Furneaux: We Will Survive!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 01/05/2002

GRIMSBY Town will survive - despite losing more than half of its income because of the collapse of ITV Digital. That's the message from club chairman Peter Furneaux, who today stressed the Mariners' proposed £14-million stadium near Great Coates would also go ahead as planned.

Stuart Rowson writes in the Grimsby Telegraph that ITV Digital stopped broadcasting its paid-for services at 7am today after a buyer could not be found to rescue the ailing company and the Mariners are expected to be one of the hardest hit as the £2-million due for TV rights in August presents a massive chunk of their annual income.

But Peter Furneaux told him that he refuses to believe the club will fold, and instead has reaffirmed his determination to take the Mariners onwards and upwards.

".…The stadium will go ahead as planned…."

"We finished the season with a positive feeling from the players through to the supporters and we want that to carry on." said Furneaux.

"It's not going to be easy, but this club will survive. We've got more experience than most clubs of running a tight ship. We've been there and done it. This football club will go on - but there will have to be some realism in football."

"The stadium will go ahead as planned. The funding is a completely separate issue to the football side. It will proceed."

Mr Furneaux will attend a meeting of Football League chairmen in Birmingham on Friday when they will decide how to re-sell the TV rights but Furneaux believes there is no chance of clubs receiving another golden contract similar to the last one that effectively killed ITV Digital.

"This is a football problem, not a Grimsby Town problem. We all know the new deal will go back to something how it was before ITV Digital. We'll get what we got before with Sky at best when we had about £500,000 a year. That's at best in my opinion."

With players' wages rocketing during the past 12 months, he thinks cutting the bill is the most obvious solution.

Pay Cut Or Dole Says Macca!! Click here for the full story!

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