Bradford (Park Avenue) owner opens up on club's finances

They overachieved between 2017 and 2019, in reaching the National League North play-offs, though even with that, former captain Luca Havern admitted to the T&A two months ago that the club were in no position to get promoted to the fifth tier.

And it has been downhill ever since, with two successive relegations on the cards now and a host of young players, many of whom are or were too raw or not good enough, replacing that blue-chip brigade of Havern, Mark Ross, Nicky Clee and Oli Johnson that former boss Mark Bower had come to rely on.

Roberts has been open over Avenue’s finances, stating he cannot afford to keep funding them for much longer and that he has not got a bottomless pit of money.

At least he is being honest on that front, and after Avenue’s horrendous liquidation 50 years ago, with them not reforming again until 1987, many older fans will at least be glad Bradford-born Roberts is doing what he can to try and make sure the club never goes under again.

But after flying high just five years ago under his stewardship of the club, surely fans have a right to expect a bit more, in terms of ambition, from Roberts as an owner?

In part two of the T&A’s sit-down interview with Roberts at the Midland Hotel in Bradford, we talked about finances at the club, following on from our discussion around the first team’s dreadful season so far.

Here is how it went:

Q: YOU’VE MENTIONED ABOUT TRYING TO GET INVESTORS IN TO HELP FINANCE THE CLUB, BUT WON’T THEY BE PUT OFF BY THE IDEA OF COMING INTO A FAILING FIRST TEAM, ON THE PITCH?

A: If somebody looks at the whole club, they’ll see we’re in better shape than most.

We don’t owe anybody any money and a number of teams around this level have gone out of business of late and a lot are currently struggling.

Marske had to withdraw from our division just after New Year for example, because they ended up owing thousands and thousands to the HMRC.

Earlier this season, it looked as if only one of Bradford (Park Avenue), Basford United (yellow) or Marske United would avoid relegation, but now the latter have had to withdraw from the Northern Premier League Premier Division with financial difficulties. (Image: John Rhodes.)

Clubs at this level often run up debts by not paying certain taxes and bills and we don’t have that problem.

We haven’t allowed ourselves to stretch the budget in that way, but what we’ve got is a long lease on our stadium, a great pitch, improved facilities from a few years ago and we’re building up our academy, with juniors playing at our stadium on a daily basis.

Q: WITH AVENUE GUARANTEED TO HAVE THE LEASE ON HORSFALL FOR ANOTHER 31 YEARS, IS THAT A TRUMP CARD FOR THE CLUB, OWNING THEIR OWN GROUND IN A WAY THAT BRADFORD CITY AND BRADFORD BULLS DON’T CURRENTLY?

A: It’s absolutely a big plus for us and it’s a great venue to use during the day for all sorts of tenants.

It puzzles me that City don’t have a facility like that they train at.

Ironically, we had an away game one Saturday last month, and the cold and damp weather had made City’s pitch unplayable, so they were able to come over here to Horsfall and play a pick-up game that day.

We have a good facility, so that gives us some financial security, but it is an expensive stadium to keep running.

To keep it running and busy with other tenants during the week requires a lot of hard work and of course, the state of the British economy is terrible, which doesn’t make things easy either.

A lot of our income at the club comes from subscriptions parents pay for their children to play in our junior programme, and we couldn’t possibly charge them what it really costs us to run the stadium.

We have a great contribution from a sponsor of ours to keep that programme going, and it’s something we want to extend that more to girls too, to get more of them down here playing.

We’re going to try and get some more sponsors in to try and offset the cost for parents.

Q: YOU TOLD BBC RADIO LEEDS THAT IF YOU DROPPED DEAD TOMORROW YOU’D WORRY FOR THE FINANCIAL FUTURE OF AVENUE, SO WOULD IT BE A MAJOR CONCERN FOR THE CLUB IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS THAT MEANT YOU COULD NO LONGER PUMP MONEY IN?

A: There is a concern that I might drop dead or get shot in Texas, you never know.

