Re Farnham, Harry is a thoroughly likeable human. He co-founded a company which was sold for over a billion when he was 26 or so, meaning he's worth very serious sums. Not that you'd know it if you bumped into him. He grew up above a pub at The Bourne, a small village just outside Farnham, played for Farnham kids set up and loves football. Haing made his money, he wanted to put something back into his home town. One of the ways he's doing that is via football.
Farnham had been a disaster zone for decades. More comatose than sleeping. A shocking
ground, shocking pitch and 30 fans on a good day. Meanwhile Farnham RU quietly turned the town into a rugby town. The first time England won the World Cup three of the squad were ex Farnham RU Juniors earning to them all sorts of assistance from the local council.
The off field management at Farnham Town improved things a bit pre Harry.When I first moved out here I went once and decided not to return, the experience in the ground was too depressing. I started going regularly two years before Harry arrived, when gates had crept up to 120. His arrival put rocket boosters under the process.
Selling step five football is difficult. A quick look at the crowds in the CoCo South, in a densely populated part of England, shows that. What's going on at Farnham is a strategy. They are using the net and working with the community to get locals interested. It's working. They recognised as gates boomed the match day experience was sub optimal, so started to sort that. It's left the club with good gates and an average spend per head figure, and therefore income, the envy of most step four and five clubs.
Harry has two mantras. Firstly that he won't be around forever and wants to leave a solvent club. (He's just got engaged, things will change for him soon.) Secondly he wants to create memories for the town.
Has money gone in? Absolutely, the club openly state they have a good wage budget and they didn't do £150k ground improvements on credit. Last season saw gates rise from 150 at the start to over 1,000 for some late season games. How exactly do you set a budget for this season without guessing? No-one knew if those new fans would stick around. It'll be interesting to see whether there's a financial correction next season, when they have another year's worth of data. The recent plethora of postponements won't be helping. Tuesdays (and soon Thursdays) clear a lot less cash than Saturdays.
I was at another local ground last season, when Farnham were going badly and were widely referred at as 'a circus' in local non-league circles. It was all "they should stick to football" and "no-one cares about You Tube." 15 months on that club, despite being a step higher, still pull around 120 and I reduce the average age when I show. (I'm in my 50's.) Farnham have seen gates boom by 400% and revenues by much more. I feel positively.old when I go there. The other club stick up a few posters, send the odd tweet and then moan that they can't understand why people don't flood through the turnstiles.
Harry isn't hurling money into wages. He's growing income streams to fund that. He's funding the stuff which helps grow revenue streams, leaving long term assets for the club. He's not daft. I asked him a few weeks ago where he expected the club to be in five years, dreading him saying aiming for Football League.He said Step Three. He recognises the Memorial Ground tops out at Step Three and, given the nature of the area, a big new ground is highly unlikely. There's no totally unrealistic five year plan.
Any club would be lucky to get Harry. I have no doubt someone bigger will try to bring him on board. He's one of the most outstanding individuals I have ever met. I:m not in the slightest bit surprised he did so well in business. Non-league football could do with many more people like Harry.
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but have seen figures as high as £700k mentioned which is rather tasty!
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