Bristol City Programme, 7th October 2006
Dear Supporters,
We all know one of the great things about our Club are the supporters and it is a real privilege for me to be the supporters’ representative on the Club board. The reason I mention this, is not only the effect your vocal support has on lifting the team but also the way many of you give up your free time, expertise and cash to help the Club. Every week I seem to come across someone different that is doing something special to help our Club. The truth is that without all your various contributions the Club would certainly not be owned by the Supporters’ Trust and might not even be in business at all!
The board of directors together with our new Managing Director (Keith Dickens) are working hard to not only secure the immediate future of the Club but also that of the medium and long-term. Keith, amongst other things, is working on what he calls the “drains”; these are the things that are taking money away from the Club. We are also continuing to work on improving the facilities at Griffin Park, which should help us survive in both the short and medium term. The major opportunity we are looking at to secure our long-term future is a new stadium and considerable work is being put in to achieve this. Brian Burgess will be providing an update on this in the Gillingham programme.
In the meantime a key part of our financial success will be attendances here at Griffin Park. We budgeted this season for average attendances of 6,500 based on us being successful, playing attractive football and entertaining more teams who are closer to Griffin Park and therefore bringing more supporters. I have been asked, because average attendances so far this season have been below the 6,500 if this means that we have a serious cash shortfall. Certainly if attendances continue at this level it will impact on our financial position, however the 6,500 budget is based on an average. Last season we averaged 6,775 and yet after the same number of home games we only had one attendance over 6,500 (6,969 Gillingham, August Bank Holiday Monday). Everyone at the Club would love to see higher attendances, but at this stage of the season we are not seriously concerned although we will continue to monitor attendances carefully.
We will also continue to find ways to encourage spectators to attend matches at Griffin Park. You may have seen and/or heard of our latest attempt in the media where our plans to advertise today’s game in Chelsea’s programme last Saturday were thwarted by their refusal to publish the details of the game! The idea for the advert came from an enterprising and enthusiastic Brentford supporter who has worked with the Club to produce it. It is another great example of a Bees supporter helping the Club for free. You can also help with attendances by persuading family and friends to come along to watch the good football Leroy is encouraging the side to play. So please make the effort to bring someone new to a game and maybe they might like it so much they will want to keep coming to Griffin Park!
Let’s work together!
Jon Gosling
Comments can either be sent to me on or directly via comments page.
25th September 2006