Individual News
18th of October 2007
Following the events of this week we felt it appropriate to clarify as many issues as possible.
At this moment we are sitting 1 point off the bottom of the Elite league, if we loose to Belfast tonight we will be bottom, we have put together a high profile team with one of the highest wage bills in the league, we were the only Elite team to reveal our wage bill to the board at the July meeting., hence the comments from some of the teams via their websites and local press.
The position with regard to the long term viability of the club is as follows, we believe that professional Ice Hockey is viable from the Basingstoke Arena, we gave our assurances to the board last week and stand by those assurances, Sharon and I have been financially supporting the club to the tune of £6,000 per week together with a pre season investment of £10,000, the reason for the wage cut of £1,500 per week was to firstly secure the long term financial viability of the club and to bring down the costs to a manageable level for us as owners, which at the same time allow us to develop the product, we are currently working with 2 corporate agencies specialising in sports sponsorship with the outcome being realised during this season, the second reason was due to the performance of the team in recent games, it doesn't take a genius to work out that changes have to be made to the team to return us to winning ways and to do justice to the Basingstoke Bison name, the new wage level is just below the wage cap and will allow Ryan to get the team back on track. The article from Ryan was based upon his request that if he can raise x amount per week from various fund raising concepts can he be allowed to spend that directly on strengthening the squad, my answer was yes he can, hence his comments about the money going to him.
As the owners we have expressed our concerns to and have been met with agreement from Ryan that 3 wins from 11 games is unacceptable, Ryan and I met Monday evening to decide the best way forward, the first instance was to look at our current squad to identify where the problems was, the decision was taken to release Peter Campbell and allow him to accept the offer he received from Belfast last week (whilst under contract to Basingstoke) and look immediately to replace him with a new playing partner to Steve Thornton, the players met on Monday evening again to confirm their commitment to the club, Tuesday morning Ryan woke to Stevie Lyle packing his suitcase (they share a flat together to keep the costs down) Stevie requested his release so he too can accept the offer and contract again put onto the table to him by Belfast last week.
At present Ryan and Steve are sourcing the replacements for both Stevie and Peter, an announcement will follow once signatures have been secured, any funds raised by Ryan and the team will go directly on additional players.
There has been much speculation and miss-information on many websites and regional papers over the past weeks, much of it is complete rubbish mixed in with some extremely un pleasant personal attacks on me by a large number of supposed supporters of the team, because of the vicious nature of this comments we will not be entering into any off ice event which runs the risk of being turned into a witch hunt against Sharon and I.
What is required now is for all the persons who clearly seem intent on driving us from the club to shut up, get off our backs and get behind the team, we are in much better position financially now than we were at the start of the season and fully intend to build upon our current league position.
The off ice activities with the merchandise is selling better that expected however the best way of assisting the team can be through the purchase of match day programmes (£1.50 profit and 50 / 50 tickets as both these raise serious funds for the team, the 50 / 50 sales at Basingstoke are less than a quarter of the Bracknell's match day 50 / 50 sales!!
The first shirt auction is set for Sunday 4th November 2007 immediately after the home game against Belfast in the Q Bar, the winning bidder will not only receive the players shirt from him at the end of the season but will also have theirs or a name of their choice put onto the rear of the shirt.
The issue about both Cardiff and Belfast putting out stories in their local papers originated from our decision to keep the players fully up to speed with the situation, Ryan was informed once our Accountants were able to confirm our exact income and outgoings we informed Ryan of the trading position, who in turn appraised the players hence the calls from some players to other clubs to possibly line up other options, with hindsight this may not have been the best course to take.
I have raised the fact that 3 clubs have made offers to a couple of our players whilst they remain under contract to Basingstoke with the Elite League Board, we do not hold the players responsible for that but we are very disappointed with the clubs for not only negotiating with the players involved but also making offers to them, at the end of the day the players must do what they feel is best for them and their families.
To summarise, we remain committed to the Basingstoke Bison and have placed the club in a much better financial position than we were last month and are looking forward to moving forward.
