Ticket or leave it

By ROBERT MARTIN

BRYAN JACKSON says skint Hearts MUST sell another 3,000 season tickets to survive.

The administrator made the grim forecast after a dark day at Tynecastle that saw 14 office staff lose their jobs.

Jackson, who has just two weeks to rake in the season ticket cash, confessed the situation is bleak.

Four Jambos players — including big earner John Sutton — are also likely to be made redundant this morning.

SunSport understands boss Gary Locke has asked other senior players to take pay cuts in order to stay.

As the club currently has no cash, those left behind after yesterday’s cull are now working for NOTHING — with no guarantee they will be paid in the future.

The Jambos sold 10,000 season tickets last summer but have only shifted 7,000 so far for the new campaign.

And BDO administrator Jackson said: “It is a bleak situation. We have to make cuts immediately.

“We are in June, there is no cash coming in, and we have to generate cash.

“Seven thousand season tickets have already been sold. To try and generate cash we’re going to make a plea to the fans to buy 3,000 season tickets in the next 14 days.

“That would take us up to the 10,000 total the club sold last summer.

“The estimate we were given last night to carry on for the next three months or so was around £500,000 to £750,000.

“If we sold 3,000 tickets we would potentially raise £800,000.

“If we can achieve that we will be in a position where we can fund the club going forward for the next four months.

“That’s a short time to put everything into operation for a CVA but it makes it possible to keep the doors open and honour those season tickets.

“It should also mean we should be able to keep the rest of the squad together.

“We know the fans have given and given but we need them to give again because there is nowhere else to go.

“The other choice would be to sell as many players as we can.

“But if this strategy works we’ll be in a position where we can fund the club going forward and get to the start of next season.

“Things are bleak but we don’t want to scaremonger.

“But if the fans don’t support the club in the next week, bearing in mind they normally buy 10,000 season tickets, then there is a strong signal there they have had enough — and I wouldn’t be critical of them for that.

“Or it might mean they don’t have the money and that is a big concern. Not that they don’t want to support the club, just that they don’t physically have the money.

“We’re also suggesting if some people can’t afford it, those who could might buy another season ticket and give it to them.

“We’re suggesting anything we can. But if there is little movement within a week we’re obviously going to be very concerned about the future.”