Calamity awaits if cup does not over-runneth (From York Press)

Calamity awaits if cup does not over-runneth

9:30am Saturday 4th February 2012 in Diary By Dave Flett, Sports reporter

YORK City have a proud pedigree in knockout competitions.

The Happy Wanderers’ FA Cup semifinalists of 1955 were followed by Keith Houchen’s penalty that dumped the mighty Arsenal out of the same tournament three decades later and who will ever forget the 3-0 humbling of a Manchester United side, including the likes of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Gary Pallister, in a famous League Cup contest at Old Trafford?

Today’s scheduled FA Trophy third round home tie with Ebbsfleet will never rank alongside any of those matches in the proud memories of the Minstermen faithful but, in terms of safeguarding the club’s immediate future, its significance must not be under-estimated.

In fact, two untimely off-the-pitch announcements have ramped up its importance.

The Conference board’s intention for clubs to submit next season’s playing budgets to an independent committee for approval by May 31 was the first.

Then came the second, when it was revealed that the reviewing of Oakgate’s new stadium application has been postponed by two months until March by the City of York Council’s planning committee.

Put simply, with the Conference ready to apply more stringent restrictions on their clubs’ wage bill expenditure and relocation from Bootham Crescent still progressing at an almost interminable pace, the £250,000 windfall a Trophy final appearance at Wembley could herald would go a long way to preserving City’s professional status for another season.

Promotion to the Football League via another Wembley outing would, of course, remove the majority of City’s financial pressures overnight with its estimated £750,000 rewards and no significant wage bill rises required to climb another division.

Otherwise, the Minstermen will once more need to find a method of covering annual losses of £300,000 if they are to continue operating under the same player salary level which is, by no means, near the highest in the division.

Under the Conference’s new proposals, still to be ratified by the FA, further loans from the club’s owners JM Packaging will no longer be an option even if the McGill family were prepared to lend more money than the estimated £1.3 million they have already handed over on an interest-free basis, assuming relocation to a new stadium is secured.

That sum has also come on top of the £300,000 the Malton-based firm paid to gain a 75 per cent ownership of the Bootham Crescent outfit back in 2006.

The measures from non-League football’s top governing body, of course, are well intentioned and should be applauded given the problems faced by Darlington and Kettering this season when the benevolence of their bank-rolling owners was abruptly withdrawn.

City would not be alone in reducing the size of their wage bill either, resulting in a situation where teams, quite rightly, are only as strong as their fan base or, for the very fortunate few, as deep as the pockets of an owner who is prepared to risk his own money, rather than lend it, without any guarantee of a return.

The Minstermen currently boast the fifth-highest average attendance in the Blue Square Bet Premier behind Luton (6,043), Wrexham (3,795), Stockport (3,326) and Grimsby (3,236) but, with two Football League teams being relegated every season and the club operating from a decaying stadium with limited commercial potential and rising maintenance costs, the ability to mount a play-off challenge in the future will continue to be testing, even allowing for the level playing field the Conference wants to enforce.

Should the budget monitoring scheme be in place next season, City’s estimated £650,000 wage bill would need to be halved, assuming the club are not promoted, do not reach Wembley in the Trophy final or are unable to sell one player or more for a considerable six-figure sum.

The future of the youth team would once more come under scrutiny while overnight stays for the first team would almost certainly be scrapped.

With nine players – Matty Blair, Liam Henderson, Michael Ingham, David McGurk, Paddy McLaughlin, Lanre Oyebanjo, Michael Potts, Jamie Reed and Jason Walker – all under contract at Bootham Crescent beyond this summer that would also leave Gary Mills with little, if any, room to manoeuvre with his reduced budget in the summer.

If success on the pitch, in the league or in the Trophy, is not achieved at the end of this term and the sale of one or more of the club’s playing assets is not possible or is to be resisted, equity investment or gifts are permitted under the new proposals.

In that scenario, the Supporters’ Trust, whose credibility and profile have diminished since handing over ownership of the club five-and-a-half years ago, could be called upon to increase their financial input at Bootham Crescent.

Otherwise, the Trust’s justification for maintaining a 25 per cent shareholding in the club, while it might be defended idealistically, may soon be questioned.

JM Packaging have now loaned the club more money than they promised under the terms of their 2006 takeover and, if the Conference’s initiative is to come to fruition, any further funds from the company would need to be provided as a gift or in return for further shares.

Likewise, of course, JM Packaging could reduce their shares in the club, should outside investment be forthcoming.

That prospect, or indeed the provision of more funds from the McGill family, remains unlikely while the club are based at Bootham Crescent and still in debt to the increasingly-impatient Football Stadia Investment Fund, who will switch their £2 million loan into a grant should a new community stadium be built in the city but might not wait much longer for news of positive progress.

More than ever, City’s future relies upon an expediency in this matter that has been, so far, lacking from the Guildhall powers.

A negative decision, or further dithering, in March would reflect badly on a council that, let’s not forget, pledged to provide a new community stadium by 2010.

Protests from certain city centre shop-keepers to the building of one out-of-town Marks & Spencer store and a John Lewis shop must be kept in context and not distract from the provision of long-overdue, superior facilities for York’s sporting community.

The efforts of City’s players and supporters will prove crucial in coming months.

If the fans can cheer their team on to the two Wembley victories that manager Mills craves, it would certainly afford the club more time with, or without, the support they were promised by their council representatives back in 2003.