Supporters of the Big Bath City Bid are about to re-open the share offer, but will only have until Wednesday 28th September to convert last year’s pledges into shares, allowing the Supporters Society to take a majority stake in the club.
If successful, the takeover will be transformational for the club, bringing in new expertise and contacts, the recruitment of a full time General Manager, and the club’s whole future will be put on a much more secure footing.
The Supporters Society stresses that it does not need to raise another £300,000 on top of last year’s pledges, but does need convert those pledges into people actually buying shares now.
There will, however, be an opportunity for new contributors to get involved.
The Bid team is keen to emphasise the community and social impact of the project, and attract broader participation, from those less motivated by football, but keen to make a difference to Bath, and especially Twerton, one of the more deprived areas of the City.
These new investors will also able to buy community shares through a Crowdfunder.co.uk fundraising page about to be launched alongside the campaign to convert the previous pledgers.
Nick Blofeld, the potential new Chairman explained: “It is crucial that those who pledged previously respond before the September 28th deadline to convert their commitment into actual shares, and we are trying to reach them by all means possible!
“And if we can also create more and wider interest and involvement, we can get closer to 100% community ownership and also put the club in a stronger financial position.
“We have signed Heads of Terms with the club’s majority shareholders, and submitted a new prospectus to be approved by the Community Shares Unit.
“The agreement means we will work alongside those with great knowledge of the daily running the club, whilst also bringing in fresh ideas and talent.
“The key thing is to hit our target of £300,000 of shares, which will trigger the new management structure and also an injection of additional £300,000 of medium term, interest free funding from a group of sympathetic Bid supporters.
“This combination allows us to run the club effectively until proceeds from a future redevelopment of Twerton Park can be realised.”
While the Big Bath City Bid and the current majority shareholders agree in principle that some form of partial redevelopment of Twerton Park is the only viable way of clearing the club’s debts and converting to full community ownership, no major decisions about the form of the redevelopment have been set in stone.
There are only some outline ideas at the moment, but by achieving community ownership, members and supporters will be able to have a say in how the redevelopment proposals are shaped, agreed upon and help transform the club and Twerton.
The Supporters Society encourages all Bath residents and businesses to visit www.bigbathcitybid.org.uk for more information on how they can get involved, or confirm their previous pledges still stand.