AUGUST 2019 BusIness 13
Rochdale are hard-working. They
spend the majority of their time trying
to help the club.”
In 2017 Bottomley helped launch
Rochdale Ambassadors, a private-
sector led group that will highlight the
town as a destination for business.
He became the chief executive in
December 2018 and admits the club’s
close proximity to Manchester United,
Manchester City and a clutch of other
lower league clubs makes it a
challenge. “We’ve got a great set of
fans. Last year we averaged 3,700,
which is our largest average gate since
1972.
“Gate receipts are £1.1m a year in
season ticket sales, walk-ups and away
support.
“It would be no secret from a playing
budget point of view that we’ve needed
to find more than double that to break
even. That shows the difficulty of
running a club of this size.”
However Bottomley is far from
despondent. Rochdale’s academy has
been the country’s third most
successful over the last six years, based
on a point system awarded when
players get into the first team or one of
the England representative teams.
Luke Matheson is Rochdale’s
youngest ever debutant and played for
England U17s while Dan Adshead, who
joined the club at the age of eight,
recently signed for Premier League
club Norwich City after getting picked
for England U18s.
“One of the reasons we sign players
for less money than other clubs offer
them is we have a great track record of
allowing players to develop and when
they get offers to go to bigger, better
clubs, if you want to put it that way, is
we don’t stand in their way,” he
explains.
“We’re on a percentage
of future transfer deals,
we’re on an
agreement if he
plays for England
U21s, we’re on a
sliding structure
of payments for
appearances in
the EFL and the
Premiership.”
It’s the sort of
pragmatism
Rochdale have relied
on to stay solvent
throughout their history.
“The biggest challenge for Rochdale
is having the revenue we need to
develop the club,” he says. “The board’s
ambition from the football point of
view is to play in the Championship
because Rochdale has never played
above the bottom two divisions.
“In order to get into the
Championship we need more revenue.
We’d like to find investment into the
club that will help us build a first team
training and community facility in the
borough of Rochdale, similar to the one
that Fleetwood Town have got.
“We want people of all ages to play
sport, to engage, eat and drink
and be part of a set-up where we
can develop more academy
players but also develop
people who want to
play sport.
“We want to help
make the people of
Rochdale fitter,
healthier and
happier. In order to
do that we’re
requiring outside
investment and we’re
working very hard to
find the right partner.
“We’ve survived for 112
years and we’re playing in the
fifth largest league in Europe based on
crowd sizes and the fourth largest
league in Europe based on revenue.
“We’re all very proud that we are
doing that but the board at Rochdale is
very ambitious to try and take us to the
next level but without selling our soul
to the devil.
“We don’t want the club to go the
way a lot of clubs have gone that have
got involved in foreign ownership.” Bottomley says the club’s priority is
having their own dedicated training
ground.
Currently the squad play on football
pitches at Rochdale Cricket Club and
Platt Lane, which is Manchester City’s
former training ground.
“It’s a fantastic facility but there’s a
frustration amongst our players that
they have to commute into Manchester
every day,” explains the CEO.
“The dream of everyone at Rochdale
is to have this community facility and
sustain a successful club on the playing
side. If anyone has got £14m we’d like
them to step forward.
“For the building of a community
facility you’re looking at about £8m.
“We want someone to partner us
at this football club who want to make
the investment for the same reasons
we want to see the investment
made.
“We are in talks with a number of
people at the moment, we’ve signed a
couple of non-disclosure agreements
so it’s getting serious. However, as the
Americans say, the sizzle is better than
the sausage some time.
“I hate the expression but we’ve had
a number of tyre kickers come along so
finding someone for the long-term is a
lot harder than you’d think.”Rochdale AFC V Sunderland AFC at
the Spotland Stadium last seasonThe board’s ambition from
the football point of view is
to play in the Championship
because Rochdale has
never played above the
bottom two
divisions.Are ‘EOTs’ the
new ‘ABCs’
for business?
Richard Lamb, Director,
Regional Business
Development at ThincatsWith all the headlines surfacing
about the ‘uncertain’, ‘tumultuous’
and even ‘dangerous’ year ahead for
UK businesses, it’s easy to get lost in
the doom and gloom and resign
yourself to battening down the
hatches, sticking to the status-quo
and hoping for the best.
It’s important to remember that it
is precisely at times like these, that
the opportunities for growth and
innovation are ripe for the taking.
Businesses still need funding and
decisions still need to be made.
Employee ownership is one of
these opportunities. As
demonstrated by its name, an
employee-owned business is run by
its employees – everyone has a
meaningful stake in the business
and its subsequent successes.
The UK is undoubtedly leading
the way for innovation by seizing
employee-owned business models
to drive both economic and
community development. This
model is proving that the precedent
set by John Lewis isn’t unique but a
new standard that UK businesses
should follow – because it works.
There are also numerous benefits
to employee ownership; employee
ownership trusts (EOTs) are a
tax-efficient vehicle for employers
and employees alike. They provide a
positive solution for four key
business conditions: succession
planning, growth planning, start-
ups, and public sector spin-outs.
Combining an extensive knowledge
of SMEs and the credit space,
alternative lenders can tailor each
EOT to each individual business,
instead of shoehorning SMEs into
an invoice-financing structure.
With the list of UK businesses
moving over to employee
ownership structures growing, it’s
important for businesses in the
north west to not be left behind.
Businesses should be aware of the
benefits of employee ownership as
they offer a new means of ensuring
productivity post-Brexit through
reinvestment into regional
communities. Alternative lenders
want to provide options for regional
SMEs and boost local economies- we don’t take deals, we make
them.