A number of non-league clubs are currently facing financial difficulties. This winter’s wet weather has led to postponed matches and hit cash flow. When matches are rearranged for midweek, takings from the gate, bar and burger stand are often depleted.
As anticipated, Eastwood Town have folded and, elsewhere, Bashley FC are facing financial challenges. Corby Town face the threat of administration. As in the case of Eastwood, they are in dispute with the local council. Such disputes are more likely with government funding to local authorities continuing to be cut.
A number of non-league clubs are currently facing financial difficulties. This winter’s wet weather has led to postponed matches and hit cash flow. When matches are rearranged for midweek, takings from the gate, bar and burger stand are often depleted.
As anticipated, Eastwood Town have folded and, elsewhere, Bashley FC are facing financial challenges. Corby Town face the threat of administration. As in the case of Eastwood, they are in dispute with the local council. Such disputes are more likely with government funding to local authorities continuing to be cut.
Corby Town FC has commenced legal proceedings against the borough council after a financial fall out. The club has recently run into cashflow difficulties after Corby Borough Council cut funding it says was promised to it back in 2007 in a deal that saved the council £45,000 per year. The funding of £90,000 per year from the council was agreed in a Service Level Agreement in October 2007 in exchange for Corby Town Football Club managing the Rockingham Triangle Community Sports Facility for at least 10 years.
The club says it was agreed that the council would invest over £1 million (including support from the Football Foundation) in the Rockingham Triangle facility to establish a community sports complex which would be run by the club.
A row has now erupted after the council spent the entire budget on the Steel Park Football Stadium, leaving no funding available to complete the Community Sports Facility. The council also cut its funding to the football club leaving it £143,500 in arrears to date and leaving an anticipated shortfall of £405,000 on the Service Level Agreement funding to 2017/8.
The council has argued that the 2007 Service Level Agreement is not valid as it was signed by council officers with no committee resolution ever being passed to authorise this. The club now says that the funding cut by the council could force it into administration, leaving Corby without a local football team and the Rockingham Triangle and Steel Park facilities sitting empty with no agent to manage them.
In 2013 the council set up a cross-party working group to oversee the investment of a ringfenced £200,000 capital sum in completing the Rockingham Triangle Sports Pavillion, using £104,000 of grant funding from the Football Foundation. The project has however stalled after relations between the council and the football club broke down following a row over what faciliies should be included in the Pavillion building and the ongoing funding of the facility.
Members of the Working Group are insisting that the entire Pavillion should function as a community sports facility, however chairman of Corby Town Football Club, Kevin Ingram, has warned that without using areas of the facility to generate commercial revenue, there will not be enough funding available to properly run the facility or to operate any meaningful sinking fund for ongoing repairs and maintenance, thus not ensuring sustainability.
Down in the New Forest, village club Bashley have been punching above their weight in the Southern Premier League. They have an unusual structure as a members club with 37 members. They are on the brink of folding after chairman Mike Cranidge called a meeting for members to vote on the club’s closure.
A statement issued by Cranidge today said: “Bashley Football Club has defied logic for many years as the village soccer club that made history by attaining Southern Premier League status. The rise from park football to Southern Premier was driven by the enthusiasm, hard work and the investment of football-loving local business people, but these have dwindled with the ravages of time.
“More recently, the club has kept going hand-to-mouth, thanks to our main sponsor Hoburne Holiday Parks and the efforts, ingenuity and deep pockets of a handful of inexperienced but passionate volunteers. Although never likely to survive on gate receipts alone the drop of income caused by the loss of so many Saturday games from bad weather plus a current lack of sponsors has put survival in doubt. This has now come to a head and Bashley is now dependant on private funding and an understanding squad to finish the season.
“Decisions are required very soon on our participation in the Southern League and FA Cups in season 2014/15 and it is very apparent that without executive level recruitment and guaranteed sponsorship/funding we would be unable to meet the financial obligations required. Bashley Football Club is a membership club run by the members and unable to raise or borrow money in the market and hence debt-free but cash poor.”