ALASTAIR SMITH has insisted that York City fans can be “assured that next season’s budget will be built from the bottom up and will be as accurate as possible.”

Smith serves as the chief executive officer at York City and has been a life member of the York City Supporters’ Trust since its inception in 2002.

The CEO, who has held his post since the Glen Henderson-led takeover in July, is also the founder of York City South, a group that began 26 years ago.

“Our support this season has been tremendous, our average attendance of 4,806 is well ahead of the budgeted attendance figure,” noted Smith in match-day programme notes for City’s clash with Wrexham.

“The previous board based this season’s budget on selling 2,000 season tickets and an average attendance of 4,500.

"We adopted this budget when we took over, as the majority of the playing budget had already been spent.

“It’s very easy to think that the higher gates mean we have plenty of money to spend, however, the devil is in the detail.

“In every budget, there are unders and overs. Unfortunately, we don’t have the detail of how the budgeted ticket income was calculated so I don’t know why it is so far out.

“What this does tell us is that this season’s break-even budget is already adverse by £200,000 and will only get worse over the remaining matches.

“Whatever the reason, you can be assured that next season’s budget will be built from the bottom up and will be as accurate as possible.”

Smith went on to emphasise that, though the club have sold 219 season tickets more than budget, there are other costly aspects for the club, such as paying HM Revenue and Customs almost £50 per season ticket.

“For every adult season ticket we sell for £299, we have to pay HMRC 20 per cent VAT of £49.83," he said.

“We pay a further £23 to cover the cost of the ticketing system, leaving us with just £226.17,” he said. “It is the same with a £21 match day ticket, we only receive £16.50 after VAT and a £1 ticketing charge.

“Another variable is the split between adult, concessions and youth tickets, in addition to our season ticket total of 2,219 includes free tickets, such as volunteers, free carer tickets and tickets that form part of, and are accounted in, sponsorship packages.

“Analysing our actual season ticket income, we receive an average £137.22 per ticket. The budget assumed we would receive and average £211.88 per ticket.

“We have sold 219 season tickets more than budget, providing extra income of £30,050, however, the difference between £137.22 and the £211.08 means our income is £119,268 less than budget.”