FROZEN ASSETS?

United’s potentially lucrative Carling Premiership home game against Glentoran was postponed at the weekend, while the continuing wintry conditions have put paid to tonight’s rescheduled Co-Operative Insurance Cup quarter-final against Crusaders for a third time.

But it’s the potential loss of revenue from what has been dubbed the ‘Boxing Day +1’ – the match will be played on the Monday as December 26 falls on a Sunday – encounter with ‘derby’ rivals Coleraine which is causing Ballymena officials most concern at present.

Coleraine suffered a postponement when they were due to host the annual fixture last year and Ballymena will be hoping that their biggest money-spinning fixture of the season doesn’t meet the same fate.

“For the Crusaders game, we were expecting to make maybe £4,000, for the Glentoran game maybe £8,000 and for the Coleraine game maybe £16,000,” a United source told Times Sport.

“Those are ballpark figures but you’re talking the guts of £30,000 over three games.

“Of course it’s not the case that because games are called off that we’ve missed the boat – obviously they’ll be played at some time in the new year but the attendances in midweek will be significantly reduced. Crusaders and Glentoran’s support would probably hold up fairly well but in our experience, the difference between a home Boxing Day game with Coleraine and playing them on a Tuesday night would be like night and day.

“Every effort will be made to ensure the game takes place next Monday. The club has looked at a number of options to try to ensure the pitch and ground is safe including mechanical brushes and a cover for the pitch but when you’re being quoted prices like £20,000 for a cover, that’s way out of our league.

“It might well come down to good old-fashioned manpower and the assistance of supporters to help ensure the game goes ahead and fans should keep an eye on the club website for updates over the next few days.

“People will understand the immediate importance of next Monday’s game but probably very few people will be aware of the wider financial implications of the game going ahead on that date.

“With wage capping coming in next season, we’re banking on the money from Monday’s game counting towards our allowable income from which our wage budget will be determined. Those figures are up to the end of December and we don’t know yet if this game was played in January, whether we would be allowed to count it and if not, it could lead to Roy having a smaller budget for next season.

“Also, if this match doesn’t take place until January, the VAT rate will have gone up to 20 per cent. The club isn’t going to alter admission prices which were agreed before the start of the season so it will have to absorb the loss of the extra 2.5 per cent in VAT so the importance of getting this match to go ahead next Monday, if humanly possible, cannot be understated,” the source added.

United’s estimation of a crowd of around 2,200 means it falls below the threshold of around 2,500 which would necessitate the match being all-ticket under health and safety legislation, so supporters can pay at the turnstiles.

As always, fans are urged to get to the Warden Street venue early in order to prevent any delays in the 3pm kick-off time.