To our fans,
I hope this finds you well. Quick to the point update this month as in December we will hold a new Q&A, podcast and fan forum in December so let’s leave the details for later. Quick hits by topic so let’s get to it.
Football / New Management
Unsurprisingly, the team has won our last 4 matches in the NCEL. As mentioned before on these letters, the squad is as strong as you will see at this level of football. Where we historically have been lacking is discipline, organization and intensity. We also made our lives too difficult trying to copy professional formations forgetting where we are, the surfaces we play, weather, etc. Basic things like defending and attacking in numbers, matching intensity, winning your battles, pressing when we lose possession, being properly organized in set pieces and other basic concepts became secondary to intricate formations and trying to win by outsmarting the other team. It shouldn’t be that complicated when most of the time we have the best players on the pitch.
This is a new phase and after working with Stephen and Lee for the last 3 weeks we feel comfortable we’ve made the right appointment. They immediately increased the level of accountability, performance expectations in training and matches and mostly important understand the opportunity and all the support fans, management and staff provide at Wakefield AFC. Start has been promising and performances will only improve from here. We feel really good about this squad and management team but let’s not forget we had a 12 game unbeaten run last season, were top of the league and faltered in the end. So it’s heads down, work hard and take one game at the time – our league position and points lost so far are irrelevant and we need to get back into the promotion battle first.
New Signings
At any level of football a new management team will bring players they trust or have worked with before. So we’ve quickly signed 4 players requested by the new management team with another one being announced this weekend. Like we did before with our previous managers, we will set a budget and within our monetary capabilities will go after the players requested by management to put them in a position to win. The downside of this approach? With 16 players going to a game every Saturday and 5 new coming in, a few players will leave the club, specially if they were starting before the arrivals. So let’s accept that change will come, a transition is inevitable and support Stephen and Lee as they mold the squad to their liking.
After this weekend’s announcement we should have one more arrival in late November/early December and then work with the squad we have unless we get hit with long term injuries and suspensions.
Facilities
We are set on one location and have been working with the council to put forward a project application. We have architectural plans and have retained planners and survey to start this process. As of today, there is still nothing concrete and no firm commitment from the city of Wakefield and the local community, but there is a lot of goodwill and conversations have been positive. We believe we are moving on the right direction but we still need your support to engage council and your local MP and tell them about Wakefield AFC. This is a great project for the city and local youth and being privately funded is unique as the cost benefit for the city and tax payers is as good as one can get in the current economic environment.
Social Media / Marketing
The output from our Social Media team has been fantastic and they deserve a ton of credit. Highlights out within 24 hours, manager and players interviews out in less than 12, and we have seen significant growth on all of our platforms.
Having said that, we still need you to help us grow so make sure to follow us on all of our pages, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel. There’s less than 800 subscribers on YouTube, while we have 7k on Twitter, 1.5k on the new Facebook page [8k on the old page!], and 4.4k on our Instagram page. We need to reach a certain number of views and subscribers so we can start to monetize our page and fund live streaming of some of our games.
It is very important you interact with the posts. Like, share, tag your friends – you know what to do!
Please find a link to an interesting study prepared by our social media team with metrics from different social media platforms. It is promising but we can do better if we work together – please reach out to Emma and Adam if you have any suggestions. – CLICK HERE: SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT
While at it, please also consider joining the Facebook fan group which has been set up by some of our fans. Football at this level is about community and it’s a great opportunity to meet like minded people that meet before games, travel together for away games, etc.
Emma – secretary@wakefieldafc.co.uk | Adam – commercial@wakefieldafc.co.uk
Finances / Financial Stability
We will start including this section on our updates so fans understand the reality of non league football. First some basic concepts of revenues/expenses at this level.
Revenues
Revenue includes; Match tickets, merchandise, season tickets, player sponsors, club sponsors, competition prizes, facility rental, food and beverage and junior football/adult teams.
Expenses
Expenses can include; Equipment, staff pay, players pay, playing facilities, training facilities, physio, travel to away games (when more than 2 hours away), refs for home games, food for home and away players on home games, utilities.
Since there is no TV money, and money from sponsors is pretty small at this level, the main source of funding for teams in the leagues above are tickets, facilities rental (for those that own a 4G) and junior/adult teams that pay to play. We do not have our own facility or 4G so WE are the renters. We also have made a decision to keep football affordable for our juniors so we keep fees as low as we possibly can to just covers cost for Wakefield Juniors. As a result the club costs significantly more than it makes and like many other clubs at his level depends on a benefactor to keep the lights on and investments flowing.
We’ve been happy to do that for the last 3 years but we need to preserve capital to build our own facilities so it is more important than ever that we promote the club, grow our social media reach and increase our attendance numbers. Facilities will be key and should unlock new opportunities but until then let’s work together as we all play a part on this and the journey is still starting.
As usual, please reach out in case of questions and let’s keep this run going with another 3 points tomorrow.
All the best,
Gui Decca and Wakefield AFC Board of Directors.