Hurrah. No longer will we have to blame ITV Digital for all the club's financial woes! Step forward Centreplate the new culprits. But the Board is getting prepared for litigation. Season ticket prices are being raised, two year season ticket deals are being promoted, the under 12s are being told to s** off and budgets are being tightened. Playing staff budgets must be next in line. And what for? To fund legal costs to pursue Centreplate whose crime was to walk away from a catering contract which was loss making. £2 M is being spoken of as the prize but just about any Gills supporter has zero confidence of success in the Courts. No doubt Gillingham will be expected to have mitigated their losses, in fact since Gills have taken the contract back in house they will be able to show just how easy it is to make £2M on a catering contract. I think it is about time for Scally to take a reality check and the Board need to stop being yes men and redirect the business towards being a successful league 1 football club rather than a soft touch for legal eagles. Football is the priority. Courts are for mugs. Gills are looking stupid enough at the moment.
Minor Correction. In a sudden outbreak of common sense the Under 12s ticket has been reinstated. Common sense! It will never catch on!
Not sure about going through the cost unless we can be sure of a positive outcome, however, for once I think the Chairman is right. I can only speak from a 'customer' personal experience point of view and despite several complaints into the club at the time, I am not surprised the catering company were losing money, their food and their service was absolute dire. I'm not going to find the threads but i wrote about them on endless occasions reference my personal experiences on match day, let alone the standard in the BRC. People can say well that's football, well it might be but for 90 minutes we all are a captive audience, I could see every reason why they were not making money, who they all want to blame for the fiasco's is not for me to say, but I for one would NEVER employee that catering company from what i saw as a mere consumer. If Mr Scally wants to quote the above in court then feel free. In my view they walked away from a contract, if that is true then they need pay back to the Chairman what is owed, simple as.
I have some sympathy for Mr. Scally. He ( or rather, GFC ), have become victims in the Centreplate saga. GFC have every right to seek compensation - but - sometimes in life, we have to accept an expensive 'lesson' and injustices - to prevent bigger losses by chasing what could be considered a 'lost cause.' I hope that Mr.Scally wins the High Court case - and - that Centreplate has the money to pay. But what if GFC lose the case, or if Centreplate cease trading rather than pay, then what as it concerns any money left for player budget for the next two years ? Then you might want to consider the way that fans are being 'cheated' by the rubbish that the players are serving up on the pitch. If I was given rubbish by any other provider, I could easily get a refund - but not with football ( or GFC -- because, currently GFC has nothing to do with football ). I am grateful that, 22 years ago Mr.Scally paid a £1 for the Club, and managed to persuade creditors to accept 16 pence in the £ that they were owed - but - what personal money has Mr.Scally put into the club in that time ? Yes we've had some ground improvements - but I suspect that finance was from you and me and profit in the transfer market. ( and, again, you can say that those deals are down to Mr.Scally ) - but we've also been given a huge amount of rubbish as a result of Mr.Scally's business deals --- whilst he continues to take at least £250,000 in 'consultancy' fees - not bad for a business that is rapidly going down the toilet. Pulis, McCammon, ITV Digital, Centreplate, the bloke at Watford ( owed £250,000 ), plus others. Scally either likes an argument or isn't as shrewd as he might like to think. ( which of those arguments has Scally won ? ) I don't care if Mr.Scally is 100% right about his battle with Centreplate. I am worried that, for far too long not enough has been done to make the correct decisions as it might relate to management, player recruitment, tactics, player motivation - to give us a fighting chance to reverse the downward spiral we've been on since at least January 2016.
Some of the comments I'm seeing from supporters on other social media sources these last few weeks is becoming a joke. Why does anyone ever think we were flush with money, as I pointed out on one social media source today, if you want a clue to our finances, read the reporting from Scally versus Rosso in 2011, it's not difficult to find but the magic wand that some fans think we have/had might be slightly harder to find if you took just 10 minutes out of your life to google those reports!
brb I agree that we've never had any 'serious' money. People may be getting frustrated at how we seem to have wasted a lot of the cash we did have - with [seemingly] poor appointments at all levels within the Club - be that the static ball boys, catering. managers and especially many useless players ( especially the ones we sign with long term injuries before they can put on a shirt ). Fans will see the sort of money that GFC have had to pay when Mr. Scally has lost other matters in Court.( e.g. Pulis & McCammon ). I, for one have been disenchanted that my money has been wasted by Mr. Scally as he sought to defend his credibility - when it was obvious that the Club 'cocked up.' Fans will see all the waste of our money as contempt for the hard work that each of us has to put in to earn that money - only for it to be used for the ego of Mr. Scally -- and to pay the fat contracts of our 'overachieving' players -- not forgetting the money we're still wasting on ex players and manager. All of this may give people the illusion that GFC is / was awash with cash. They will see comments that we have used up our player budget before the Go3 took charge - and will be annoyed at the waste that preceded Pennock. The anger of fans will not be abated by the continual lack of effort by many players. People will see the huge 'consultancy' fees (our money), taken by Mr.Scally and may think we're swimming in cash ! - and yet what has he done to attract investment into the Club ? Fans will continue to be cross when you see the season ticket prices for next year - money which I fear will be wasted on solicitors. It is the waste of money over the last [about] 18 months that has angered me - and that anger is no less intense just because the amount of money was relatively modest in the first place - it is [was] my money that Mr.Scally has wasted - and I (we) have been stupid enough to pay him £250,000 for the benefit of his consultancy. The management would probably waste a quarter million trying to organise a celebratory levitation of urine in a brewery - (and guess who will be on the receiving end of all that piss.)
Contracts would be worthless pieces of paper if only the rich could afford to challenge them, Centerplate not only ripped up the contract, but walked out with all the customer data-base including up coming events. Scally might not always get things right, but in this instance standing up against the large corporation bullies is something I agree with.
