They’re industrious, enthusiastic and share a common aim of working towards a place the breakaway club can call home.
Gigg Lane has served a purpose for FC, but it’s too big for a club playing in the seventh level of English football. Average league gates are holding up at just under the 2,000 mark, but no matter how many of its 11,000 blue seats are dressed up with red, white and black tricolours, Gigg Lane remains an uneasy fit for a team who play in red and whose fans prefer the option of terracing.
Bury is also too far from Manchester and the rent which FC pay is a heavy drain on the finances of a non-league club, whose total wage bill for their playing staff is £1,600 a week.
There would be pressure to increase that figure on the club’s already tight finances if FC continue their current surge and get promoted to the Conference North. They were in the relegation places in January but have since risen to seventh.
Promotion might be the priority for the team who reached this season’s FA Cup second round, but the bigger aim at the club is building a ground.
Fans have been raising funds for a new home for a couple of years, with nearly £1.5m pledged towards a new 5,000-capacity ground on Ten Acres Lane in Newton Heath and over £350,000 raised by a cash donations.
Ten Acres may have been a stone’s throw from the City of Manchester stadium and the grand plans which the Blues have to develop the area, but it’s also where Manchester United started life in 1878. FC fans were stunned two weeks ago when they learned that their plans for the proposed ground at Ten Acres Lane would not go ahead.
The news came after FC’s partners at Manchester City Council announced a review of the project. Hamstrung by spending cuts which have affected many areas, the city council want to explore other sites for FC’s new home.
“We had a lot of questions and concerns,” said FC’s general manager Andy Walsh. “We asked the council a direct question – is this because of City and will City be handed Ten Acres Lane?
“The straight answer was ‘no’. There has been a renewed energy and urgency about our discussions. The council have given us a commitment that the review will be completed by the end of March.”
Walsh also understands the reasons for the cuts which led the to council’s decision.
“We have to be mindful that nurseries are having their provisions cut in Manchester and people are losing their jobs,” he said.
“We’re a football club and, important as people think we are, people’s livelihood’s are at stake elsewhere.”
The city council have other sites in mind for the new ground, but losing Ten Acres still shocked the FC community and 330 concerned fans turned up for a meeting at short notice.
“There were a lot of difficult questions,” added Walsh, “but at the end of the meeting the mood was one of resolution that we will overcome this.”
Decisions still need to be made with regards to financing, grants and community shares, but one site in North Manchester is the favourite location, with FC fans trusting Walsh that the club will get it right.
“We believe that if everything comes to pass, we’ll have a better site,” said Walsh. “Personally, I feel very excited about it. We’ve got to focus on getting into our own ground by August 2012.”
What do you think? Have your say. Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Be in no doubt that FC United will build a new stadium and have a home of their own. The club's achievements to date have been amazing. Not only have they made progress through the ranks in their first few seasons, but they have established themselves in the Northern Premier League.
Much has been made of the financial support that the club was scheduled to receive - but that was never an unconditional hand-out; indeed the City Council would have saved money under the original proposals. The truth is that FC's own fans have in total raised more than £1.6m (share issue and development fund) and the club is still building its resources. This is a great credit to many of the fans and particularly to the Board and Management who have shown exceptional and principled leadership which has always recognised the importance of the ordinary fan.
So carry on Andy Walsh and the team - we have great faith in your integrity and your ability. We know you will succeed
Ten Acres Lane was the dream - but dreams don't often come true.
Wherever FC United end up, it will be better than Ten Acres because it will be a reality - not just a dream.
A little disappointment over Ten Acres Lane will vanish as quickly as it arrived once the foundations of 'our own ground' are laid.
What did we have ? Nothing.
What have we got ? Nothing.
What have we lost ? Nothing.
But we WILL have our ground and still at the start of the 2012-13 Season.
Always look on the bright side of life.
Looking forward to finding out the new location. After the initial shock of hearing about Ten Acres, the subsequent information to emerge regarding discussions about a new site have galvanised the FC Fans even more than they were before.
It never ceases to amaze me what a few thousand like minded fans have done at FC. The sense of belonging to something worthy is a great feeling and long may it continue. Towards the end of my time at OT as a season ticket holder i just felt like a customer in this huge department store and after 25 years of attending matches there something had been lost about the place. The words "football club" were no longer on the club crest or the stadium roof, little things maybe but the fabric of the place for me was being damaged by the rampant commercialism of the top flight. They just wanted more and more money from me as seasons went by to the point where i had to borrow money from a bank to buy my season ticket to watch millionaires in the end!Sad as it is for me to see, Man Utd has become a brand primarily for global TV. Not sure where a bloke like me from East Manchester fits in with all that. Despite seeing so many trophies won i didn't feel like i was totally part of things like i do at FC and that's the difference.
It's a totally positive experience being an FC United fan, seeing what fans can do for themselves, having the club trying to integrate itself into the local community with various projects around Manchester. I have loved it from the first game i saw.
I see they gave into the tv licensing money in the cup...Kind of defeats the point of them doesnt it?