Athlone town not facing a doomsday scenario meeting told
Athlone Town FC is not about to surrender its place in the League of Ireland, a public meeting about the future of the club was told last night.
The club called the meeting, which took place in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, 'for the purpose of establishing the level of public support for the continued involvement of the club at League of Ireland level.'
This led to growing levels of concern among local soccer supporters that the club could be in danger of exiting the League in the near future.
Not long into the meeting, however, the recently outgoing club chairman, John Hayden (who chaired the meeting and is now acting as interim chairman) said the occasion was 'not a Doomsday meeting' and that Athlone Town will continue as a League of Ireland club.
However, he stressed, in order to do so the club needs the financial assistance from the people of Athlone, and also greater man-power in the club, either through involvement on club committees or as a volunteer in other areas of club activity.
The meeting - attended by several local politicians and a total attendance of approximately 130 people - heard the club wants to “drive forward” in the future, and to make a return to the Premier Division as soon as possible.
Mr Hayden said Athlone Town FC is “too big a club” to be in the First Division of the League of Ireland.
He also reassured supporters there was no pressing concern about meeting the club’s weekly wage commitments to players and management. He said the players and management were “aware” of the situation and of the public meeting taking place.
When questioned from the floor about how Athlone Town decided on its playing budget for the 2015 season, a figure believed to be in the region of €4,000 a week, Mr Hayden said that playing budgets are always put together based on “certain assumptions” relating to gate receipts, sponsorship, fundraising, and other potential revenue streams.
Mr Hayden said the cost of running the club each week is in the region of €5,000.
Attendees were asked to contribute financially to the club, by way of either a €5 or €10 weekly contribution, to help the club generate an additional revenue stream. Some members of the attendance, led by Deputy Gabrielle McFadden, signed up to aid the financial cause at the end of the meeting.
The meeting lasted over two hours and numerous other topics of club business were discussed. For more comprehensive coverage, see next Wednesday’s edition of the Westmeath Independent.
Meanwhile, the club’s senior team hope to continue their good start to the First Division season when they travel to Belfield tonight (Friday) to take on UCD (7.45pm).