CHAIRMAN Anthony Hampson reckons it will be "lights out" for Worcester City's semi-professional status but insists the club "won't die" if the Parsonage Way stadium plans hit a dead end.

Hampson last week warned the homeless Midland Football League outfit could go "fully amateur" as early as next season with cash reserves set to drop to £150,000 by the end of the current campaign.

That money could be ringfenced to help to build from scratch a new base in the city alongside grant funding that the board is seeking for the project.

Hampson admits City's initial plan is to do enough to meet their current requirements with a ground fit for the level above seemingly unlikely.

“When you look at Coleshill as an example, they have a perfectly-good facility there which keeps them at this level of football," said Hampson, who offered to stand down "almost straight away" last week.

“Bromsgrove is probably a more expensive facility to maintain so we would be looking at something very similar to Coleshill or Shawbury United. That is as good as we need to stay at Midland Football League level.

“There is phase two in the application but it would be misleading to think we need that, we don’t. That’s for somebody else to take on further should the club get to Parsonage Way.

“Nothing has been scaled back. The plans are very much formulating in line with meetings with the council and everyone else."

At the end of last month City reported losses of more than £290,000 for the financial year up to the end of May 2017, fuelling fears a third attempt to return home could end in more heartache.

Hampson added: “If people still wanted to come back to Worcester, how long would it take to find a piece of land? It has taken me 10 years of effort to find somewhere and it took the people before me 10 years.

“It is probably Parsonage Way or lights out in terms of supporting the cost of semi-professional football."

Asked whether that would mean the end of more than a century of history, Hampson said: “It could just run as an amateur club.

"There are so many people involved and attached, particularly in the youth sector with coaches, parents and young adults hoping to progress in football. That is still there, that won’t die, but it does not support a first-team cost."

Hampson, who took over as chairman from Dave Boddy in 2008, has been the subject of vehement criticism over the running of City but remains steadfast over the perception of his tenure.

“The club was finished. It was days from administration when I came in," he added.

“The stark fact is we have had 10 years of extra life out of Worcester City with the opportunity of three planning applications, all of which have cost serious amounts of money. Even the cost of a highways consultancy is in the £30,000 bracket.

“Three is probably enough. We need Parsonage Way to happen, it has to happen.

“Football activity costs a lot of money. You either stop playing football and don’t have a club or you support it. Hopefully this is a wake-up call."