Now that (forgetting the debts to EWM & Pioneer) the club is breaking even .....

[Neil_McDonalds_dick]

..... it is time to be in a reserve league such as the one that Morecambe are in. It is a league of clubs of largely the same status.

It has been said in the past that we do not have enough players but on average we have 23 full time professionals including loanees and several more that are on a pittance that have been the best of the youth team but are now over the age of the youth league.

So, a reserve squad would consist of those first team substitutes who got little or no game time (on average maybe 5 of them) plus the 5 remaining professionals plus those ex-youth team on a pittance plus the best of the current youth team on the bench. If we get one or two injuries / suspensions then that ripples down to giving one or two more youth team players a chance on the bench of this reserve team.

Surely the only significant expenses of a youth team are the transport to away games and for home games the expenses of the officials. There would also be a, presumably trivial, cost of joining the league and the cost of remaining in it per season. A sponsorship for travel to away games should be decisive.

[Neil_McDonalds_dick]

Surely the only significant expenses of a y̶o̶u̶t̶h̶ reserve team are the transport to away games and for home games the expenses of the officials.

[Dick Large]

The best companies in Cumbria will not commit sponsorship / advertising money to the club because such money would be governed by Jenkins / Nixon / Pattison.

I suggest that the sponsorship of the travel of a reserve team could be done by a company investigating what the travelling costs would be for a reserve team. Then the company approaches the club and guarantees to pay such costs directly to the travel company for at least a couple of years of a reserve team.