Fans the heroes in saving Sligo Rovers
THE LOYAL SLIGO ROVERS SUPPORTERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE PRAISED FOR DONATIONS
FOOTBALL clubs thank their loyal fans many times, however at Sligo Rovers AGM on Tuesday night the gratitude was very clear. Without its fans’ fundraising intervention when the club was in dire straits last season, First Division football would now be the reality.
The Rally around Rovers campaign, as it was known, raised a whopping € 78,000 in a crucial time for the club as it was fighting to stay up in the SSE Airtricity League.
The club had a dismal and disastrous 2015 campaign and memories of the glory League winning years of 2012 were just that - memories. Instead, three years on, Sligo Rovers were hurtling towards a chronic financial scenario that would see them unable to pay players’ wages and dropping into lower tier football. At Tuesday’s AGM in the Clarion Hotel, club treasurer Gary Loughlin made the point extremely clear. He said: “We have a cash loss from last year of € 134,000. The reality is that without Rally around Rovers, which saw people all over the world donate, we would be facing a loss in the region of € 200,000. “That loss would have been too much as we wouldn’t have been able to pay wages and that meant First Division,” he pointed out. The 2015 income saw a slide of € 426,777 on the previous year, taking into account the huge chunk missing from not having European action.
Gary added: “The club’s income last year was € 1,048,066, that was right back at the 2008 level. Comparing that to the good years when we won the League in 2012 the income was € 1,519,853. Our expenses were € 20,000 above budget too as we had to buy an extra player at the end of last season.”
With poor performances on the pitch, this also affected numbers attending games in The Showgrounds. “The income we received from gates was € 158,000 for 2015 - this was a drop of 48% on 2014’ s figures, which were € 303,000.” Season tickets sales were also down to € 96,711.
However the message was clear from the club committee that there’s a brighter 2016 future to look forward to with the appointment of manager Dave Robertson and his new- look team.
Robertson, who also addressed the meeting, promised both he and his squad will wear the Rovers badge with immense pride.