See that Beaumont has announced the signing of a SL player and has committed to continue funding the club, including carrying forward the funding he would have put in this year. He has clearly done well out of the furlough scheme.
There will be Leigh, London, Featherstone (?) and Toulouse full-time and presumably favourites for promotion next year, together with TWP if the RFL/SL decide to reject their SL licence application and demote them to the Championship. .
I know that it never did Widnes any good when we were full-time in 2019, but we did have the points deduction to contend with, but have we a real chance of promotion with a part-time team. Maybe a mix of full-time/part-time is an option, but I could see that causing real divisions within the camp. I wonder if the club have a long-term plan to go back to full-time.
We should now be getting back on to a sound financial footing, although probably need more time to recover from the financial melt-down of 2018 due to financial mismanagement, but surely full-time must be the aim. We may not be able to pay the daft contracts that were apparently handed out under Rule, including the contracts to the Directors themselves, but possibly look to attracting and retaining the better players with the offer of full-time deals.
If the club aimed to be self sustainable on central funding (whatever that is), sponsorship and gate money, the VIQI funding and any other additional investment we may attract, could be used to invest in and develop a full-time squad. I have no idea how much VIQI give to the club or what balances it holds, but if there was a clear plan that any VIQI funding would be used to support full-time contracts with the clear aim of promotion, this may also encourage others to support VIQI.
Probably too early to think about, but I wonder if it is achievable in the foreseeable future. An option for 2021, is to build a decent part-time team capable of qualifying for the play-offs and then do what others have done in the past and bring in a few top class players for the play-offs, although I have never agreed to this being within the rules.
In any event, as always, I am confident of a successful and entertaining season in 2021.
It has to be part time.
Anyone committing to giving employment with no certainty of income would be mad with the covid situation.
The fulough scheme will end shortly
There is a very real possibility that no crowds or very restricted crowds will be the norm for the season 2021.
Covid is not going away....................
Also part time outfit can write terms including the covid factor.
Clubs who commit to full time etc with the income situation as it is could be bankrupt very easily.
So it would be part time with covid conditions for me .................players can take it or leave it.
The club only need a very small staff which would include TS...it`s a small operation in reality.
And is there any security for a non-city club with NA teams seemingly bursting to enter? Until that is sorted you could lose a lot of money trying to match them.
Unless we have a benefactor hiding somewhere we will be community funded for a long time yet.
Anybody know what the situation with VIQI is? Numbers, contributions etc?
Don't understand why that information isn't freely available.
I agree about VIQI, be good to have a detailed update with facts and figures, think that there could well be people cancelling in the current circumstances or if things worsen again.
As for PT v FT, a good PT team will be better than an average FT, just look at how disappointing we were last year after Easter.
. There will be Leigh, London, Featherstone (?) and Toulouse full-time and presumably favourites for promotion next year
Fev aren't full time, they train two or three evenings a week, though there are a handful of players at the club who don't have a job outside RL.
I don't see the value in being full-time in Championship anymore. You're basically on a hiding to nothing. Leigh have a few years at it, and then Beaumont pulls the plug, and they've got the begging bowls out.
Let the likes of Toulouse, Ottawa etc make their way up to Super League, pointless trying to compete.
No guarantee too, as we've seen, that a full-time team can beat a part-time team on a one-off match.
It might not be the worst thing for us to become the "go-to" part-time team this side of the Pennines - seems to have worked nicely in year one with Smith and Tomkins, as an example.
Hopefully you are right Dd. The whole SL thing is in a state of flux with so many options that could happen, and nothing is too way out for them tbh.
It does my head in when they simply slash the cash about with no thought of stabilising things. SL clubs shouldn't rely on the Sky cash - it is so short sighted.
Anyway, so long as we can hold our heads up next year and shock a few we'll be OK.
We should definitely stay part time for now IMO.
I agree about VIQI, be good to have a detailed update with facts and figures, think that there could well be people cancelling in the current circumstances or if things worsen again. As for PT v FT, a good PT team will be better than an average FT, just look at how disappointing we were last year after Easter.
Anybody know what the situation with VIQI is? Numbers, contributions etc? Don’t understand why that information isn’t freely available.
I contacted VIQI recently asking how many numbers we have now & what the total of the contributions comes too. They replied saying they reply to members twice a year about this. The last one I received was February & that to me was not fully detailed & I was not given an up to date position. I do appreciate though they cannot be issuing statements too frequently. I do suspect that numbers will have fallen though & probably more will withdraw if people have a reduction in their incomes in these unprecedented times. This is entirely understandable but an update would be welcomed sooner than later.
I did note that there was a VIQI comment at the end of the Owens statement today.
Hope numbers aren't hit too badly but I could see people having to choose between VIQI and a Season Ticket.
Clearly an update ahead of season tickets for 21 going on sale would be welcome.
I also contacted VIQI geoffw regarding an update and got a similar response.
I personally feel that their lack of information is unacceptable and only giving its members a twice yearly update is not enough and will be the cause of people leaving the scheme.
There needs to be more integrity in what they are doing, at the moment it all seems very secrative and for me stinks of how Rule ran Widnes and that is not good. I know the Chairman of VIQI and how hard hes worked on it and would never question his committment to the club, but with so little information it just leaves VIQI open to question and criticism all the time. What was the committee set up to do? Are they trying to generate new members? Do they try to realtain departing members?
I suspect numbers have gone down and I would not blame anyone for leaving. I will be leaving myself if the next update isnt soon and gives proper information on member numbers, change in numbers over the last 6 month, bank balance, monthly income and how much of that goes as standard to the Vikings v what stays in VIQI to help with signings in future. There should be a full Income and Expenditure breakdown available to members each year given their substantial contributions.
As for part time v full time. I agree part time is the right way to go at present. Given our support base and hopefully VIQI investment our cost base should be able to be higher than most. We should be putting together the strongest part time team in the league that can hopefully compete with the full time teams. That will be down to the coach to then run as well as a full time team but part time.
To go full time in the future we would certainly need further investment and I hope that is something the current board have on their agenda, whilst also constantly reviewing what the current members are offering.
DLM
I have contributed to VIQI from the outset. I only know the ‘officials’ by sight but friends of many years know them much better and their word is good enough for me. As I see it VIQI is our town’s answer to the Beaumont factor but its ‘us’ not ‘them’ or ‘him’.
I can see an argument for a statement of funds but to make that the governing factor as to whether I continue subscribing is just a bit too far. The problem with maintaining any fund raiser effort of this type is that if numbers drop, for whatever reason, some will see this as an alarm or excuse and follow suite.
That could kill the scheme
The panic, as some see it, is over. The club is saved and we can relax, but that isn’t true. VIQI has to be maintained as the remote secure fundraiser.
Inevitably with our present Covid 19 saga ongoing some will be seeing their income severely reduced. Their finances will be stretched and we must all understand that they have to focus on home and family.
This has to be the time when those who can manage it continue to support. Ask for assurances/statements by all means, but support.