The Political Economy of Football V2

Shakers fans have three plans on the table as they seek to revive their club: Plan A: a consortium interested in buying the club in its present form. Plan B: the purchase of Gigg Lane, valued at £3.8m, by entrepreneur Robert Benwell, either out of liquidation or by way of repossession. Talks are continuing with mortgage holder Capital Bridge Financing. Plan C: A supporter-led phoenix club named Bury AFC to apply to join the North West Counties League from next season. They would seek a ground share, possibly with Radcliffe. As far as Plan B is concerned, Benwell has said that he would invest £800k of his own money to pay off a percentage of the ground's mortgage. He claims to have an agreement in principle with Capital Bridge Financing for £4 of every ticket, potentially priced at £15, to pay the interest on the rest of the mortgage. Chair of the Bury Phoenix Group Chris Murray told The Football League Paper, 'I wasn't totally on board with the Benwell idea when yo...

The takeover of Bury FC last season by Steve Dale for £1 was not approved under Football League regulations: Bury takeover An offer to settle 25p in the pound of the club’s non-football and unsecured debts – HMRC was owed £1m at that point – but the creditors’ voluntary arrangement (CVA) proposal was adjourned this week. The administrators of Mederco, one of Day’s collapsed property companies, has claimed since the proposal was made that it is owed approximately £7m in loans made to Bury while Day owned the club. Bury Supporters' Trust have sent an open letter to the chairman expressing their concerns and saying that the heart and soul has been ripped out of the club over the last few weeks: Open letter

Bury FC has been put up for sale by chairman Steve Dale just five months after he took over. The financial situation of the Shakers, who could be promoted to League One, is much worse than he realised with £1.6m of commitments to meet by the end of May and just £180,000 of anticipated income. A winding up order has been postponed: Bury crisis The club chairman has issued a long statement which has a rather exasperated tone to it: A message from the chairman The club has had a number of financial crises over the years. It is not easy to operate in the shadow of the two big Manchester clubs.

Bury lost £51,000 a week in 2016/17 before interest expenses. They had less than £2,000 in their bank account at the year end and over £7 million of creditors. Their auditors say there is a material uncertainty over the club’s ability to carry on trading. They need continuing support from owner Stewart Day. He invested over £1m of cash in 2016/17 following £3m the previous year. The Shakers spent £170,000 on transfer fees in 2016/17. £150,000 of this was for manager Lee Clark when he was poached from Kilmarnock. Clark was sacked after eight months. The club owed Stewart Day’s company Mederco £4.3 million at end of 2016/17. The example of Walsall shows that it is possible to run a club in a sound way in the lower reaches of the EFL.