THE money generated from Grimsby Town's FA Trophy run has already been spent on this season's promotion push – but John Fenty insists there is no cause for alarm.
The Town director revealed that the prize money from the journey to Wembley – and the money received from Ryan Bennett's transfer from Peterborough to Norwich City – has now "dried up".
The cash went towards supporting the club's bid for a Football League return, which came to a crashing end with defeat to Newport County in the play-off semi-final.
But the former chairman, right, insists there is no reason to panic, as he prepares to meet with bosses Rob Scott and Paul Hurst this week to plan the Mariners' assault on the Conference next season.
"The money from the Ryan Bennett deal has dried up. That, and the money from the FA Trophy run, have all been used to fund this season," he told the Telegraph.
"There needed to be a financial injection from the board to get though the cash flow that's been required to fund this campaign.
"So we're not talking about rolling funds over for next season – that's not the case.
"Based on a reasonable playing budget for next season, we're forecasting substantial losses and there are risks because that is based on an anticipation that we will get into the play-offs or higher next season. We've got to be sensible about our budgetary proposals. As we know from past seasons, you can fail to achieve those levels and income streams dry up very quickly, which can become a very serious issue.
"But season on season we have improved, and the important thing is that the fans are still with us.
"They've certainly been with us this season and we've enjoyed some fantastic support, as ever.
"We're relying on that again to give us the budgets to help support the managers in their endeavours to improve again next season."
Fenty also responded to fans' concerns that the playing budget for next season will be significantly reduced after failure to win promotion this time.
"There are budgetary pressures no doubt," he added, "but we don't have the baggage that we've had in previous seasons in that we're not paying players off.
"So in real terms, the budgets are more or less similar. There will be a slight cut."
He continued: "The discussions that I'll be having with the managers this week will cover a whole host of things.
"We will look at the actual budget and how that's going to be spent and split up.
"It will be about player retention and also what we'd like to bring in.
"There are targets for next season as there always are in managers' eyes – every manager is always two players short of a full load.
"But if we're talking about improving on personnel that we let go, then absolutely, we will certainly be strengthening for next season."
