Letter from the Brentford FC boardroom, 22nd October 2006
Dear Supporters,
First of all I must apologise to all those supporters who went to the Princess Royal hoping to meet me on Saturday. Unfortunately, having left home in plenty of time, I was delayed in traffic. My journey usually takes around an hour and a half but this time it took just under three hours! Thankfully I did make the kick-off but hope you understand that my non-appearance at the surgery was due to circumstances outside my control. My next surgery will be on 18 November, before the game with Crewe.
Before the Bristol City game I attend the official launch of the new four-year funding package of the Brentford FC Community Sports Trust (BFCCST ) by St George West London Ltd and the opening of the new BFCCST offices. With so many representatives of the local community at the event it really was a superb reminder of just how far and wide the Trust now reaches into the community. They now provide support for not only football activities but other activities such as boxing, dance, rugby and kayaking. I took the opportunity to meet Pete Shears (the CST’s disabilities officer) to discuss how the Club can improve its inclusiveness for those with disabilities. I will be meeting Pete in the near future to progress this further.
At the recent Club board meeting the biggest threat to this year’s budget remains the lower than forecast attendances. I mentioned in a previous letter to you that the board were not seriously concerned, as early season attendances are traditionally lower. We are now however seeing a deterioration in the Club’s home support and small working group has been set-up to assess what the impact will be if this trend continues and what we can do to reverse it. Despite this investigation and the improved football we are seeing at Griffin Park, we all recognise that a few wins on the pitch will help!
I attended the Supporters’ Direct National Conference and AGM in London. There is a great deal of respect given to Brentford FC because of what Bees United has achieved in obtaining ownership of the Club and the fact the Club is the current community club of the year. Other trusts really do see Bees United as a trust they should aspire to emulate and this does put an additional responsibility on the trust and its members to act as a role model.
One fact stuck in my mind from the conference; 50% of all money distributed to clubs outside the Premiership goes to 6 clubs! These are the clubs who have been relegated from the Premiership who receive a parachute payment over two seasons. This payment is around £6.5 Million per season per club. So around £39 Million gets distributed to six clubs whilst the other £39 Million gets distributed between the remaining 72 clubs. Does this seem right? I don’t think so!
Whilst the various sessions that were provided at the conference were interesting and informative it is the discussion I had with members from other football club trusts that I found most useful. I had previously started to build a relationship with both the Chesterfield and Stockport Trusts (both of whom have the majority shareholding in their clubs). I spent some very productive time with Dan Levy who is the Finance Director at Stockport FC. We have agreed to work together to set-up benchmarking group to identify and share best practice and are aiming to have our first meeting together before Christmas. Whilst we may be rivals if we meet on the pitch we do really want to work collaboratively off it to maximise our resources and ensure we all stay in business.
Let’s work together!
Jon Gosling
Comments can either be sent to me on or directly via comments page.
24th October 2006