All the latest Club News
Chairman
Town Chairman Craig Hughes expressed his frank views on the state of local football and the way forward for Stratford Town Football Club.
Football at local and not just professional level needs to take a hard look at itself. Many Premier League teams depend on rich owners and/or TV money which distorts the worth of a club that cannot count on either. Normally owners are not fans of the club but are businessmen who are ultimately after financial gain.
Locally, Bromsgrove and Halesowen are in administration, and Kings Lynn, where ex-Town striker Tony Robinson was plying his trade, have been wound up owing a £67,000 tax bill. If the rumours circulating are true many more non league clubs are in financial trouble.
This shows that without the rich owner or TV money then income has to found somewhere else
When we had to reform Stratford Town Football Club in 1998, due to the previous administrations’ financial mismanagement, the then board, who were all previous players at Stratford Town recognized the need for a robust business plan. This included not being dependent on gate revenue that can fluctuate according to league position. We have, however, always recognized the importance of strong senior side that every aspect of a successful club hangs off.
We want to give both members and supporters a good club experience so that they can be proud of being a supporter which hopefully will encourage them to use the clubhouse on a regular basis.
Since moving from Masons Road we now have excellent facilities that include a comfortable clubhouse with state of the art TV’s showing Sky and ESPN sports. A well stocked bar, pleasant staff and a good atmosphere resulting in a sports bar that is open to all. We will look at improving this facility with much larger TV screens and, as has been suggested more team photographs.
The club is open 7 days a week, all day on Saturday and Sunday, with a function room which is available for hire for parties etc. On top of this an excellent 3G facility that provides much needed additional revenue. This has enabled us to expand the teams under the STFC banner to 26 with a thriving Ladies section and a very impressive academy and youth sides that will benefit the 1st team in years to come.
This has all been achieved with the help of behind the scene volunteers who have been so impressive that they have helped attract a very successful local businessman who is now our main sponsor, Denys Shortt of DCS.
Denys has been impressed with the club throughout, from the business and strategic plans, to all involved at the club and I second him on that score as our volunteers are second to none. His business acumen will help focus and support us in steering the club in the right direction. You will have noticed the new signage that gives the facility a professional look, suggested and paid for by DCS.
We would like to thank all our other sponsors for their continued generous support.
Of course a volunteer’s time is limited, but the commitment and resources they give to the club is unbelievable, and I couldn’t start to mention the duties carried out on a daily basis.
All are involved because they would like to see the club progress, as do all supporters and it is the board’s job to ensure we meet all our financial obligations and correlate that with the progression, without jeopardizing the club’s future.
I know the vast majority of you are satisfied with the new facilities and how the club is progressing and to those who have taken time out to tell us this, many thanks, as we appreciate this support and your understanding of the difficulties of running a medium sized business, which ultimately the football club is.
The 1st team is imperative to business plan and I am extremely happy the way we have progressed on and off the field. Under Rod Brown we have one of the best managers in non league football.
Unfortunately we have come up against a very strong Barwell side this year supported by a budget to match, if the rumour mill is correct. We are still 9 points better off than last year and I am 
sure you will agree that the team is becoming stronger all the time. As Rod said at the beginning of the year he had to build a side from scratch and it would take 6 months to be somewhere he wanted it to be. We all support him as much as possible and I hope you do as supporters, because I can assure you the work he puts in is immeasurable and it has been a pleasure to be associated with him.
I can see real progress because he will not accept anything less. A couple of disappointments and the gaffer will tell you openly about our inability to take any points from the teams around us and about the Wellington game. For Wellington game we were missing our 3 main strikers and although we dominated the 1st half it was desperately disappointing. On the other point he has introduced one or two players that will have the necessary nous and experience to ensure more consistency that is needed to become a top team.
Thank you for your support and a Happy New Year
Previous page: Welcome to Stratford Town Football Club
Next page: Sponsorship and Advertising Opportunities
