Brian Caffarey
3:22pm, Mon 16th May 2011
Garry Hill, Woking FC’s Manager, has warmly thanked fans who are contributing to next season’s playing budget through The Cards Trust’s ‘Boost the Budget’ scheme. Garry, who’s joining the scheme himself, says:
“The support fans are giving through the ‘Boost the Budget’ scheme is fantastic. Everyone knows that things are going to be tighter next season but the money coming in from ‘Boost the Budget’ will certainly help me to put together a stronger squad than would otherwise have been the case. The money fans are putting in has already increased my playing budget by at least £500 a week on what it would have been otherwise – and we’re all hopeful that more fans will join the scheme in the coming weeks and months, which could provide a really important additional boost later in the season.�
James Aughterson, the Club’s Finance Director, is equally enthusiastic about the ‘Boost the Budget’ scheme, commenting: “It’s been a great achievement to have gathered so much support for the scheme so quickly. I can promise fans that all the Boost the Budget money paid over by the Trust to the Club will go into the playing budget and will be on top of whatever the Club can afford from other income streams.�
Rosemary Johnson, Chair of The Cards Trust and its nominated Director on the football club’s Board, is delighted at progress so far and explains how the scheme will work: “We set ourselves a target of recruiting 200 people by the beginning of next season who would contribute a minimum of £10 a month by Standing Order to the ‘Boost the Budget’ initiative, so the overall financial target was £2,000 a month. Thanks to the generosity of over 120 fans who’ve already joined the scheme we’re already three-quarters of the way towards our financial target. The Trust is absolutely committed to using all the money collected through the scheme to buy shares in the football club and to pay the future capital contributions on those shares. And the Club has guaranteed that all this money will be used to augment the playing budget. We will be taking maximum advantage of the new scheme launched by the Club which allows existing shareholders to buy more shares at half-price. We plan to use some of the reserves accumulated by the Supporters’ Club, which will be merging with The Cards Trust shortly, to help us to do this. So, we will in fact be putting in more money into Garry’s budget than will be coming in directly through the ‘Boost the Budget’ scheme.�
Rosemary emphasises, though, that the Trust isn’t just going to sit back and rest on its laurels: “We want the scheme to expand further and to recruit more contributors. I hope fans will see from the progress made so far that, if we all band together, we can make a real difference to what happens out there on the playing field. So, I urge those fans who haven’t yet joined the scheme and can afford to do so to sign up now. If more fans join it should enable the Trust to put more money into the playing budget as the season progresses.�
For more information on The Cards Trust & Boost the Budget, please see
www.cardstrust.co.uk.
