The Year Of The Fox Posted 3 September 2013 Posted 3 September 2013 Went bust yesterday after 140 years after owing a sum of 50 odd thousand. Think there's supposed to be some kind of whipround online later?
Fox92 Posted 3 September 2013 Posted 3 September 2013 I thought they were in trouble. I recall them playing a different grounds. Shame really. Good friends with someone at uni who's from Kettering.
kylestyle06 Posted 3 September 2013 Posted 3 September 2013 It's a shame local businessman are not supporters of this club as I'm sure they could of raised £50,000 between them.
Simmo86 Posted 3 September 2013 Posted 3 September 2013 Ironic that it is Diamonds who have put them out of business. Some of my best footballing memories have been following the Poppies, promotion back to the Conference at Tiverton was truly epic! Northamptonshire football is in a fooking awful state! Cobblers are shite Corby are shite Kettering gone Diamonds gone Rothwell gone
purpleronnie Posted 3 September 2013 Posted 3 September 2013 Nene park was a smart move. Maybe one day the fans will wake up.
Corky Posted 3 September 2013 Posted 3 September 2013 Ironic that it is Diamonds who have put them out of business. Some of my best footballing memories have been following the Poppies, promotion back to the Conference at Tiverton was truly epic! Northamptonshire football is in a fooking awful state! Cobblers are shite Corby are shite Kettering gone Diamonds gone Rothwell gone Coventry are doing quite well though.
Renart Posted 3 September 2013 Posted 3 September 2013 Hmmm. Without compromising my allegiance to LCFC, this is my team. I went to games from being 4 or 5 years old - stood with my brothers on the same slab at the Britannia Road end for most of my life. Coming to Leicester was a luxury and I ran my support for both clubs in parallel for a number of years (there really wasn't much of a conflict of interest). I don't want to say too much as it is a bit emotional and raw and I could quite easily get sucked into something that I really haven't got the time for or the energy (I have talked this through a million times). I am not sure that saying 'Nene Park was a smart move' and 'maybe one day the fans will wake up' is slightly misinformed. Most of the fans understood the situation with the lease on Rockingham Road. Of course they wanted to stay in Kettering and they looked to all possibilities including local council help but it didn't come. However, when it actually came to it a meeting was called and it was explained to the fans that there was no option but a move to Nene Park, they said ok and they trusted the promises that were made. Of course, it wasn't the happiest of times for the fans, and some fans did show their frustration by deciding not to travel, but there was no mass boycott like there is with Cov fans at Sixfields. The supporters chipped in and helped - all the signs at Nene Park were changed by the fans (for free), they cleaned it up and got it ready for business. They arranged themselves in terms of buses to and from the ground. Everyone chipped in. In fact, the average gate in that first season was around 1400 - this is slightly more than the average attendance at Rocky Road in the previous season. The problems were deeper than that though and K-Town had been financially mis-managed for a number of years and the move itself was not thoroughly thought through. One example being the selling of season tickets that year: Ladik (chairman) decided on a policy that would encourage fans and so Season tickets were sold stupidly cheap in order to get the people in the ground - it worked. But when there was a cash-flow problem later in the season there was no money coming in from the gates - everybody had a season ticket and the price on the door was ridiculously high! I know people during that season who had a season ticket but because they loved their club also paid the entrance fee (+ the new added transport costs). The day-to-day jobs at that ground were done by fans and they were doing them for free. Now, it might not be so easy as to lay the blame at one persons door but some of it must fall squarely at the feet of Ladek. He put money into the club - true - but his inability to let go of his own personal debts associated with the club really did seal their fate. As an individual and a business man he has a right to chase the money he lost but I am not sure that doing the right thing by the club was ever really up there in his thoughts. There were opportunities in the past for the club to be sold, which might have saved the club, where he was the stumbling block. Now I appreciate that he wanted to get what he could from any sale but no sale at all inevitably meant that he didn't get what he wanted and nor did the club. Of course, other factors affected what happened to K-Town, such as the breakdown in negotiations of the lease on Rocky Road which is owned by a company that will develop the site for housing and the ineffectiveness and lack of support by the council in finding the club somewhere else to play their football. The point is that Kettering has lost a club with so much history and it is the fans that suffer (and they are a really good and honest set of fans). It really is very sad and I hope that the club will continue to fight this (they have managed to stay alive (just) when faced with similar prospects before).
Renart Posted 3 September 2013 Posted 3 September 2013 Some of my best footballing memories have been following the Poppies, promotion back to the Conference at Tiverton was truly epic! I was at that game. Great memories.
dogadug Posted 5 September 2013 Posted 5 September 2013 Matt Le Tissier donated £100 to their cause, top man After setting up their just giving page, they've raised £2500 in 12 hours. https://www.justgiving.com/local/project/savekettering
blueblood88 Posted 5 September 2013 Posted 5 September 2013 Shame, I played for the youth team until I wrecked my knee. Great club, hope they can reform if they have properly folded.
spanishfox Posted 8 September 2013 Posted 8 September 2013 Quick update over 12k raised only another 8k to go to save this club in 26 days so help the club out at https://www.justgiving.com/local/project/savekettering
Leicesterpool Posted 8 September 2013 Posted 8 September 2013 It would be nice if maybe Leicester could look to help save the local clubs somehow, maybe a possible feeder club?
Corky Posted 8 September 2013 Posted 8 September 2013 Would they want Futacs, Gallagher, Danns, Waghorn etc?
spanishfox Posted 9 September 2013 Posted 9 September 2013 " Would they want Futacs, Gallagher, Danns, Waghorn etc? The answer is yes but couldn't even afford the travelling expenses
Mack Posted 9 September 2013 Posted 9 September 2013 The bad practices of shoddy businessman should not be Bailed out by fans / the public in my opinion. The fans would be better served raising money to create a new Kettering club rather than trying to bail out a broken business.
spanishfox Posted 19 September 2013 Posted 19 September 2013 another update and thanks to anyone that did donate Target reached //www.justgiving.com/local/project/savekettering
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