2019-20 Season Recap -
Preseason: Manager and Team Status, Yearly Budgets, Board and Media Expectations
There's not much new here to see - I signed a three-year contract in July 2018 and for the first time in my nine years at the club, I'm not offered a salary increase.
Upon entry into the Premier League, our club was forced to tear down all standing terraces and replace them with seats. By the end of the season, we had ourselves a lovely 7000 all-seater. Demand has continued to swell among our supporters and for the first time, likely due to our blossoming bank balance, the board said yes to a couple of requests!
First, they agreed to improve our training facilities for the first time. We spent ~£600,000 on upgrades that would bring our training facilities to an "adequate" rating from "fairly basic". Then, the board agreed in July to expanding the capacity at Crabble Athletic Ground for a second consecutive year. We engaged in a £4.4 million construction project that saw our capacity increase from 7000 to 10,500 seats, with construction being completed on November 10, 2019.
I can also say that the club is currently in the planning stages of building a Youth Academy!!! Whether that goes through or not, we'll have to see but things are looking up here in Dover!
Our ticket prices are bumped up modestly for the 2019-20 season and we see another big move in the estimated value of our club, with Dover now being valued at approximately £32,500,000, which places us 18th in England and 17th in the division.
The media give us enough respect after an 11th place finish in 2018-19 to predict that we'll stay afloat another year, with them predicting a 16th place finish, just above relegation. I'm a bit more optimistic and tell the board I'm planning on a mid-table finish. For that outlook, I'm granted the following in wage and transfer budgets:
2019/20 TRANSFER BUDGET - £18,000,000
2019/20 WAGE BUDGET - £195,000/week
Holy CRAP! 18 million pounds!!! We can definitely try to reel in a big fish this year!