Public Meeting

PUBLIC MEETING – JUNCTION BAR 7PM THURSDAY 8 MARCH – ‘HONOUR THE PAST, ENSURE A FUTURE’

On 5th March an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Shareholders of Cowdenbeath FC is being held at Central Park. This will then be followed by a Public Meeting on 8th March which is open to everyone in the local community, fans and anyone with an interest in the town’s football club. We have effectively been in a ‘Save Cowdenbeath FC mode’ since 2010 when the fans took charge of the club’s operations. Many, many options and possibilities have been explored in that time such as new investors, new ground, council assistance, joint ventures, etc., but it must be concluded there is no white knight on the horizon. That leaves matters still in the hands of all those who are fans, the local community and those with an affinity for the club or town – they (we) are collectively the custodians and guardians of this club which has spent much of its long life defying the odds. Its future thus does really lie in your hands – and now is time to look to the future. We need to build that future. Be it Lowland League or League 2, the club can only prevail with the tangible backing of the community and fans. Cowdenbeath Football Club has brought honour and national prominence to the town of Cowdenbeath for over 135 years and if you want that to continue then get along and answer the call - ‘Honour the Past, Ensure a Future’. If there was no Cowdenbeath Football Club what would we talk about in the pub? Would the back page of the Central Fife Times be blank? How would that impact on Cowdenbeath High Street and its businesses on a Saturday? There would be no Jeff Stelling or a vidiprinter bringing the name of Cowdenbeath into everyone’s living room in the UK every week.

Why is this different from the past?

 It needs to be clearly understood that the way the club has operated in the past is no longer possible. The club no longer benefits from –

1. Large crowds with support drawn from a large mining community. Mining has all gone. Lower League crowds in the SPFL are generally small and the club has the lowest average crowd of the 42 in the Scottish League.

2. Significant transfer income - rearing your own talent and then selling players to larger clubs has largely been destroyed by the Bosman ruling on players’ freedom of contract and exacerbated by the overall financial position of Scottish football whilst the SFA has increasingly pushed support for youth development toward bigger, richer clubs. Greg Stewart, Kane Hemmings, Darren McGregor, etc., all built their careers at Central Park – transfer income to Cowdenbeath when they left = £nil.

3. Renting out ground for other purposes in particular the longstanding weekly market and stock cars (in situ since 1965). The club receives absolutely nothing from these sources now.

4. Owning Central Park - In 2010 Cowdenbeath FC lost ownership of its own ground following the property crash. A potential commercial property development plan for Central Park which looked to also secure the club’s future was effectively stymied when Fife Council chose to grant planning permission to a rival scheme elsewhere in town at North End Park.

5. An overdraft or Bank borrowing – The club has no property now to offer to a Bank as security for an overdraft which in the past was a natural means of aiding short term cash flow – Banks in general are now wary of lending to Scottish football clubs in any case having had their fingers burned by other clubs living beyond their means and going bust.

How has club operated in recent seasons? – Windfall cup receipts helped but mainly with the support of many of its loyal fans via fundraising plus unsustainable sizeable regular injections of funds from the fans who are the club directors.

 
So 7pm March 8th – That’s the day, that’s the hour – ‘Honour the Past, Ensure a Future’.