BURTON Albion Chairman Ben Robinson has issued the following statement to update fans, sponsors and partners on the current situation.
In this period of uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, our chief thoughts are the welfare of everyone connected with Burton Albion FC and ensuring we all do as much as possible to support the NHS, emergency services and essential workers in helping us all get through this.
In this difficult time, we have had to take unprecedented steps to safeguard the future of the club at a point when our incomes streams have dried up.
Our last home game was on March 10 when we played Bolton and since then we have not had any matchday income or the associated revenue generated by the refreshment kiosks and bars nor from the hospitality and sponsorship packages that accompany our games.
We had five home games remaining, which featured some of our biggest games of the season including Sunderland and Portsmouth, where hospitality has long been sold out and where our biggest home attendances of the season were expected.
Without this revenue it makes it very hard for the club to pay its considerable overheads and at the moment we do not know when these games might be played.
In addition, we had anticipated putting season tickets on sale on April 1 at an Early Bird price, which is also important income for the club that helps our cashflow in the close season. But with the uncertainty as to when the new season may start, this makes it very difficult for us to budget for this period.
The EFL has distributed £50 million to Championship, League One and League Two clubs which equates to £250,000 for Burton Albion. This money has been used to support the paying of March’s salaries at a time when off the field income such as conferences has also come to a halt.
The Premier League has also announced the advancing of solidarity payments for the EFL, which will help with cashflow but which we would normally expect to have in August - and which has already been budgeted for next season.
With this challenging financial picture and the long-term uncertainty which affects the club alongside the many businesses we work with, it has become necessary to put a number of club staff on furlough as part of the government’s Job Retention Scheme with only a small number of key staff members continuing to work from home to keep essential operations going.
At this time, we are in talks with the players about an agreement going forward that will also help us through the current financial pressures.
I will update you further when I can. In the meantime, I hope you all keep safe and that we will all be watching football together back at the Pirelli Stadium soon.