Iron Bru › Forums › Blast Furnace › 2024-25 accounts › Reply To: 2024-25 accounts
That’s where a lot of the unease comes from. If the club owes the owners another £1.4m, then supporters have every right to question the model. At this level, owner loans are common enough, but this ownership was supposed to be a break from that kind of setup.
Right now it looks less like a new way of doing things and more like the usual football cycle with a nicer sales pitch.
Scunthorpe are trying to move towards self-sustainability, and the board should be applauded for that.
The reality is the club is not there yet and is still heavily reliant on board loans to keep operating. That is not unusual in lower-league football, but it does mean the current model is still one of owner support rather than genuine financial independence. The real test is not whether directors are putting money in now, but whether the club can reduce its annual losses to the point where it can cover day-to-day costs from normal football income such as gates, sponsorship, commercial activity and football revenues without needing fresh loans every season.
As for the new director loans, the most realistic path is not immediate repayment but a slow transition: first cut the yearly deficit, then reach break-even, then build modest surpluses over time. Only once that happens can the club sensibly deal with the debt, most likely by leaving loans in place as patient funding, converting some into equity, or eventually writing some off rather than repaying them like a normal business loan. So the question for supporters is simple: is this genuinely a bridge to a sustainable future, or just another period of losses being covered by directors with the debt pushed further down the road?
Two excellent posts hitting the nail squarely on the head.
The directors were given their shares or did they buy them ?
The directors have loaned money to the club and expect it to be repaid at some point so whilst it seems like a great job has been done to clear all the old Swan n Hilton debt in reality the club just owe other people money and hardly a rapid path to sustainability more of a snails pace and thats if things stay positive on the pitch…(highest gates for years)
Everyday fans constantly being asked to dig deep , local companies giving time and materials in good faith simply for the love of the club is a drop in the ocean and just a small help looking at the current numbers.
One would hope as genuine fans of the club the directors will write off some of the loans or indeed any interest thats involved as the sums are pretty shocking.
As said on another thread what the club really need is new investment and or new owners with deeper pockets so keep buying those lotto tickets guys it may be the only way.
UTI