York chief happy to pay price 
of return 
to big time

The Minstermen will today return to the League fold after an eight-year absence when Wycombe Wanderers are the visitors to Bootham Crescent.

Last May’s play-off triumph at Wembley has meant an exciting summer for everyone at York as the club prepare to resume old rivalries.

One unforeseen consequence of winning promotion, however, has been the headache caused by the introduction of a new salary cap system this season in the bottom two divisions.

In League Two, clubs can only spend 55 per cent of turnover on wages – a restriction that chairman McGill admits has impacted on the club.

“We have discovered that there is a quirk in the new salary cap scheme,” the York chief told the Yorkshire Post ahead of today’s opening-day encounter with Wycombe.

“The problem is that the cap takes into account just the income a club makes and not the costs involved in running the club.

“At York, our costs are relatively low because we don’t have a highly paid chief executive and no directors take salaries. The other side of the coin is that our income is also low because we are in an antiquated stadium built in 1932.”

The salary cap, which sees teams in League One allowed to spend no more than 60 per cent of revenue on wages, has been brought in to try to help clubs avoid getting into financial trouble.

For York, however, its introduction would have meant the club operating with a smaller playing budget in 2012-13 despite receiving significantly more funds from central payments in the League than was the case in the Conference.

McGill added: “Only having a finite amount of income means we have had to manage the situation. The playing budget will be higher than last season but only because we, as a board of directors, will, at some stage, make a contribution to keep us under the salary cap.

“We will do so in the form of a donation. The other avenues open to us were share equity and sponsorship but the thing with a donation is that the full 100 per cent can be used against the wage budget.

“I don’t know yet what that figure will be but I imagine it will be in six figures.

“It is a quirk of the system in that we expect to have a surplus at the end of the season but still have to make a contribution ourselves.

“Of course, being back in the Football League is a price worth paying but the current system almost penalises us for being prudent. It needs looking at.

“With that in mind, we did recently bring it up at a Football League meeting. They admitted that it wasn’t a foolproof method. And that maybe one size doesn’t fit all.”

Headaches caused by the salary cap apart, York have enjoyed the close season with Gary Mills able to add to the squad that performed so magnificently last season.

Hopes are high, therefore, that the club can return to the League fold in style. Today will be a big test of those ambitions with Wycombe strongly fancied to bounce back at the first attempt after being relegated last season.

The game itself has been inked in the diary of every York fan since the fixtures were released in mid-June and, as someone who supported the club from the terraces long before stepping up into the boardroom, McGill cannot wait for kick-off.

He said: “We are hoping for a big crowd and it would be great if those fans who gave us such a wonderful reception on the open top bus tour round York could come along.

“Everything has been geared towards the Wycombe game, even though we enjoyed going to Doncaster last weekend (in the Capital One Cup first round).

“I thought we were very unfortunate to go out as we played very well against a team who were in the Championship last season.

“Along with the performance, the other encouraging aspect of last week was the number of fans that we took. It was great to see so many there, getting behind the team. We want to be successful for those fans.

“The football staff want that success and so do we as directors. We all want to push on as a club and build on last season. With everyone pulling in the same direction, we can do that.

“The great thing is we are all focusing on the football side of the club.

“When we first came in, the club was at its very lowest ebb and half-an-hour from going out of existence. We had so many off-pitch things to deal with when we first came in that the football side possibly didn’t get the attention it should.

“There was only so much time to do everything that needed to be done so maybe it was inevitable. But it was a mistake.

“Now we have got approval (for a new stadium) and the financial side is secure, the focus can be – and has to be – on the football. We have to find the ways that we can help the manager.

“There is a real air of excitement around York right now and so much goodwill towards the club. We want to capitalise on that by pushing forward further.”

Those levels of excitement are likely to reach a peak today as Wycombe become the first of nine former Conference clubs that York will face in the opening 10 games of the season.

Chesterfield’s visit to Bootham Crescent on September 8 is the exception and the presence of so many former non-League sides in the division is something that gives McGill hope for the coming months.

He said: “It is interesting that we play so many Conferences teams in the first couple of months. There are around 12 or 13 in total that were promoted prior to ourselves so it shows how many make the step-up.

“We play Oxford at the start of September and that will be an interesting one. Oxford came up two years ago so it will be interesting to test ourselves against a club who have established themselves.”

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