ABERDEEN BROUGHT BACK FROM THE BRINK
DAVE CORMACK, the Aberdeen chairman, night lauded the Pittodrie club’s players, staff and management team for accepting a fresh round of pay cuts totalling £1million.
And Cormack predicted their selfless gesture will help to safeguard the long-term future of the Premiership outfit and protect jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States-based software entrepreneur admitted their financial position would have become “unsustainable” without further action and led to their funding gap reaching £10m.
Aberdeen employees who earn over £30,000 a year have agreed reductions in their salaries averaging 20 per cent following discussions with the hierarchy over the past six weeks.
A statement read: “These wage cuts of £1m will, along with other measures, help the club reduce the funding gap from £10m to £3.8m.”
The other measures include a £2m cash injection from investors, £2m of savings from the government job retention scheme and rates relief and £1m from higher than expected season ticket and AberDNA membership sales.
Cormack said: “I’m humbled by the response of our hardworking and dedicated executives, management, players and staff who have accepted these cuts and the reasons for them. They’ve demonstrated a willingness to do what needs to be done to help secure the club’s future.
“As a result of our higher earners sharing in the financial pain inflicted by the coronavirus crisis, we’re able to safeguard jobs and protect the incomes of those on a lower wage.
“It was clear that our situation was becoming unsustainable. These cuts help to further reduce our running costs to a more sustainable level against what income we can continue to generate through season ticket sales, AberDNA memberships and broadcast revenues. We have made significant strides getting the gap down to under £4million.
“We’re not out of the woods by any means, but everyone at the club is buoyed by our supporters and corporate clients’ desire for us to work together to get through this. And I believe we will. Along with our goal of avoiding redundancies and looking after our lower paid staff, we must stay competitive as a team and continue our investment in our youth academy.
“Every first team squad player from last season is under contract for the 2020/21 season, putting a huge burden on our payroll, but it was something we planned 18 months ago to ensure continuity and consistency in the squad. We were investing in the future when the pandemic hit.
“The connection that Aberdeen and the Community Trust have strengthened with our city region and our fans over the last four months has been heartening to see. The investment in our community and fan engagement programmes, including an expanded call-centre team proactively reaching out to our community and responding directly to fans, is being positively received.”
Cormack, who took over from Stewart Milen as Aberdeen chairman last year, expressed hope that limited crowds will be allowed in to stadiums quickly after the new season gets underway a week tomorrow.
“We’ve invested in a strong squad and have some exciting young players on the verge of breaking into the first team,” he said.
“Derek [manager McInnes] and everyone at the club is excited for the new season to begin. Remember, we’re still in the semi-final of the 2019/20
Scottish Cup, and the Europa League starts next month too.
“With over 7,500 season tickets sold and AberDNA memberships at 6,250, we still have a way to go, but it’s absolutely achievable. I’m encouraged by the fact that 15 per cent of 20/21 season ticket holders are new. The Red Shed is almost 70% full, with new season ticket holders accounting for 40 per cent of those.”
He continued: “We remain hopeful of getting partial crowds back to Pittodrie sooner rather than later.
“Since we announced that one metre social distancing would allow 7,500 season ticket holders into Pittodrie, our ticket office and stadium planning team have now assessed that we could accommodate 9,000 season ticket holders based on the number of families that would be able to sit together.”