INSIDE a packed Raiders Bar on Wednesday evening, returning chairman David Sharpe sat down to lay out his vision for the future of Barrow Raiders.

One of his first acts since taking over the role he stepped down from at the end of the 2016 season was to call an EGM to provide an update on the financial situation and lay out the way ahead.

Flanked by his fellow board members, Sharpe started by reading a short prepared statement to those in attendance, which included Barrow head coach Paul Crarey and assistant Steve Rea.

The announcement the club had built up a debt of £60,000 prior to his return came as a concern, although any fears were quickly allayed with the news a significant amount of this had already been paid off.

And rather than look to the past, Sharpe’s focus was firmly on the future and ensuring the club gets to an even footing as it strives to establish itself as a Kingstone Press Championship club.

“It shouldn’t be a problem and we’re getting on top of it now,” said Sharpe. “One of the benefits of the off-season is you don’t have the players’ wages, so the overheads drop and it’s just careful management.

“It’s helped, the fact we have got promoted and therefore there is a bit of prize-money for winning the game on Sunday.

“But we’re confident we can get this immediate debt, which is just bills that have built up a little bit, paid and sorted.”

That prize-money for winning the League One play-off final amounted to £12,500, which added to the money earned from the runs in the League One Cup and Challenge Cup.

In total, rugby revenue amounted to between 60 and 70 per cent of the Raiders' income, with the other 30 to 40 per cent being commercial revenue.

Sharpe's stated ambition is to ensure those figures are eventually the other way around, with new director Hazel Robinson already taking the lead on the business development side at Craven Park.

That will, in turn, allow head coach Crarey to strengthen the squad and ensure Barrow have a team capable of becoming a presence in the second tier rather than merely just surviving at that level.

“To stay up there, we’ve got to have a good team and to have a good team costs money, and that comes from the commercial side,” said Sharpe.

“While this year, we benefited from winning the League One Cup and getting through to the last 16 of the Challenge Cup, next year we’re not going to be winning the league, with all the best will in the world.

“It would be wonderful if we did, but we need to make sure the commercial side of the business is working well.”

The aim is to appoint a new finance director – a lack of which Sharpe put the club accumulating a short-term five-figure debt – and a commercial manager in the coming weeks, adding to the work already being done by current board members and volunteers to boost the Raiders' income.

Director Allan Park is heading up a foundation separate to the board which will help boost the work Barrow's community department are already doing in schools in the area too.

It was also announced former chairman Mike Sunderland and Paul Ballantyne are stepping down from the board too, and Sharpe has pledged to keep the club's debenture holders fully updated on what is going on behind the scenes.

“As the members said, they just want to know what is going on and the first thing I thought when I came back to the club was ‘we need an EGM’,” said Sharpe.

“It has always been my way to keep people informed, I thought the turn-out was tremendous – I think there were more here than at some AGMs in the past – so it just shows how many people love this club and are here because they care.”