Author Topic: EASTWOOD TOWN FC FOR SALE FOR £1  (Read 3074 times)

faraway pilgrim

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EASTWOOD TOWN FC FOR SALE FOR £1
« on: April 21, 2011, 07:14:35 PM »
If you fancy owning Eastwood it will only cost you £1. The owners are selling after losing their appeal to play in the playoffs. Statement on their o/s

Hugo

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Re: EASTWOOD TOWN FC FOR SALE FOR £1
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2011, 05:43:41 AM »
I think I'll wait until the january sales actually.

Dave H

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Re: EASTWOOD TOWN FC FOR SALE FOR £1
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2011, 11:37:00 AM »
Interesting article from Nottm Evening Post, January 2010, Eastwood owner pledging his support till 2017!! In reality, funding the club for four years was enough, not enough full houses when he was playing cards or at the ground! (Yet another example of not relying on a weathly benefactor to bankroll your club). I expect to see Eastwood head the same way as Retford unless some serious funding comes their way:




Eastwood drive for Conference Premier on course – Yong
 Rob Yong

By mhalfpenny

EVER since the day he was voted in as chairman in October 2007, Rob Yong has always had a vision for Eastwood Town.

The club that was for a long time one of the poor relations of the UniBond League finally had a benefactor who meant business.

Yong, who grew up a stone's throw from Coronation Park on Raglan Street, was desperate to transform the fortunes of the Badgers.

Not only did he want to help strengthen the team, he also had one eye on developing the club's aging ground.


Entrepreneur Yong – who has made his money in the gambling industry – set an ambitious target of getting Eastwood into the Conference Premier within five years. He wanted the club to have a national profile.

And, approaching the halfway point in that stretch, he firmly believes Eastwood are on course to achieve his target, currently lying in fourth place in the Conference North.

"Overall, I am satisfied with where we are at," said Yong.

"We set a target to be in the Conference National in five seasons – and we are on target to do that.

"I said to the management last season that they had to get promoted last season, but they have done a little bit better this season then I might have expected.

"We were top of the table after ten games. I expected us to stay in the top half up to Christmas and then push on and possibly finish in the play-offs.

"But it has probably be a little bit the other way round, after a great start.

"I personally pay the players' wages and any other money that comes in from the fans through gate money and the like goes straight into the club.

"I'm very conscious that I don't want to leave the club in any debt at any point – that's the way it has been structured.

"I'm realistic that our maximum gate at Eastwood week in, week out is never going to be above a thousand but it would be great to have a little club like Eastwood playing against the likes of Mansfield and Luton ever week – it would be a dream of mine.

"I used to live on the doorstep of the club, so it has always been close to my heart."

Yong insists there should be no questioning his long-term commitment to the project.

Whether or not Eastwood do reach the top tier of non-league football by 2012, he has already pledged his future until 2017.

He said: "It is a costly hobby, I suppose, but one of my best friends often comes with me to matches and you can't put a price on that.

"My commitment was for five seasons, but I have now extended that to ten. We are going to continue improving the ground – and that's going to take time.

"We have struck a deal with the council, in principal, to purchase the ground for ourselves, which would be a big step and we obviously need to get a final vote on that.

"And there are other long-term things, like developing our training facilities that are in the pipeline. It will give the club some security."

While Eastwood are flying high this season, Yong is urging caution.

Like a Championship side who wins promotion to the Premier League before they are ready, he knows taking a place in the Conference Premier too early could have a detrimental effect.

Even so, Yong is not ruling out the possibility of promotion this season.

"In terms of the football side, it is not a priority this year to get promoted," he said.

"I think it would be a little quick to go up again this season because this is our first season at this level. Sometimes you can run too quickly.

"Our target now is to get 70 points in the league, which would just about get us into the play-off places – and we are two points ahead of that at the moment.

"If we did go up, we would take it and I would pay for the ground improvements needed again."

It is the state of Coronation Park which remains the biggest stumbling block to continuing the recent meteoric rise.

In fact, Eastwood have work to complete by the cut off date of March 31 just to stay in their current division.

Failure to meet the grade B criteria by then could mean they are kicked out of the Conference North and back into the UniBond League.

Yong said: "The ground is not good enough for this league at the moment, let alone the league above. But it will definitely be good enough for this league by March.

"We had four of five weeks' leeway to get the work done, but that has been swallowed up by the bad weather.

"But we are working closely with the Conference and the FA because they want to work with us – and don't want to throw a team out of a league if they can help it. We will do whatever it takes to do it, even if it means working seven days a week.

"There are 28 things on the list that we need to do and we have completed 20 of them already.

"Putting crush barriers in is the biggest thing we have left to do. It is probably about £400,000 for the cost of the work. That is all personally funded by me, not by the club."

Beyond that, Yong is planning to upgrade the facilities to Grade A (Conference Premier) standard as quickly as possible.

He estimates the cost of that project would be double or more the cash needed for Grade B standard.

"If we got in the play-offs and went up we would be allowed to go up because you would then have another nine months to get the ground up to A grade," said Yong.

"That really would put the pressure on, but we would do it. It would be all hands to the pump.

"When I first came the capacity was 2,800 but that was reduced to 2,000 following a review by the council. Grade B grounds must have a minimum capacity of 2,000 and grade A grounds 4,000, so that is a problem, but one we can resolve."

Yong recognises he has been fortunate to have a close ally in the dug-out to keep things ticking along on the pitch.

Manager Paul Cox played in the same team at Ellis Guildford School and has been an unmitigated success.

Yong said: "It annoys me that people forget that Paul Cox and previous chairman Keith Smith had already won promotion twice before I came here.

"People say it is only in the last couple of years that the club's profile has risen, but they never had money before and they were doing a fantastic job.

"Remember, the club has only been promoted once since I have been there.

"I think he is disappointed with the reaction of some of the fans who have seen the progress made over the last five years and are not happy unless Eastwood are dominating and win the league every season.

"All I'm concerned about is that he is working to the targets set for him – and he is. If he achieves 70 points, he has done his job.

"People have to remember we are still fourth in the league in our first season at this level.

"We have also had eight key contract players injured – and we didn't have that kind of problem last season. I don't think we are doing too badly at all."

If Yong is still thinking like that after five years at the helm, then Eastwood's remarkable journey will be complete.