On behalf of the Bees United board I would like to wish you all a belated Happy New Year.
Three consecutive victories have improved the start to the year on the pitch but the one minute silence for the victims of the tragic Asian tsunami helped to put football and life into sharp perspective. The bucket collection at the match raised over £2,400 for the Disaster Emergency Committee appeal. A big thank you to the bucket collectors and to everyone who gave so generously.
The New Year and Christmas holiday is normally a time for reflection on the year just gone, and resolution for the year ahead. This applies just as much to us at Bees United.
Bees United's objectives for the Football Club continue to fall into three broad areas: in the short-term to work within a budget which would allow the Club to continue at Griffin Park and to keep within the overdraft limit; in the medium term to improve the club's income from the limited resources available at Griffin Park and finally, in the long-term, to secure a new stadium site, with a new community stadium at Lionel Road continuing to be our long-term goal.
I would like to thank everyone who heeded our call, shortly before Christmas, to lobby local councillors on the Club's application for improvements at Griffin Park. The meeting itself deferred a decision, with the recommendation that the Football Club look again with the affected residents at aspects of the application in the New Road side of the stadium. The Club is due to be having talks, again, with local residents early in the New Year and there are genuine grounds for believing that a successful resolution is achievable.
I would like to bring to your attention a couple of items you can find elsewhere on the Bees United Web Site about this application.
Firstly you can find the address I made to the Area Planning Committee in support of the Club's proposal.
Also my Bees United Board Colleague Matt Dolman, a professional architect, has written an article on the Planning process as a whole. Matt's article originally appeared in the Torquay match programme, on Boxing Day.
Progress continues to be painfully slow on the new stadium site at Lionel Road. We can understand the frustration of supporters on this issue, in truth these are shared by us all. We have to accept, however, that this was always going to be a long-term aim, possibly as long as ten years away. Continuing uncertainty about the availability of the land in question and the need to find a viable commercial deal to finance the project has meant this was always going to be a long haul. One only has to look at the time it is taking for a definitive decision on Brighton's proposals at Falmer to see that we are not alone in our plight.
Looking ahead we are conscious that we have until May 2005 to exercise the option agreement with Altonwood which will enable Bees United to acquire the shares in the Club and the stadium company for £1 each. The essential point, however, is that we need to release Ron Noades' company, Altonwood, from the guarantees they have in place, which are securing £4 million of the Club’s £4.5 million overdraft. Again the priority is to find a financial deal that makes sound economic sense.
Whatever the outcome of this process, and we have always been conscious that we may not be successful this time round, Bees United's control of the Football Club has demonstrated that Brentford FC can, and does, have a future at Griffin Park. It is impossible to ignore the fact that, saddled with debts of this magnitude, the Club is having to find something like £300,000 a year in interest payments alone and as a result the Club's finances remain extremely fragile, hence the need for increased commercial revenue at Griffin Park.
Fundraising, to match the shortfall in the Club's accounts, remains an important aspect of Bees United's focus. I would like to pay tribute to all those supporters who have responded in all manner of ways: whether it be rattling a bucket on matchdays, organising music gigs at Stripes, arranging a sponsored walk to Hartlepool and so on, you have all played your part in keeping our Football Club alive and have rightfully earned the respect of your fellow supporters.
Bees United's loans to the Football Club have now exceeded £400,000 and during the year we earned the right to nominate an additional director on the Football Club's board. It had always been one of our aims that we would be in a position to have a election for a Club Director. As a result, I am proud that Graham Hall was elected to further represent the interests of Bees United members in September of last year, and he has lost no time in starting to get to grips with the Club's commercial operation. We can hope to see the fruits of increased revenue from this area in the year ahead.
Graham recently wrote for the Supporters' Direct newsletter on his election, you can also find his article on our web site.
Bees United is an open, democratic and transparent organisation. Elections are held annually to our Board. Our Board members are open to scrutiny at the AGM annually, and more regularly and informally at the Information Point outside the Griffin Public House on matchdays. At our AGM in November results were annnounced from the latest round of elections, and I was pleased to welcome Jon Gosling to the Bees United Board, alongside re-elected members Stephen Callen and Bruce Powell. I would like to place on record my thanks to all those who have put themselves forward for elections; it requires a great level commitment and personal sacrifice and Brentford FC should be rightly proud to have such committed fans from among its ranks.
At Bees United we recognise that we are nothing without the full support of our membership and we are always looking at ways of increasing our transparency. We now have a policy of publishing the agendas and a short summary of each of our board meetings. These will normally be posted on the Bees United Web Site after the summary has been approved at the subsequent board meeting. We hope you find these summaries useful as a snapshot of the issues that we are continuing to grapple with to secure the long-term future of Brentford FC.
Below are links to our September, October and November (delayed until December) 2004 Meetings.
THANK YOU
It leaves me to place on record, on behalf of the Bees United Board, our sincere thanks and gratitude to everyone who has contributed to help keep our Club afloat. It is not fair to single out individuals, and in truth there are too many of you to name.
Quite simply Bees United would not exist today without your efforts, and more importantly without your support the future would not look so bright for Brentford FC.
Brian Burgess (Bees United Chairman)