Chesterfield Chairman Reveals Debt Concern

The chairman of Chesterfield Football Club has revealed his mounting concern over the club’s debts.

The League Two football club are £7 million in debt according to Dave Allen, the club’s chairman. Speaking at the club’s Annual General Meeting on Monday, Allen said: “The club carries far too much debt, with loans of £7 million, which needs to be reduced. Ideally, we’d like to get the debt to around half that figure. I think the business could sustain a debt of about £3 million.”

Allen also believes the town’s council could do more to help the club with its predicament and that holding concerts at Proact Stadium could help to generate income.

He said: “There’s a council loan of £960,000 with 4% interest charged and they should give serious consideration to writing it off over a three-to-five year period when you consider how much publicity this club generates for the town.”

“We’ve been able to reduce operating costs. [Chief executive] Chris Turner has succeeded in making some dramatic reductions but we have to be a selling club and 70% of money raised will go to reducing the debt and 30% will go to the playing budget.”

“We will put on more concerts after the success of Elton John coming here last year and hopefully make £300,000 – £400,000. We should be able to announce shortly who will be performing.”

Turner added: “We’ve got to find other savings in the next 12 months to keep things on an even keel. We can’t spend above our means so we do have to be a selling club. We have to produce our own players.”