Today we welcome Forest Green Rovers to Meadow Park, may I wish their Directors, Manager, players and supporters a pleasant stay with us and a safe journey home.
Well, it’s not been a terrible last few weeks. After the Woking postponement, we’ve beaten Yeovil Town, drew down at Eastleigh after battering them, and beaten Truro City in the National League Cup semi-final and now play West Ham United Development Squad here in the Final on a date at the time of writing, still to be agreed.
For me though if you want to talk football, then we should all be in for a huge treat today because two very good football teams and managers will go at. Both will look to play, both will look to go forward, both will want to possess the ball, and both have very exciting players, and the reality is a draw is no good for either club if we want to finish third.
In 10 weeks’ time the play offs will begin in earnest and it’s fair to say that both teams on display this afternoon will still be fighting for a promotion place and a trip to Wembley Stadium and who knows this could well be a rehearsal for a play-off quarter final, semi-final or even final between our two clubs.
The one objection that has been holding up our Planning Application has now finally been lifted and that means our planning application can be heard in March.
In truth I expect it to pass with flying colours with a few conditions added, because it’s an amazing project, it lifts up the local area, it’s good for our residents, it’s good for park users, it’s good for the local economy and high street and it’s good for the football club’s long-term future, so what’s not to like.
It’s important for me to perhaps explain to our wider support base, to our residents, our town shop keepers, our retailers and our park users in more detail, just what an enormous undertaking myself, this club and even Hertsmere Borough Council have undertaken to create a true legacy project that for us will begin in May and take possibly another 18 months to 2 years to complete in its entirety.
On my side the project will include a community hub with a manager’s office, analyst suite, breakfast area, club medical centre and the hub will include two new changing rooms and official rooms that can service both the Astro users and the park users if needed.
We will also tidy and solve the abomination and eyesore that is the Brook Road Car Park at the moment by creating new entrance roads, fence lines, landscaping and supporter pathways into and out of the club and trust me the visuals I’ve created do not do my designs justice. We will create a great innovative lighting design and matching signage, that will lift this club’s standing within our community and the wider football community, and I will ensure we remain the biggest non-league football club in Hertfordshire.
Trust me when I say off the park, we will now be ready if the opportunity ever arises to take our place within the EFL. As such, I’ve also designed new fan friendly digital turnstiles, inner stadium walkways, a fantastic away or AWFC fan zone with extra toilets, a number of new catering outlets, a bespoke canopy, bench seating etc and I’ve included the normal things like Wi-Fi etc.
We will now build a new South Stand that will take our capacity to over 5,500 possibly closer to 6,000 and be fully compliant for EFL football if it ever comes and while we’re at it, we will need to lengthen the pitch and the player run offs to be UEFA compliant.
On top of that the fence lines, grey brick walls, capping, curbing, tarmacking and the lighting that you see at the North Bank and home end entrance will be replicated to tie the whole onsite design together and show cohesion. As such it feels a little like I’m designing, building and dressing sets and back within the film industry.
To build on these things and to keep a good pitch, the whole facility and entrance areas must always be invested in, maintained and seen as a huge part of your infrastructure structure. As such we will need to build a new maintenance and grounds building for machinery, complete with wheel wash, dry storage areas and a service compound to facilitate the pitch needs and our overall site maintenance needs.
Put simply the project my end will take me around 18 months to complete, it will take me to 65 years of age, where have the years gone ha-ha. It will cost me, my companies and my partners more than four million pounds of further investment but in my opinion, it will be a legacy project that so many of you can be proud of.
When you add in what Hertsmere Borough Council are also doing in tandem with us around the park, including building a new cafe, new park toilets, plus hugely upgrading, landscaping and creating a new lighting design and more parking spaces for Brook Road Car Park it means the whole area is going to look bigger and better than my visuals are showing and I will not stop pushing myself and others to give you something that’s lived in my head rent free for more than 25 years.
As such after my meeting over the last week with HBC, with EBTC, with my Architect, Accountant and Finance Director I expect to start our side of the project (Phase 1) within 12 weeks, as I expect to get planning approval in March, and satisfy any conditions shortly after. I’ll then quietly build something that I know my residents, our park users and my loyal fans can be proud of, which will be legacy and last long after I’ve been and gone.
’m so proud of our relationships, I’m so proud of what we’ve built here together over the last quarter of a century. I’m proud of the progress this small non-league club had made over the last 27 years and I’m perhaps even prouder of what we’re about to build, as that could mean the best is yet to come?
The last few months have in truth taken their toll a tad, as it’s been nothing but back to back meetings, budget rewrites, QS and design issues, further phone calls and more emails and even more meetings with my partners, with the National League, with the Football Foundation, with Hertsmere Borough Council, with the Town Council and with both Arsenal and Arsenal Women.
Some of the above have in truth been more supportive than others but that’s a story for another day me thinks ha-ha. At the moment we must all focus on the job in hand as the project is nearly upon us and as such, I don’t need broken promises and don’t need disingenuous soundbites.
I need harmony, I need a project led by myself that understands what our residents, wider community and our high street and retailers need, and I will over the next month present the complete project, including the huge community benefits, to both sides of the political divide.
I’ll outline the clubs long history since 1948 to those amongst us who don’t know it. I’ll explain what the club means to so many people locally and I’ll show that our club, without needing to be asked, understands its community role, its responsibility and I’ll present personally without the need for fanfare or fuss, to all the main local political parties at both HBC and EBTC and then report back to you.
I will of course stay on top of the Football Foundation Grant bid as that’s important and I will work even harder on my partners at Arsenal to ensure we get their contributions to this project, as nobody gets a free lunch in this world and certainly not if they want to eat at my table.
As an aside we have now begun our Academy trials for the next academic year that begins in September 2026. In truth as I’ve intimated before in my notes, it’s important we improve ourselves in that area and that means there could be some personnel changes or tweaks within our structure.
I will also announce a new Education Provider very, very soon and that I feel will assist with our future recruitment and the service we can offer for better education solutions to our scholars.
At times with trying to achieve promotion and keeping this project on track and over the last year, it has felt a bit like wading through treacle. That said all good things are worth fighting for and I feel my continual 12 hour days, seven days a week approach will now be rewarded.
For many years I was forced to swim against the tide as I tried to give you a two, then three and now four-sided football league ground but those setbacks with one step forward and two steps back, taught me a lot about myself, who I could trust and local government.
Trust me if we pull this off after more than a quarter of a century it will all of course have been worth it. We are I feel possibly now walking to the starting line, the starter it feels has his starting gun in his hand and I can see the finishing line in front of me.
I know the obstacles in this race, and I know exactly what I’ve got to do, and when the starters gun goes bang in May, we will be off and running and that will be a joyous and perhaps reflective moment for me, as will making the play offs and fighting for a place in the EFL in the same month.
Whatever we’ve achieved it’s been achieved together over the last 27 years and in truth it hasn’t been that bad as we now have a platform to go again and with a bit more investment, ambition and vision, with a fair wind aligned with the correct local political and match day support, I genuinely feel the best years are ahead of us.
For that to happen we must improve our park, car park, stadium and facility further, as that in itself will increase our wider support and if we can do that trust me, we are on our way. As always, a Chairman and owner is only as good as the team he puts around him. So I must thank my loyal staff, my loyal sponsors, my long-standing partners, my dressing rooms over the years and my very loyal supporters.
Lastly, whoever you support let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
