Sutton United

The current total for our Boost The Budget scheme is £24,200. That's tremendous, thank you all so much and even I now think that Dos's ambitious dream of £40k is possible. Quite randomly though, one of my first thoughts this morning was that we won't be able to hold the AGM in the boardroom anymore ! With an incredible 86 people now having bought shares this summer, the vast majority of whom were not existing shareholders, we have essentially doubled our ownership base and I think we will have to move the next AGM to the Times Square Lounge. The phrase "a fans-owned club" is bandied about a lot these days and several clubs try to claim it began with them. Well, Sutton United was one of the first clubs in England at any level to adopt a limited company structure and, since that initiative in 1953, we have always been fan-owned. Okay, in the early days there were only fifty £1 shares but even though the giant figure of Andrew Letts was the majority shareholder he had previously been on the supporters' club committee and every one of the other shareholders was a former player or official or supporter of long-standing. In fact, if you look at many of the areas where this club was amongst the trend-setters, if not the outright first in its field, from employing professional coaches to installing floodlights, then Andrew casts a long shadow and we will forever be in his debt. I am sure that both Andrew and another early shareholder and director, Ralph Carr, would be delighted to see their families still represented on the board through Phil Letts, who is our lead on the academy project, and Pat Carr, who has only been on-board for a few weeks but is creating some mighty waves with her advice on marketing and our on-line presence. So, who amongst our latest intake of shareholders will end up on the board ? Maybe as chairman or chairwoman. Could it be you ? Dave Farebrother