But seriously, it’s always a concern, because if you remember Avenue’s history, one of the reasons that original club got in trouble financially was because their major sponsor and chairman died of a heart attack (Herbert Metcalfe in October 1970).

We don’t want that to happen here, so I’m looking around for other directors to come in, who could sponsor the club.

And if someone wants to come here and really put some money into the club, I’d very happily turn it over to them, as long as they could demonstrate that they had the resources to do so.

I’d always keep a foot in even if that happened, as long as it was the best thing for the club.

But the key is to try and keep the club going and we’re getting very close to what I’d call financial stability.

It’s taken longer than we’d hoped, partly because of Covid and partly because the economy and inflation in this country is so bad at the moment.

We’re budgeting £46,000 in electricity per year to run the stadium for example, where in Texas it would cost a third of that.

All of the families that bring their kids along, all our supporters, they’re paying those bills too, so we’ve got to try and keep our product affordable, which is difficult.

Albion Sports use Horsfall as well, so the costs of holding their home games have to be factored into the finances at Avenue too, despite their tenants obviously contributing money of their own. (Image: Alex Daniel.)

Q: CYNICALLY, COULD AVENUE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE DIP IN CROWDS AT VALLEY PARADE, INCREASING YOUR OWN ATTENDANCES AND BOOSTING THE COFFERS, AS A RESULT OF THE GENERAL APATHY SURROUNDING BRADFORD CITY AT PRESENT?

A: We’ve got to turn the corner on the pitch ourselves first, because that’s what fans come to watch and we’re not delivering on that at that moment.

Next season I feel we’ll be very competitive for sure, and if we can get other investors and directors into the club that would really help.

What I’m doing at the moment is essentially supporting the basic costs at the club on a very fundamental budget.

What we can say is that if other investors came in and put money into the club, that could go straight into the first team, it doesn’t need to cover any of the other peripheral costs, which would make a big difference.

A boost to the budget would mean we could get some good players signed up for next year and we could have a lot of fun, with an exciting, winning team to watch.

That what’s we want to do, but you’re right, there are a lot of potential football fans in the Bradford area for us to entice, but we need to have a good product on the pitch to get them coming here.

Q: CAN YOU CLEAR UP THE SITUATION WITH WEST BOWLING ARLFC? THERE WAS TALK LATE LAST YEAR THAT YOU WERE LOOKING TO EVICT THEM AHEAD OF THE 2024 SEASON OVER WHAT YOU FELT WAS THEM NOT PULLING THEIR WEIGHT IN THEIR TENANCY AGREEMENT WITH YOU?

A: We had some issues with West Bowling but we’re working to resolve those currently.

Ultimately, I would expect them to still be playing at Horsfall in 2024.

We still have a few things to sort but we’re optimistic it’ll work out with them.

Q: MARTIN KNIGHT WAS DEALING WITH THE ABOVE SITUATION INITIALLY, BUT HE LEFT THE CLUB ABRUPTLY IN DECEMBER. CAN YOU SHED ANY LIGHT ON HIS DEPARTURE?

A: It was time to make the change there, but I do have to thank Martin for all the work he did as director of football, because he was basically juggling the budget, while trying to help (manager) Mark Bower and (assistant) Danny Boshell to find and buy the right players for their team.

We’ve basically brought it all in house now with (sporting director) Thomas McStravick and (manager) Danny Whitaker working full-time.

They can really scout for talent, we’re putting a scouting network together, and all the things we need on the playing front for the future.

Q: CAN YOU KEEP FUNDING THE ACADEMY, WHICH IS SOMETHING I KNOW THE CLUB TAKE GREAT PRIDE IN, GIVEN WHAT IT COSTS?

A: I think we’re close to having the coaching costs covered, which is of benefit to us.

It doesn’t necessarily make money (what the likes of sponsors and parents contribute financially) but it does cover the coaching costs, which is good for the club.

Of course, we might produce some good players through the academy too, which is another potential benefit, not just for the first team, because maybe some of these players can move on to bigger things and generate some income for the club that way.