A healthy fan owned community football club spreads it’s wings into the local community. In drawing the community into the club you feed the health of that club, which directly leads to increased income, local participation and a real local back bone to the club.
As local people get involved they begin to not only attend games bringing in desperately needed revenue etc, spread the word (best marketing you can get Charlie Dobres) and begin to turn the club into a football club for the community. This is the remit of the Board under our constitution.
One of the reasons former and current members of the Board have admitted to me that the club have ‘lost the town’ is over the acid test of the success of the above in the accounts section. ‘Event Income’
Lewes is perfect for this. It has the largest bonfire celebration in the UK administered by volunteers from the town’s 6 bonfire society. Going through the town DNA is DIY, make do, get involved culture. That is why it seemed such a good thing to tap into this enthusiasm and volunteer stream via a fan owned club. Perfect for Lewes, but the ‘smart’ people on the Board no better.
10 years on and under the same Dobres Ramsden Fuller (‘the fan-owned club’) axis how have we got on with the traditional method of carrying this function out through local events. Fund raisers, raising brand awareness, revenue, interaction and touting for future involvement form local people. Community Development ?
Well, according to the accounts for 2018/19 that figure was zero. Last year 2017/18 it was £1,340. I presume that was from the pub quizzes. Seems strange really. I attended some pub quizzes. Always sold out but never saw anyone from the Board. Maybe if they had bothered to attend they’d see the great untapped goodwill they are missing out on rather than their own failed attempt at raising revenue, which is the lazy route of just not bothering and writing personal cheques because two of the Directors are wealthy. This is contrary to how a community club should operate and those Director’s know it but seemingly are above any sort of checks and balances, everything they do facilitated by a pathetic lily livered Board. Gosh why do rich people use their wealth to ruin everything ? and why are so many intelligent people cowed into such admiration ?
But no the dominant forces (rich people to you and me) on the Board are obsessively trying to grow the club through increased membership from around the UK and the world through their cack handed attempt at political missionary via Equality FC.
The recent stated aims of-
1) Vastly increased sponsorship
2) Growth in attendances
3) Growth in membership
have all failed. Yet another ‘plan’ to build the club under the watching eye of Dobres and Ramsden has failed miserably. It’s okay, they write cheques to cover up their mistakes, contrary to our costitutution. And meanwhile ignore the traditional tested method of growing a community club, er….through the community, as suggested and ignored in our constitution.
Just another story of our times where the rich call the shots and we all pick up the scraps of their misplaced optimism and ideas.
The Rights of Fans. 