We took the opportunity at
the Press Conference on Friday to have a word with our chairman Jamie
Moffat.......
Okay, he never actually promised us a cup run but near enough
surely! To kick off
we asked Jamie whether the decision not to sign
Oumar Bakari (left) was a football or a financial one...
JM said: "It was mainly a
financial decision. At one point we would quite like to have signed him
but as often happens in these circumstances when we thought we had agreed
a deal they then move the goalposts. If it had just been the goalposts it
would have been alright but it was the pitch and everything else! Firstly
it was a point of principle, if you agree a deal then it's a deal.
Secondly things then went beyond our budget which we couldn't afford."
We pointed out that this
meant we still had not signed a defender, which JJ had stated was a
priority. Jamie said: "There is still one position to fill and we
have been looking at a number of players but for a variety of reasons they
have not happened."
Given the precarious
situation with Hearts that has been well documented in the press we asked
the chairman where we now stood with the bank. He said: "We have the
facility with the bank. We know where we are, we know where the bank is.
That position has not changed. We sat down about 18 months ago and had a
very careful look at where we were, where we were going and how we were
going to balance the books. We set out a three year plan which brought us
from quite a significant loss to a break even position over that three
year period. An important part of that was bringing down the cost of
players. We’ve done that in the last two seasons and Jim’s been very good.
He’s happy that he knows what the number is and he works within that
number. It’s not easy, it’s difficult to balance the books and from
Kilmarnock Football Club’s point of view, last season we budgeted to
finish in the top six and we didn’t which had a significant financial
impact on us."
"We are hopeful with the
squad that we have that we will be in the top six and challenging for
Europe which will help us financially. We also think we must be due a cup
run sometime soon. Since we won the
Scottish Cup in ’97 we haven’t really
had a decent run other than one run in the League Cup and that would be a
windfall because we don’t budget for that. At the end of last season I
used the example of how the performance on the park can influence
finances. When we were playing
Partick Thistle on the last day of the
season we were winning at half time and in eighth place. Forty five
minutes later we were in tenth place which cost us in excess of £100,000.
Also at half time Clyde were being promoted and were going to ground-share
with us which would bring us extra revenue and that all went West as well.
That wasn’t a good drive home that night I can tell you!
It’s been reported that
we’ve sold over 3,500 season tickets already but there are some fears that
figure could include all the free tickets and four each for the family
tickets in the Moffat Stand. We asked Mr. Moffat if he was pleased with
the sales so far. He replied: “We’re getting more pleased every day.
We’re nearly at the budget for income that we set ourselves which is
reasonable for season ticket sales, somewhere around 3,300. But, we set a
target for around 200 more than that and we think that they will come
through what with the season nearly upon us. The newspaper reports that we
are 30% down are not comparing like for like. If you actually take the
number of season tickets sold…we’re up, and the income is in line with
last year. We have a full breakdown on all the figures, which I don’t have
to hand, but at the end of the day the figures quoted are for the actual
number sold. The critical thing is the revenue, whatever way it comes in,
the actual income is pretty much in line with what we were looking for."
Jim Jefferies contract
extension raised a few eyebrows among Killie fans, not because he doesn’t
deserve one, but after last years poor showing if things get worse instead
of better six months down the line the club would now be left with a large
payout. We asked Jamie of he thought it would have been better to wait six
month and then start contract negotiations. He said: “I think it is
better for us to give him a new contract now. He’s well thought of and the
last thing we would want is the contrary happening…we hang off and
something happens somewhere else and they come in for Jim and take him
away. It would be very difficult to replace a man of his experience.
That’s always the debate, as to when you do something like this; and at
then end of the day the board were very happy with the job that Jim
Jefferies was doing. We had issue with the traveling and that became part
of the discussions and I’m just very pleased that we’ve been able to
secure Jim’s services with terms that are acceptable to all parties."
