Cheltenham Town may have been defeated in the play off finals, but their financial position has improved considerably. Not so long ago they were recording losses of £800k, were dicing with administration and looked as if they might return to the non-league. Now, helped by a good FA Cup run and the revenue from the play-off final, they are set to record a profit for the third consecutive year.
Cheltenham Town may have been defeated in the play off finals, but their financial position has improved considerably. Not so long ago they were recording losses of £800k, were dicing with administration and looked as if they might return to the non-league. Now, helped by a good FA Cup run and the revenue from the play-off final, they are set to record a profit for the third consecutive year.
One outstanding task is to complete the re-development of the stadium with the fourth side requiring attention. A move to a site at the Racecourse on the outskirts of Cheltenham was mooted some time ago, but is now off the agenda. Building a new stadium can incur substantial costs and re-building the existing one is a more sensible option for a club like Cheltenham.
Cheltenham does not strike one as a traditional football town, but the image of a spa on the edge of the Cotswolds can be misleading. To be fair, it’s not much bigger than Leamington Spa which can only support a club in the third tier of the non-league.
Indeed what strikes you as you drive into the town off the motorway is the headquarters of the electronic ‘information gathering’ agency GCHQ, about which my colleague, Richard Aldrich, has written a fascinating book with enough appeal to get featured at Heathrow.
Do code breakers and linguists specialising in obscure languages relax over coffee and lunch by discussing the latest news from the Robins? That would be a secret.