Dover chairman plans for promotion

DOVER ATHLETIC chairman Jim Parmenter says the Kent club may not be able to afford a full-time playing staff when the club win promotion back into the Blue Square Premier, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Crabble club are destined to clinch the Ryman Premier League title this season, as Andy Hessenthaler’s men are 23 points clear of Staines Town, with only 14 games left to play.

Mr Parmenter answered a question-and-answer session in an audio interview with Justin Allen for the club’s website www.doverathletic.com.

And the Whites’ chairman believes there will be less full full-time clubs in the highest tier of non-league football in a couple of years time.

Dover Athletic last played at that level in 2002 and are on course to return there in the next couple of years, if they win two more promotions.

“The further we go up the pyramid, the more we have to look at full-time staff,” he said.

“We’ve already discussed it with Andy and certainly we won’t be going full-time next year, although if we are able to get promotion next year we may go full-time in the Conference national.

“We will obviously be considering that when we look at new players as we go through next season.

“We’ll only do it if we can afford it. If we can’t afford it, we won’t.”

Most clubs are feeling the pinch when it comes to commercial activities and Mr Parmenter explained the present situation at his club.

“Regarding the financial situation, we’re keeping a very close eye on it,” he said.

“The biggest concern has to be commercial sponsorship. We’ve got a very good relationships with our sponsors and currently they’re continuing to support us.

“Obviously the less commercial sponsorship we get, and the smaller gates we get, the less money we’ll be able to spend on players.

“As far as increasing admission prices are concerned, we’ve made no decision on that at the moment - we haven’t got promotion firstly, so we won’t count our chickens.

“We’ll carry out a survey on all the Conference South clubs and we’ll see what they charge and what’s fair and if we consider an increase it .

“Otherwise, admission charges will remain the same.”

Dover Athletic play at one of the attractive stadiums in Kent and Mr Parmenter spoke about the lease that the club have with the local council.

“Talking about investment in the ground, it isn’t viable anyway,” he said. “I think we’ve already gone past that point.

“We do, however, have a long lease, it’s a 25-year lease, which is going to be extended by a further ten-years, in agreement with the council. We do have a long period of tenure at the ground and we will continue to invest when we can.

“We’re always talking to the council, I’ve had several meetings with the council about the club getting successful and going onto the Football League.

“We have discussed whether there’s any options to relocate, at the moment, that’s certainly not on the cards.”

He added, “I don’t think the council will ever sell us the ground - that’s so far off the radar, it’s not worth discussing at the moment.

The chairman and his other directors have, in the past, been asked to dig deep into their pockets to keep the club going in the past.

And Mr Parmenter was proud to say, “This year the board have not been called upon to invest any money in the club.

“It doesn’t have an overdraft, say the old historic one that we’re paying off, and we don’t have any loans.”

You can listen to the entire audio interview by visiting: www.doverathletic.com/DAFCradio/

Meanwhile, in light of updated weather reports from the Met Office, which now is not forecasting snow on Friday night, the club are not expecting to need any help from supporters clearing snow of the pitch on Saturday morning.

Visit Dover Athletic’s website: www.doverathletic.com

Dover Athletic v Hendon
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 7^th February 2009
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Perrys Crabble, Lewisham Road, River, Dover, Kent CT17 0JB