Last updated 15:25, Thursday, 01 May 2008

WHITEHAVEN rugby league club have made a rallying call “for everybody to pull together” after making an operating loss of more than £132,000 in the last 12 months.

This was on top of an £86,000 loss in 2006.
Shareholders who were given the startling figures at Whitehaven RLFC’s annual general meeting last night (Wednesday) were also told how serious the club’s financial situation was.
A £75,000 loan from the West Cumberland Development Fund underwritten by Copeland Borough Council has kept Haven alive.
But chairman Gordon Grace warned shareholders: “We are still sailing close to the wind as a club. The £75,000 we have been glad to receive has not sorted everything out but we are not dead and we will move things forward.”
Main reasons for Haven’s financial plight was said to be a combination of salaries paid to the playing and coaching staff, declining income from the club’s lottery and falling “gate” receipts.
Salaries soared to £555,000 in 2007 - £21,000 up on the previous year and £142,000 more than in 2005.
But new finance director Barry Richardson said: “If we get through this year everything will be fine and we can start to move the club forward, but it will take a lot of effort and understanding from everybody, so let’s all pull together and get Haven back to where it was only a few years ago.”
One of the key factors was that as a National League One club Whitehaven would be getting £100,000 from the Rugby Football League from next year instead of the usual £15-£20,000 a season.
“This will make a massive difference to a club like Whitehaven.”
Asked by The Whitehaven News (a shareholder) how close the club would have been to administration but for the £75,000 loan, marketing director Mike Graham said: “It would have been the day after.”