Latics playing budget to be slashed

Alan Hardy . . . Playing budget slashed! Low crowds blamed!

Low crowds blamed

ATHLETIC chief executive Alan Hardy expects next season’s playing budget to be slashed as a result of poor crowds.

Pay cuts for current players are also likely to be in the offing as the club tries to rebuild financially following a season in which league attendances have slumped as low as 2,833 at Boundary Park — the worst figure for more than two decades.

Admitting that the quality of entertainment has been severely lacking in a poor campaign both on and off the field, Hardy is now hoping that the season tickets initiative — a price freeze has been imposed, with extra discounts for existing holders — can help boost coffers as plans for the 2010-11 season in Coca-Cola League One are formulated.

“It’s a really bad season financially for us,” Hardy told local radio.

“We’re going to lose a considerable amount of money because gates have fallen quite dramatically.

“Some players might not be able to earn as much with us next season as they did this time.

“Obviously the football we have been playing, we’ve got to admit, has not been that attractive. That coupled with the recession has hit us badly.

“In the next week or two we’ve got to sit down with the manager (Dave Penney) and look at the budgets for next season.

“We’ve got to look at the players who are coming out of their contract.

“We’ve got to take a good, hard look at the finances because it has hit us really hard this season.”

Athletic have made positive strides towards the future this week by securing youth team pair Djeny Bembo-Leta and Philip McGrath on professional contracts.

Bembo-Leta, a midfielder who can also operate up front, appeared in the first team as a substitute against Accrington Stanley in September.

The Congo-born 18-year-old, who lives in Ashton-under-Lyne, has signed a two-year deal.

McGrath, a Northern Ireland under-19s international left winger who first joined Athletic two years ago from Glenavon, has penned a 12-month contract following a season which has been ruined by injury.