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Members of the CAST board held a meeting with Thomas Sandgaard via Teams on Wednesday evening to raise with him the issues and concerns of fans that we had outlined in our letter of October 13th
https://www.castrust.org/2022/10/cast-writes-to-thomas-sandgaard-with-concerns/
The meeting was attended by Heather McKinlay (Chair), Heather Alderson (Vice Chair), Paul Breen and Richard Wiseman (Secretary) from CAST, Thomas, Raelynn Maloney and Tom Rubashow from CAFC, and the CAFC Fan Advisors Lucy Bishop and Lewis Catt.
Change of Ambition
We described how the adjustment of Thomas’s ambition (from Premier League in 5 years to cash-flow neutral next season) had been perceived as a lack of ambition and perhaps a desire on his part to sell the club. We said that we were sceptical about opportunities for significant increase in revenue and therefore envisaged cuts to the playing budget and more player sales. We feared this could lead to a vicious circle of growing supporter apathy, declining attendances and decreased revenue.
Thomas stressed that his ambition was still the same as when he became owner. He conceded that the time line might be longer and that there were no guarantees of promotion, however much money was invested. He said that it might take a couple of seasons to get the playing style right and consistent. He noted that we have the fourth highest playing budget (and higher than last season) and that, if we had beaten MKD, we would not be far off fourth position.
He said that, even in League One, there is “the possibility of increasing revenue significantly” but that “we are not blessed with an organisation that has been able to do that for many years”. He believes that there is a lot of potential for growing revenue and that, although he didn’t want to go into detail, there are areas showing good progress. He is confident that losses can be halved in one more season and break even achieved in another season and a half after that.
He stressed that “the break even scenario would not be achieved by cost cutting.” However, he thinks the cost base is a “little too much for where we are at” and he has taken some steps to reduce costs where he felt it was appropriate (eg reducing men’s first team travel costs). He now approves all expenses and he thinks that there are “a thousand more business principles which need to be applied throughout the club so it can run more agile”.
He discounted the idea of imminent sales of young players to balance the books - using Miles Leaburn as an example. He strongly believes we should encourage young players to develop their potential and value at Charlton and he is pleased that Miles, for example, is on a long contract.
He conceded that, when results are not going well and he is “making another wire transfer", he does sometimes ask himself “where is this going?” but overall he emphasised his optimism and continued ambition. He could understand where the perception of a declining vicious circle came from but he stressed that “I’m much more optimistic than you from outside”.
He reiterated that he is still enjoying being the owner of CAFC but the enjoyment has changed in nature. The energy and excitement of being part of saving the club has been replaced by being close to the football action and by the satisfaction of gradually turning the business side round. He said that “unfortunately we have a very tight labour market to find good employees and that makes it go a little slower than I expected”.
Sometimes he feels he is “borderline being treated like Roland Duchatelet” but he recognises that “that is not uncommon in English football”.
He is not interested in inviting external investment to share the financial burden. He has “other sources of income that he could leverage”.
He summed up by saying: “The right thing to do is to spend most of the money on the men’s first team because that is what will create the future for all of us."
