In opening this message, the Board of Directors of Bracknell Town Football Club Limited wish all supporters of the Club a happy New Year.
2009 proved to be extremely tough, as predicted, and our aim has always been, and remains, to ensure commercial viability in a difficult economic climate. We have maintained operating costs at the absolute minimum possible, making cuts where we have considered necessary, some unpopular, and this has included football costs. We still operate the Club and premises largely on an unpaid, voluntary basis and we’d like to offer our sincere thanks to all those members that have given their time up during the year freely to work the bar, clean, tend to the pitch, provide food for games, and a myriad of tasks necessary to provide football at this level.
The numbers of people that are able to give of their time have, unfortunately, remained low throughout the year and more volunteers are required this coming year as we shall need to continue our efforts during a further hardening of the economy. Anyone wanting to offer just a little of their time is invited to speak to any Club official and we shall be pleased to get you involved.
Despite our efforts throughout the year to maximise available funds by tight control of costs, the break-in to the club premises just before Christmas couldn’t have come at a worse time and will put further strains on finances as we suffered a significant loss of stock not to mention the costs of repairs. Additionally, following the recent inspection of the ground by the FA, we have a number of items of work to do to achieve the grading necessary to play at our current level, most significantly the erection of a permanent fence at the Larges Lane end of the ground that will cost in the order of £2,500-3,000. Clearly, there is an ongoing need for further revenue and any suggestions, offers, ideas and the like in this area would be greatly appreciated.
On a much brighter note, we have started a new year with the news that the Hellenic League has now accepted the proposal for Wokingham & Emmbrook FC to use our ground for their home league fixtures for season 2010/11, should W&E secure promotion to the Premier Division of that League. Our respective clubs have now agreed terms for this ground share arrangement and, not only will this provide us with much needed income, there will also be many opportunities for the two clubs to pool ideas and resources for common, mutual benefits. The arrangement is, however, subject to the approval of the Southern League during January.
Despite it appearing that little progress has been made with the ground re-location, very positive discussions have continued throughout the latter part of 2009 with the various parties including LA Planners, developers and owners of the new site and, whilst the development and potential location remain very commercially sensitive and confidential, we would hope that further information will be available during Q1 of 2010.
On the pitch, it is clear to all that the season has been a challenging one to date and the Club wishes to confirm its commitment to Dave Tuttle, his management team and players who continue to work exceptionally hard to turn our season around. Retention of our status at step 4 remains a priority to the Club and all concerned are resolved to achieving this. The Board wishes to thank everyone involved for their efforts so far this season and urges all supporters to get behind the boys as we face a very tough second half of the season. These notes are penned at a time when a foot of snow has fallen in Bracknell over a 24-hour period, so the fixture programme at the start of this period looks likely to be disrupted. Who knows that with so many home fixtures during this period, this may very well work to our advantage.
At our penultimate Board Meeting of 2009 Ian Nugent agreed to take on the designation of Chairman. The Board of Directors continue to fulfil a number of key roles and responsibilities and, whilst there is no provision constitutionally for the appointment of a Chairman, the League, FA and County FAQ require us to name a person in this role, as well as a Secretary, and we are delighted that Ian has offered to accept this designation. For the information of our members, specific responsibilities have been assigned to the 5 Directors, and operated throughout the current year, as follows:
Ian Nugent – Club Facilities; Tony Hardy – Football operations; Brian Ashworth – Finance; Mick Bradley – Bar & Social; Dave Mihell – Football (in conjunction with Tony) and revenue.
In closing, we’d like to thank those that organised and the many that attended the News Years Eve Party at the Club that turned out to be an exceptional event and we hope that we can arrange more social events at the Club because there is no doubt, despite the difficulties and challenges we have faced and continue to face, spirit at the Club remains high.
Thank you for all your support during 2009 and long may this continue.
