To our Friends, Staff, and Fans,
Hope you’re all well. Here’s a comprehensive update on where we stand as a club. We’ll return to our regular schedule of updating fans monthly or at least once per quarter. Straight to it as there is a lot to cover.
Facilities – Short Term (Featherstone Situation)
Our agreement with Featherstone Rovers runs through the end of this season. We’ve been grateful to the staff at Featherstone for their accommodation, and for being welcomed back by the community. We were previously negotiating an extension with Paddy and Martin, but both have now left the club so conversations had to start from zero. We’ve had a couple meetings with Mark Campbell, who has returned to Featherstone after being there previously, to discuss the path forward. Featherstone’s financial situation is serious at the moment, and putting bluntly, they cannot honor the current agreement as is which causes a massive issue for us. We understand the situation they’re in and recognize they’re not doing this to create difficulties for us—they’re dealing with significant challenges of their own and are fighting for survival. That said, we also struggle financially. The club operates on weekly funding from the board to cover salaries and keep things running – there is not even one week where we don’t have to inject capital into the club. We’re not in a position where we can renegotiate and pay more.
We will play the next game at Featherstone on Friday (31st) but there’s a real possibility we may need to finish this season at another location. We are trying to find alternatives with Mark while talking to other clubs and local organizations about alternatives. We’ll keep you updated as this develops and appreciate your understanding and continued support during this uncertain period.
Facilities – Long Term (Brook Farm Development)
Some great news for a change of pace. After months of working with the council and our planning consultant, council has indicated that our project can be approved under Section 73 to build at Brook Farm using the existing sporting facility permission if changes are made to the original proposal. In order to qualify under Section 73, the scope will be reduced from our original ask—starting only with a pavilion, parking lot, and one football pitch. This approach allows us to get something built and operational quicker and cheaper, then work gradually over the years with the council, planning department, and community to expand if there’s funding, need and opportunity. We are now submitting a request for formal approval of our altered plans, and we’re hopeful we’ll have something official by the end of the year.
This is what we’ve been working toward. Over the past four years a lot was done to first save and then stabilize the club but we need other sources of revenue as it is not logical to sustain the current business model. The main source of revenue for clubs at our level are food and bar, junior and adult teams and pitch rental. We have none of that but Brook Farm would be a start to gives us that foundation.
Football and Management
Simply put, we believe the preparation and level of commitment at the start of the season wasn’t what we expected, and the results didn’t justify the money being invested so we made a change. We may address specifics at the end of the season if warranted, but our focus now is building something we believe in.
We appointed Jason Blunt, someone we’ve wanted to work with for over a year but was not available when Junior left. Jason is exactly what the club needs. He played at a high level, coaches for a living, and is completely focused on bringing success to Wakefield. More importantly, he knows the standards required to build a successful club and is aligned with the club strategy going forward which is to sign:
– Players who live close to Wakefield / Leeds (community, deeper connection with the club)
– Players who are fit or want to work on their fitness (player development)
– Want to be part of something organized and train twice a week (commitment to club and fans)
– Ambitious, want to develop and get opportunities to play higher up (squad will trend younger again)
Jason quickly changed standards and is doing excellent work. The squad he’s assembled has the bond and togetherness we had back in 2021-22-23. We have a strong group where everyone is here for the right reasons, and the players genuinely care about each other, the club, and want to do well for the fans, volunteers, and staff.
Additionally, look at what happens with teams that get promoted—how much they struggle in the division above without sustainable revenue sources to keep investing. That’s the reality of non-league football, and that’s exactly why Brook Farm is so important. Without a sustainable plan to grow, promotion doesn’t mean much.
For that reason, we won’t be chasing promotion at any cost like we did last season. We want to be competitive and believe in this squad, but we are comfortable not having the highest budget in the division anymore as we believe we can still attract the right kind of players that want to be part of what we are doing.
Fan Participation and Community Engagement
After our last visit, we believe the fans are too insulated from the club. We want to change that and want fans closer. This is a critical moment, and the club needs to be more ingrained in the community. We’re looking at options for how to get fans more involved in the day-to-day operations and keep everyone better informed about what’s happening at the club. We have 20,000 followers on social media we certainly should have skills among this group that would help the club – accounting, marketing, commercial, community outreach, coaching, etc.
We are also discussing supporting a fan trust or any other form of organized participation. More details on specific initiatives will follow in the coming weeks, but we’re committed to opening up more opportunities for meaningful participation and ideas are welcome, just get in touch with Jason, Emma or the board.
Club 100 and attendance
Club 100 membership makes a genuine difference to our finances. With over 20,000 social media followers, we know we can do better at converting that support into tangible help for the club. At the moment we sit at 50 sign-ups – lets push and get to more than 100 by year end. It increases the pot and will help with the costs of a potential mid season move.
We also need to increase attendance so come to games and bring family, friends, and colleagues.
If you want to invite bigger groups from work, church or school reach out to secretary@wakefieldafc.co.uk or find Gav during the games. We are open to be creative on ticket pricing and hospitality at home games.
Looking Ahead
Schedule for the next month:
– October 31st: Maltby at Featherstone
– November 18th: Announce Featherstone or a new location to finish off the season;
– November 30th: One or two fan forums with Jason and one board member;
– December 31st: Brook Farm approval with revised scope
Finally, we’re grateful to our main sponsors Recruit a Driver, Cantidad, CPMS, Nigel Davis Tyres and all the businesses supporting us. We appreciate everyone who volunteers their time.
And we’re thankful for every person who comes to matches, engages on social media, and promotes the club.
Let’s keep pushing forward together.
Talk soon,
Wakefield AFC Board of Directors