Wakefield fire-sale is ‘last resort’
Wakefield chairman Michael Carter insists that player sales are his last resort, despite revealing the extent of the club’s financial difficulties last weekend.
The Wildcats sold scrum-half Tim Smith to Salford on Friday, and Carter then admitted that the club had a shortfall of approximately £400,000.
In a press conference today, the chairman said he is prepared for the challenge of getting the club on a sound financial footing.
He also confirmed that a deal is in place to buy Andrew Glover’s shares, making Carter the majority shareholder at the club, with Glover remaining involved to see the club into a new Community Stadium at Newmarket.
Whilst not shying away from the harsh realities facing the club, Carter says there is no way the club will not start 2014 in Super League and is confident Richard Agar will be able to put together a competitive squad.
“I was charged two weeks ago with becoming chairman, I did a review of the finances and came to the conclusion that we need investment into this club,” said Carter.
“For whatever reasons in the past, this club has spent more than it’s earned, and it’s that simple. Now I’m at the point that I get money in, through whichever means, and this club will carry on. Be it running on a budget of one, two or three million pounds, the club will still be here.
“I’ve put a lot of money in, Chris (Brereton, club director) has put a lot of money in – but we’re not rich people. I’ve looked at the finances and they’re not good. What I put out in the press release is correct – I need £400,000 in the next couple of months.
“We’ve got a budget in place for next season that we think we can live with and be competitive. We want to be in the top twelve. There’s no point saying we want to be in the Championship because we want to be in Super League.
“We played a team last night who picked up the League Leaders Shield (Huddersfield). But tell me where they would be without a Ken Davy? And we haven’t got a Ken Davy.
“I don’t want to give false hope but at the same time I’ve got to be upbeat. I’ve got to lift the morale of the whole place, the fans, the players and the club as a whole.
“If I don’t get further investment then players will have to go. I don’t see any point beating about that bush because I haven’t got the money left to put in and the club hasn’t. We haven’t got 50 grand just there to go and pay somebody. We need to get investors in or more sponsorship in.
“Our sponsorship deals for next season were somewhere in the region of the £400,000 mark. We’ve targeted £600,000 for next season and we think it’s doable. We had a problem with our main sponsor going bust. We got a new sponsor in but it didn’t help us cash wise, we still lost out on that.
“I can’t do anything with what’s gone on in the past apart from deal with the present problems and build a plan for the future. We’ve got the plan in place and if we can get to the starting point of that plan, which is what we’re talking about, then I fully believe that we can get through this as a competitive Super League team.
“It’s whether I can get to that starting point.”