evthedog wrote:

If the worse happens, and I sincerely hope it doesn’t, and Tooting do get relegated; what will it mean for first team football at Imperial Field’s?

What players will we field? 

How many fans will turn up to watch? 

What will the admission cost be keeping in mind that our ground is way over what is needed for step 5 football.  The ground is a White Elephant now. 

Will it be more cost effective to play on the plastic pitch?

I’ve been thinking about this and wondered what the supporters think.

Me too, I’ve been thinking about this too and this morning woke up feeling desperately sad - the first thing I thought of was the days at IF behind the goal with good people and days to look forward to.

The ground is a concern - step 5 has a lesser ground grading (as everyone knows) and there’s no way we would make use of the facility we have now, with the cost and time used for upkeep too.  I’m aware that a band of volunteers have been helping for years but would step 5 keep many people there? 

I reckon T&M being moved to a different area of IF or groundsharing is a very real possibility.  The thing with that is many teams would appreciate the extra income so could happen easily.  Plus the plastic pitch being easier for upkeep.

Mind you, Molesey are playing in quite a substantial ground and they’re at step 6 - but don’t know if this is a good comparison as I don’t know that clubs circumstances.

As for ticket prices, the CCL Premier South seems to range between £6-£8 which is a fair chunk from £10.  Season tickets seem to be around £90-£100.  That would be a real problem for the club with a double whammy of smaller gates.  The only decent sized gates we would get would be Jersey Bulls and maybe Alton.  Clubs like Balham and Banstead Athletic with home averages of sub-30 probably wouldn’t bring many visitors, ditto a few of the suburban teams in Surrey towns. 

I know some things like league fees and administration isn’t as costly in step 5 but it wouldn’t make up for the loss.  Plus would sponsorship take a nosedive at step 5 with lesser amounts being forthcoming due to a reduction in league?  Reduced income from advertising would be an issue as well. 

When you look more into the different angles this could take it’s very, very depressing.

daniel collins wrote:

Ev and Bernie there is an upside to us getting relegated to the ccl and that is that our NON OWNER STEVE ADKINS would maybe lose so much money he would take his fat carcass and his millions and disappear up his big fat **** well one can only hope !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know Daniel, I think the game plan is to use that site to get more out of Merton Council than you’d ever get out of the football team, both in property building and funded sporting schemes/apprentice & training schemes (like that bit of railway line).  Us on a plastic pitch which they’re already using for youth stuff or a groundshare at a fraction of the outlay for running IF would suit the management down to the ground I reckon.

Last edited by BernieTheBolt (06/3/2023 8:20 pm)

Think your right Andy A few others have told me that also that in the combined counties acadamies are not allowed and as adkins receives money for each kid that i would have thought would dent his cashflow .

Dan, on the subject of Academy football being banned from the Combined Counties League, I think this only applies to senior teams playing in the league under the sub title academy team, IE: The Dulwokes entering their academy team in the CCL league which is a fair enough restriction. . Tooting’s academy set up is a separate business, and if the club wants to field a team of academy players when they eventually join the league, they will not impact their application and their prerogative to do so.
Digging deeper, I am sure there are numerous ways this can be circumvented with some dodgy deals between a senior club and a junior / grassroots club like Tooting!!!!!!
 

A big worry is that we end up not in the CCL but in some Sussex / Kent league.
The crowds would fall enough with CCL level football but at least there could be some local interest with games against near by clubs they may temp people to come along to games...

Can't imagine too many of the clubs in the Sussex / Kent leagues having big crowd or away support. It's been bad enough playing in this division with no real historical or local rivals to speak of until Leatherhead dropped down. 

Here's a thought.

IF (we might just stay up by the skin of our teeth) we go down next year to a step 5 league, do you think that the owner and his board will cut first team funding further to match our league status?  And if this is the case could we sink down further?

Regarding Hackbridge Harry's post about clubs having smaller crowds at Step 5, I think being placed in the SCEFL (Kent League in old money) would provide the biggest crowds, if you use home average as a guide.  Bigger crowds than the CoCo or Sussex. 
Probable teams in the SCEFL top division next year will be Deal (427), Whitstable (410), Tunbridge Wells (326), Rusthall (265) and very likely Faversham (251).   
I appreciate this is not much to cling to, at a time when TMUFC home support is down to 100.  Also the travel mileage to away grounds goes up.

New Division Two :-

https://combinedcounties.pitchero.com/new-division-two-to-be-formed-for-2023-2024-75887

Even from my remote location in deepest darkest Ashford I can understand where Dave is coming from.  As you're probably aware I've spent a lot of this last season down at Homelands watching both Ashford United and Kennington FC (a division below Ashford).

The ground is a proper old school non-league ground, albeit with a past its sell by date plastic pitch (due to be ripped up in a major ground re-vamp duringthe summer break), a really good and welcoming bar, great friendly stewards and officials, a superb paper programme (by both clubs) and as Dave mentioned, proper football food, none of this jerk this and spiced that nonsense, and the toilets are always clean and fit for use before the match.

I wonder, do TripAdvisor have a section for football grounds? Perhaps a few critiques on there might jog someone's conscience? ...... but then again, probably not.

Without Andy Harrup going round the loos pre-match to check there was actually toilet rolls in the loos nobody else from the staff would've bothered !