I hope everyone is glad to be back for another year of football at Ascot United.
Revenue and new roles
As a club we have grown significantly over the past couple of years, both on the pitch in terms of playing numbers and off the pitch as a business. Our revenue will be over £600k this year, compared to £300k in 2019. Whilst this is obviously great news as we have been able to continue upgrading our facilities, it has also required more and more management time to run the business side of the club. All of my board colleague are volunteers and continue to be fully committed to our club, but we feel now is the right time to create a new ‘General Manager’ role to enable us to continue growing as a club under the guidance of the board. I’m delighted to announce that Jo Gavin has accepted this role and will start with immediate effect. I’m sure the majority of you know Jo already and will give her all the support possible. Jo’s current role already covers many different areas of the club and so we expect the transition to be smooth. All football related responsibilities remain with Neil Richards as Director of Football.
We have also taken this opportunity to strengthen our board by appointing Mel Greaves as a Club Director. As an existing Ascot United parent and sponsor, Mel will bring loads of enthusiasm and experience to the board and will be especially looking at how we can grow our commercial partnerships building on the work we are already doing. Welcome Mel.
Fundraising initiatives
Despite our revenues continuing to grow, our costs are unfortunately outstripping that – we are very conscious of the general cost of living pressures that many of our members are facing but we as a club are not immune and our energy costs in particular are really hurting us. It’s been several years since we have had to increase subs for most players and I want to minimise any increases for next season. Therefore we are launching a series of fundraising initiatives that will hopefully help in the second half of the season. We will publish more details in the coming weeks but watch out for:
- the return of the Buy-a-Brick scheme so you can see your name on the clubhouse for many years to come
- The relaunch of Easyfundraising, something that doesn’t cost you anything but raises lots of money for the club
- The launch of a “100 Club” giving members the opportunity to win money each and every month
- The opportunity to sponsor some new benches for the front of the clubhouse, as the current ones are falling apart
Look out for more details and please get involved as much as you can.
Congratulations again to Jo and welcome aboard to Mel.
Thanks,
Simon Negus – Club Chairman
