RUFC - Where has all the money gone?

Rotherham United Chairman, Denis Coleman has told David Beddows of The Advertiser that 'everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.'

If paying the huge rent on Millmoor and the players wages wasn't enough, there have been costs, that couldn't have been calculated for, which include:

£200,000 flood damage cost after insurance
£90,000 compulsory upgrades to the Youth training facilities
£30,000 for re-wiring at Millmoor
£19,000 for a new turnstyle monitoring system
£5,000 for a new boiler

The lease the current Board inherited when taking over at Millmoor says they are responsible for all repairs and £240,000 was spent on ground repairs last season.

The TV money the club got for the cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday was gone within a week because the turnstyle system failed.

If facilities at the Youth training ground hadn't been upgraded then the Youth training funding would have stopped. The Youth funding is £138,000 which leaves a shortfall most seasons of between £80,000 and £90,000.

Rigid cost cutting at the club actually means the club did make a small profit in the last financial year. Mr Coleman says, 'when we took over the club was losing, what equates to, £1.8 million a year. We did a CVA and got rid of the debt but not the costs. We've cut everything to the bare minimum and there is no part of the club we haven't been through to see if we can make any cost savings. But, we have gone as far as we can.

'As all football clubs at this level the burden of player salaries is a hefty one but if you cut your team budget by too much then you are in a Catch 22 situation. We could cut wage costs and sit in the bottom of the division or go into the Conference but that would be disastrous. But the largest single cost is the rent.'