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| Terry Casey |
The first and most important point to make is, as many of you know, the club has to pay £2 of the admission price to HMRC and therefore only receives £8. Furthermore, as the club did not pay any VAT for the previous four years, we have now been forced to set out a re-payment programme which hopefully will eventually re-pay the £25k the club currently owes. Not paying the VAT could jeopardise the very existence of the club.
Please also consider the club’s ambitions both on and off the pitch. We have a stadium to build that will cost £1.6million and will give the club a home after more than 20 years in exile. Many of the supporters of the club feel that one day we may return to the football league which seems realistic after seeing AFC Wimbledon achieve that feat. Our potential and ambitions is far greater than any other club in the Ryman South so to compare Maidstone United FC to others in the league is like comparing apples to oranges.
Even with the ticket prices as they are we have no hope of meeting the costs of the next season through the turnstiles alone. Our average attendance was 311 at Ashford but our loyal supporters are our best chance of at least coming close to the £170k required to keep the club afloat.
I am unashamedly asking the supporters to help the club by paying an extra £1 or £2 more than Whitstable Town or Ramsgate are asking. Every single penny that comes through the turnstiles goes to the survival of the football club. Nobody receives a wage for what we do and Oliver and I will have invested over £1million into the club to both ensure its very existence and to make sure that we play our games back in Maidstone.
I am not seeking anything from the supporters except their support by their attendance at matches in return we will put a team on the pitch that you can be proud and that will give us a realistic hope for promotion next season.
