In the midst of madness there still exists some sanity. Windsor are a small club that arose from the ashes of Windosr and Eton who became bancrupt, defunct, whatever you wish to call it, a few years ago. They had a humble existence in the leagues maybe three levels below the football league. Crowds were maybe 200. They reformed and now play in the combined counties league, and were/are strongly tipped for promotion, at least until last saturday. The chairman , a man called Keith Stott decided immediately to withdraw the entire playing budget. This makes great sense. non-league football would be so much more attractive without elegant sponsors crawling in, donating crazy sume of money to small sides, then whe their business goes wrong or they lose interest, the club folds. Plenty of example of this.
I have only been to their ground once a few years ago and saw a cup tie there. I recall a nice small ground and decent burgers, the ground sits next to windsor Great Park. Lets hope this trend continues. Many/most non-league clubs have crowds less than 200. This effectively means gate money around £1500 every fortnight. This does and should fund a club. If there is none left for “wages” then thats the right decision. Truro football club will be the next to fold, and guess what happened there.
This below is copied from their website. Spread the news
Windsor F.C. Refocuses on Stag Meadow Regeneration & Self-Sustainability
Windsor F.C. today launched a new initiative to reinvigorate its primary objective of creating a self-sustaining Football Club and Community Stadium at Stag Meadow. The campaign which will be run under the following theme…
Inspiring the next 50 years of footballers!… was inspired by Founding Director Kevin Stott’s personal experience of the London 2012 Olympic Games. He said, ‘I was lucky enough to attend 2 Gold Medal winning events by Team GB. What struck me most of all was not just the performances, but the importance of creating a legacy from the games by, as the organisers put it, ‘Inspiring the next generation of athletes.’ As I drove home I realised that as a club we had lost our way a bit and where in danger of becoming a little too focused on the first team at the expense of our primary objective of creating a self- sustaining football club. This will not only allow us to inspire the next generation but the next 50 years of footballers in Windsor and the surrounding area.’
There are now 36 teams playing under the Windsor F.C. badge from the age of 6 upwards and the Stag Meadow regeneration plan could see all of them playing at Stag Meadow with the intelligent installation and utilisation of the latest artificial playing surfaces.
Stott continued; ‘As you may recall when we started the new club last season, we set a competitive first team budget on the back of a business plan that showed self-sustaining income streams being generated by October last year through the installation and hiring out of artificial 3G Pitches. Despite everyone’s best efforts we still have some way to go before we can realistically expect these pitches and income streams to be in place…
… I committed to fund the new club’s start-up costs and playing budget for the first season only because we were determined not to re-create a club reliant on a ‘benefactor’ for its future. Whilst we have made good progress in terms of the plans for the regeneration of Stag Meadow, it’s proved much more time consuming that we at first thought and the club is still someway away from being able to comfortably support a progressive self-sustaining playing budget.
We have taken the view that our management and financial resources would be best spent at this time on the regeneration of the Stag Meadow in order to create the self-sustaining income streams. Once this is achieved and our legacy is in place we can then revisit the plan to create a flagship first team that will also help inspire the footballers of the future.
In light of the above and after much discussion and no little heartache we have taken the decision to withdraw the footballing budget for the remainder of the season. I had a meeting with the players after Saturday’s game to explain the situation and it’s now up to them if they decide to stay or go. If they stay, they stay we our blessing – if they go they go with our blessing. In any event they have committed to fulfil next Saturday’s F.A. Cup tie against Didcot Town.
I’ve also spoken with Keith (Scott) who has decided that next Saturday will be his last game in charge. I would like to go on record to thank Keith and Jim (Melvin) for their contribution to date. It was no mean feat to achieve the runners up spot in the Combined Counties League Premier Division during our first season as a club.’
The Club has already started the process of recruiting a new Manager who will take charge of his first game at Stag Meadow on Monday 10th September against Egham Town kick off 7.45 pm.
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 