11:00am Thursday 11th March 2010
In the ninth installment of EFB Fredriks' history of STFC's relationship with the community of Swindon, the author looks at the effect of Premiership football on the town.
IN 1993 Glenn Hoddle guided the club to the Premier League despite a bombardment of fan criticism at the board throughout the season regarding the sale of several key players. With Premier League football at the County Ground the board acted quickly to negotiate sponsorship and corporate packages with the local business community.
In doing so, however, they neglected the average fan. Many returned for the new season only to find that their regular seats had been usurped by corporate boxes. In many instances the rigid season ticket sale structure created tension as well.
Although the plan was to incorporate the potential investment in the club’s success on an immediate basis, the club had failed to plan for contingencies.
The football team would inevitably not last for long in England’s top division and the corporate sponsorship would not last upon relegation. The average fan, however, was inextricably tied to the club – so the abandonment of equality between corporation and supporter created rising tensions between fans and the board.
Several smaller scale incidents, such as the travel club’s president issuing reserved tickets to others or tour parties being cancelled on at the last minute, further exacerbated these tensions.
However there remained one crucial stumbling block to the progression of the football club in the late twentieth century – the inexplicable relationship with the borough council.
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The sequence of accusation upon accusation between club and council on the grounds of the club’s failure to pay rent and the council’s apparent insistence on preventing the development of the club was a common theme in the 1980s and 1990s.
The County Ground was owned by the council who had acquired it from the notorious Goddard family in 1925. Here lies the initial problem for the club’s lack of potential to expand.
Football teams who occupy rented stadia will never have the financial or logistical freedom to manoeuvre in the modern, money-driven footballing industry.
In recent years clubs such as Reading, Wigan Athletic and Hull City, thanks to wealthy benefactors, have gained their own land and built upon it.
In return they has witnessed astronomical rises up the Football League structure. In Reading the multi-millionaire John Madjeski bankrolled the Madjeski Stadium which saw his club climb two divisions for a Premier League berth and crowds jump from 12,000 in their old Elm Park ground to in excess of 20,000 on a regular basis.
In Wigan Dave Whelan, owner of JJB Sports, reinvented the football club in a rugby town. The DW Stadium complex took the Lancashire club into the Premier League.
In Hull the complete financial strategy of chairmen Adam Pearson and John Duffey brought about the completion of the KC Stadium – an out of town arena which holds 18,000 more than the rotting Boothferry Park – the club’s former ground.
These clubs all saw relationships with their local councils improve in order to enable their relocation. And in turn they have become high-flying sides attracting substantial audiences despite their humble beginnings.
STFC has never had the innovativeness, the skills of negotiation, the co-operation nor the support to generate such a spell of prosperity. Many of the issues date back twenty to thirty years.
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In 1984 Thamesdown Council began pushing for the arrears of mortgage payments due on the newly constructed North Stand.
The club had negotiated the mortgage back in 1973 on a thirty year basis at a sum of £270,000. The payment instalment strategy had been considered on a projected average attendance of between 14,000 and 15,000.
With the highest average gate between 1974 and 1984 reaching just 10,421 in 1980 this estimate was a gross miscalculation and exhibited the unbelievable mismanagement and hopeless optimism of the club’s administration.
Nevertheless the Council’s Chief Executive, David Kent, said in 1984 that “although the club did not pay full commercial costs, the benefit to the borough of having a league football team is incalculable.”
This may have been said somewhat tongue in cheek. The football side at the time languished in the basement division and the revenue streams and marketing potential of a lowly football club were negligible.
This was further shown by the split in the council with several senior councillors suggesting that it was not right for the football club to be granted immunity from actions which would be issued against ordinary home-renters in an instant.
In a letter to the Swindon Advertiser liberal councillor Tony Huzzey said “I am sure rate payers would be most annoyed if, for example, we allowed a business in the Brunel Centre to run up arrears of £93,000.”
With STFC struggling financially this series of demand and refusal to pay continued throughout the 1980s.
In 1985 Thamesdown Council again pushed for arrears of £93,000, even councillors began to call on the club’s fans to dig deep to prevent their side from going under.
Tory councillor Mike Bawden issued the ultimatum: “now is the time for them to put their money where their mouths are”.
The incident recalled memories of the club’s infancy in the early 1900s. Debate raged over the relevant leniency or harshness of the council’s insistence on pursuing the arrears. The general outcry from the public remained divided – in itself showing the limited support of the club from the community.
Although not taking every legal avenue to gain back the arrears, the council were doing little to ease the burden on the club whom they insisted would make the town “much poorer” should it shut down.
For instance - at the same time Northampton Town Council offered Northampton Town FC an interest free £40,000 loan to cover rising expenses.
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Thamesdown Borough Council vaguely proposed a rescue package of limited rent repayments in 1985 before the notion was rejected. It seemed as though the council was not willing to enter into agreements with the club whilst the club showed an extreme lack of tactical nous in negotiation.
Reviewing the private negotiations is a far cry from the public insistence from the Mayor at the time, Harry Garrett, that “Swindon needs a successful football club. It brings publicity and trade to the area and many other benefits.”
His declaration lacked substance. Essentially trade was moving to Swindon for its geography and new industry potential, not for the location of a fluctuating football club.
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