https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/sport/gills-accounts-reveal-900k-loss-287727/ Gillingham lost more than £900,000 in the final full season that former chairman Paul Scally was at the helm. The club’s financial accounts for the year ending May 31, 2022, reveal a loss before taxation of £904,462. This compared to a profit in the previous 12 months of £339,137, a figure boosted by Covid grants from the government. The period covers the final full season before Brad and Sharon Galinson took over the majority shareholding of Gillingham at the end of 2022. As a current director, Mr Galinson states: “After a long, collaborative due diligence process, on the 23rd December 2022 I acquired a majority shareholding in GFC Holdings and Gillingham Football Club Ltd. “Myself and my family are absolutely delighted to have completed the acquisition of Gillingham Football Club. “It is a club with a rich heritage and a passionate, loyal fan base.” The accounts covered the season that Gillingham suffered relegation from League 1. Supporters were allowed back into Priestfield following the end of Covid restrictions. As a result, turnover increased from £4.3million to £5.5million. However, administrative expenses nearly doubled from £1million to £1.9million while government grants halved from nearly £1.3million to just under £700,000. The club received an £882,800 EFL advance in the previous year that is repayable in instalments up until April 2024 and that figure has now been reduced to £580,621. The club paid interest of £49,000 on the loan of £1.8million to Three Directors Limited – of which Mr Scally is a director – during the financial year. The loan is repayable within five years. In terms of football ticket sales, income went up from nearly £2.4million to nearly £2.9million, commercial income more than doubled to £321,478 and shop income rose to £172,553 from £5,665. With facilities open again, banqueting and catering saw an income of £314,237 and TV and radio revenue rose from £87,741 to £119,040. During the year, Mr Scally received £121,750 for “performed consultancy services for the company” which is an increase from the £112,361 he received in the previous 12 months.
It will be interesting to see the difference in revenue from the Megastore and catering outlets.... It beggared belief ( to me ), that Scally was so blinkered in his outlook as to close the Megastore - which cried out to be open on matchday... I am sure that, with cheaper / free tickets for Under 14s, there is likely to be greater 'impulse' buying ! As for the catering outlets - many was the time when I would have spent a fair few quid - but the damned place ( GRS /RE ) was closed - and the queue in the RE concourse was unattractive.......... and, as for queues - The Club really needs to get something sorted for the GRS... At half time, Home supporters have an almost hopeless task to get to the loo and catering facility in the allotted time - and that's when there is only a modest attendance... At the Newport game it was farcical to see the long lines - or should I say line, because there was only one line for the loo AND the tea bar - regardless of which took your fancy !
I think once Scally closed the Megastore, that was a clear sign to me that he'd either lost his sales touch or the club was going down the pan. The Gills isn't like ordering from Amazon where there use to be no shops to go to, football fans attend the place every other weekend and a large volume of supporters needed to walk pass the shop to get into the ground or even on a week day to pick up tickets, if you didn't trust the post. Much like matchday programmes they should be in your face as soon as you walk through the turnstile. I hate the bottle neck that occurs under the Rainham End at half-time, but that's probably more a structual problem than anything else, ie we got no way of extending the ground. Athough there probably could be some better use of the Medway Sand concourse. I've never really liked this idea of stewards restricting movement of home fans, I get it with away fans, but not home tickets, maybe there's fire legislation or the usual H&S as a reason behind this. I often notice one large section of the GRS never use to fill, ffs, rip the seats out and get food trolleys in there lol...tongue in cheek, but you know what I mean, use every available space is the one rule of marketing, an empty shelf is lost revenue.
brb, I 've seen the same number of (generally) empty seats....... I would think that, as a short-term measure, a galley style tea bar could be created in the GRS - at the back - where there is the separation between the opposing seated fans.... This might end up needing about up to 50 (Home) seats ripped out - but the income from refreshments would compensate - and alleviate some of the queue for home fans ....... and perhaps a pot to p in might help for those with weak bladders.
