wizz says...
2:57pm Sat 20 Oct 12

HUFC its my club my home town and have followed them for 50 years so yes it does matter ad47uk as far as a new courtyard how much did the council pump into that !!!
10000 went to the walker in our play off game the cost did not bother them then !!! HUFC is a big part of this city and to see it go would be a bitter pill for many !! many the council can pump in the ammount they gave to the courtyard what do you think ad47uk

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ad47uk says...
6:45pm Sat 20 Oct 12

billy wizz wrote:
HUFC its my club my home town and have followed them for 50 years so yes it does matter ad47uk as far as a new courtyard how much did the council pump into that !!!
10000 went to the walker in our play off game the cost did not bother them then !!! HUFC is a big part of this city and to see it go would be a bitter pill for many !! many the council can pump in the ammount they gave to the courtyard what do you think ad47uk
I also don't think the council should support the courtyard either, again if it can't make the money of it's own back then that is just tough.
i have only been to the courtyard once for a show and while the show was good the courtyard itself is awful. The seats are horrid and cramped and the stages are too small to put anything large on.

I doubt I will ever go again. the leisure centre and swimming pool I agree with being funded by the council, not that I have used them for years.

If HUFC was such a big part of the city, why are they struggling to put bums on seats?

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KNIGHTROOK says...
9:16pm Mon 22 Oct 12

With the planned multi-screened cinema coming to Hereford who will have the time for the Courtyard Theatre anyhow...the place would be better developed as a sports center or new leisure center. Appropriately located opposite the football ground.

Hereford United has always had a financial problem mainly because of its league status...I mean who wants to be seen as a sponsor for a constantly losing club... Sun Valley sponsor the club out of pity and to be seen as supporters of local charity cases...Hereford united will soon have to move as Hereford is redeveloped anyhow.

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