On Saturday, 8 April I held my second surgery for supporters in the Princess Royal. I met with eight supporters. As well as discussing a wide variety of topics concerning Brentford FC I received a number of interesting ideas to improve the matchday experience at the Club. I will take these back to the Club and I would like to thank all those that came to meet me. The two main topics that were raised were:
- The Club’s poor financial position. Supporters are rightly worried abut the future of the Club even if we get promoted. The release of the trading results on the official website show that the Club could lose as much as £800K if we achieve automatic promotion. The results also show that losses would be at their lowest if the team failed to make the play-offs. Before anyone suggests that the Football Club Board do not want the Club to be promoted, I wish to stress this is not the case. The board are absolutely behind Martin Allen and the team’s bid for promotion. If we achieve promotion then the losses should be covered by the forecast increases in revenue arising from us being in the Championship.
- Will we get promotion? I wish I knew! Things are certainly tense at the moment and I believe it will go to the last match of the season. I think there will be a few “twists and turns” before we get there and the main thing we must do is stay united both on and off the pitch. If there was ever a time we needed PMA it is now.
What happened at my first Surgery?
On Saturday, 11 March I held my first surgery for supporters in the Princess Royal. I met with nine supporters and discussed a wide variety of topics concerning Brentford FC. I would like to thank all those that came to meet me. The main topics that they raised were:
- The Club’s poor financial position. Supporters expressed their concern that, despite the sale of DJ Campbell and the FA Cup run, we are currently forecasting to lose £500,000. They were very worried about the future of the Club. I assured them that the board were looking at opportunities to both generate and save cash. Budgets were in the process of being drawn up to get us into a break-even position by the end of next season. Hard decisions have to be taken; if they are not then the consequences could be dire for Football Club. Having said that the whole board are fully behind Martin Allen and the playing squad’s push for promotion to the Championship.
- Ticket pricing. Following the consultative process that was launched regarding admission prices for next season I received some additional pricing suggestions as well as discussing ticket pricing in general. I have now consolidated the feedback I received from supporters and presented these to the board. They have been receptive to the ideas. Due to the time available before we need to publish prices not all of them can be investigated/implemented but will however be considered for the season after next. I would like to introduce a systematic pricing consultation process during next season so we can gather a greater number of opinions and ideas.
- There were several questions about facilities in Griffin Park. The questions were linked to what exactly the improvements were going to be. As Brook Road improvements were not part of the current proposals there were arguments made that they should be. Particularly congestion around the catering facilities and the toilets was putting supporters off trying to get refreshments, mainly at half-time. I did make the point that, because of the current financial position, it was likely that unless the money the Club was going to put in was going to generate as good or better return than investing the cash in other ways then the improvements might not happen. Investigations were continuing with this.
My next surgery in the Princess Royal will be on 8 April before the home game with Bradford City again between 1.15 - 2.15 pm.
13th March 2006