David & Sharon Taylor
At this moment we are sitting 1 point off the bottom of the Elite league, if we loose to Belfast tonight we will be bottom, we have put together a high profile team with one of the highest wage bills in the league, we were the only Elite team to reveal our wage bill to the board at the July meeting., hence the comments from some of the teams via their websites and local press.
The position with regard to the long term viability of the club is as follows, we believe that professional Ice Hockey is viable from the Basingstoke Arena, we gave our assurances to the board last week and stand by those assurances, Sharon and I have been financially supporting the club to the tune of £6,000 per week together with a pre season investment of £10,000, the reason for the wage cut of £1,500 per week was to firstly secure the long term financial viability of the club and to bring down the costs to a manageable level for us as owners, which at the same time allow us to develop the product, we are currently working with 2 corporate agencies specialising in sports sponsorship with the outcome being realised during this season, the second reason was due to the performance of the team in recent games, it doesn't take a genius to work out that changes have to be made to the team to return us to winning ways and to do justice to the Basingstoke Bison name, the new wage level is just below the wage cap and will allow Ryan to get the team back on track. The article from Ryan was based upon his request that if he can raise x amount per week from various fund raising concepts can he be allowed to spend that directly on strengthening the squad, my answer was yes he can, hence his comments about the money going to him.
As the owners we have expressed our concerns to and have been met with agreement from Ryan that 3 wins from 11 games is unacceptable, Ryan and I met Monday evening to decide the best way forward, the first instance was to look at our current squad to identify where the problems was, the decision was taken to release Peter Campbell and allow him to accept the offer he received from Belfast last week (whilst under contract to Basingstoke) and look immediately to replace him with a new playing partner to Steve Thornton, the players met on Monday evening again to confirm their commitment to the club, Tuesday morning Ryan woke to Stevie Lyle packing his suitcase (they share a flat together to keep the costs down) Stevie requested his release so he too can accept the offer and contract again put onto the table to him by Belfast last week.
At present Ryan and Steve are sourcing the replacements for both Stevie and Peter, an announcement will follow once signatures have been secured, any funds raised by Ryan and the team will go directly on additional players.
There has been much speculation and miss-information on many websites and regional papers over the past weeks, much of it is complete rubbish mixed in with some extremely un pleasant personal attacks on me by a large number of supposed supporters of the team, because of the vicious nature of this comments we will not be entering into any off ice event which runs the risk of being turned into a witch hunt against Sharon and I.
What is required now is for all the persons who clearly seem intent on driving us from the club to shut up, get off our backs and get behind the team, we are in much better position financially now than we were at the start of the season and fully intend to build upon our current league position.
The off ice activities with the merchandise is selling better that expected however the best way of assisting the team can be through the purchase of match day programmes (£1.50 profit and 50 / 50 tickets as both these raise serious funds for the team, the 50 / 50 sales at Basingstoke are less than a quarter of the Bracknell's match day 50 / 50 sales!!
The first shirt auction is set for Sunday 4th November 2007 immediately after the home game against Belfast in the Q Bar, the winning bidder will not only receive the players shirt from him at the end of the season but will also have theirs or a name of their choice put onto the rear of the shirt.
The issue about both Cardiff and Belfast putting out stories in their local papers originated from our decision to keep the players fully up to speed with the situation, Ryan was informed once our Accountants were able to confirm our exact income and outgoings we informed Ryan of the trading position, who in turn appraised the players hence the calls from some players to other clubs to possibly line up other options, with hindsight this may not have been the best course to take.
I have raised the fact that 3 clubs have made offers to a couple of our players whilst they remain under contract to Basingstoke with the Elite League Board, we do not hold the players responsible for that but we are very disappointed with the clubs for not only negotiating with the players involved but also making offers to them, at the end of the day the players must do what they feel is best for them and their families.
To summarise, we remain committed to the Basingstoke Bison and have placed the club in a much better financial position than we were last month and are looking forward to moving forward.
David & Sharon Taylor