Full Statement from Big Bath City Bid

In just three months the Big Bath City Bid has attracted £303,276 in community funding from a wide range of individuals, local businesses, community groups, celebrities and Bath City supporters. Thank you to everyone who has supported the Bid - while we may not have reached our target just yet, we feel the genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

The Bath City Supporters' Society and the Big Bath City Bid team remain committed to community ownership as the best way to create a secure and prosperous future for Bath City FC. We are hopeful that we can build on the success of the last three months to continue to move towards that goal, and to inject new energy and enthusiasm into the club.

The share offer has closed, pending consultation with investors and supporters. An open meeting will take place at Twerton Park at 7pm on Monday 7 September. A questionnaire will also be circulated from 12th to 17th September to ensure that all investors have the chance to be heard. Based on this feedback and negotiations with the Board, a proposed way forward will be put to investors no later than Monday 21 September.

As always, no money can be taken from the community share offer unless we hit our target or otherwise receive the explicit consent of the investor. Anyone who wants to withdraw their pledge may do so, and may request that cheques and bank transfers are returned.

Thank you to all of the volunteers who have worked tirelessly on this project, and to the people of Bath for their help and support as we strive to give this city the football club it deserves.

As a member of the Bid team and chair of the Society, I just want to echo Oliver's words in thanking everyone who has pledged. This has been a remarkable achievement and a real momentum has built up to help our club move forward. Unfortunately I won't be able to get to Monday's meeting but I urge everyone who can to be there.

Good luck to the team today!

Thanks Martin.

Let me just add that the Bid team have asked me to act as its spokesperson on the Forum until Monday's meeting - I will answer what questions I can, although forgive me if 90% of the answers will likely be "wait till Monday"!

But please do share your thoughts on what you think should happen next.

Contact dyson and brownsword and bill gateswhile were at it!

So glad to see the momentum still behind the bid. I'm unable to attend any meetings, not living locally, but will follow the announcements on here closely. It remains the best future for our club. Thanks for all the bid team's efforts.

A magnificent effort to get over £300k when the contributions have mostly been by indviduals it seems and the Bid team have worked ever so hard. It seems a sound position to move forward...but the truth is it is way below the minimum figure and the questions I have are:

1. How many £5k or more pledges were made?; and

2. The £750k sum must have been on the premise of some significant contributions from business and / or wealthy / key indviduals - why did this not materialise? did some commitments (without naming names) not happen?

because the rest of football has been cut adrift by the premier league a community run club is the only way forward. Lots of clubs will eventually realise that. In a way we are the forefront of a movement and the rest of football will follow us.

Let's keep the momentum going.

Thanks for your support and feedback! BenE, I totally agree that we are at the forefront of an inevitable reshaping of lower league football finances and governance.

Luton Roman - now is probably not quite the right time to get into a detailed breakdown, but I can certainly say that the vast majority of contributions came in at £1000 and below. That's great in the sense that there is a broad base of support, but yes we are hoping for big hitters to come in and it hasn't quite happened yet.

The £750K figure was set according to what the Board could accept, not what we thought we could achieve based on commitments from wealthy backers, if that makes sense. It was not a case of commitments falling through. We need to do a bit more to really make the case to potential large-scale investors that this is worth getting behind.

If someone could please provide an account (700 words tops) about Monday's meeting I will include it in next week's programme. Marc has already messaged me about including a photo, I will drop a regular article if someone can write anything.

Thanks

Thanks Mark, that's brilliant, we will make sure someone does this.

Thanks, Steve has already been in touch too. Deadline is Tuesday evening. If it's not in by then it won't be included I'm afraid. Because I'm really really mean, and I have other articles waiting in the wings otherwise. Also start college this week so the programme is less priority for me.

Understood, we'll work to that deadline!