Chairman: ‘Our desire to get into the Football League has not diminished’
TOWN CHAIRMAN David Bosomworth says his desire to get the club into the Football League remains undiminished.
Bosomworth has been chairman for 13 years and overseen four promotions and an FA Trophy win at Wembley, but has repeatedly reiterated his biggest ambition is to lead The Shaymen back into the Football League.
Town have twice reached the National League play-offs under Bosomworth, and their start to this season suggests they could do so again.
And Bosomworth says he is still excited and enthused at being chairman.
“We’re all frustrated sometimes by the decisions you have to make based on the funds you haven’t got, but so long as I feel that we’re pushing Halifax in the right direction then I’m more than happy, as it stands, to continue,” he said.
“I think everybody knows when they’ve spent too long somewhere or aren’t affecting something. I’m sure there are those fans who would like someone to come along waving wads of notes. Our desire to get into the Football League has not diminished but the job has got more difficult. If you get into the play-offs, anything can happen.”
Bosomworth is positive about the financial state of the club though, and says a lot of good work is being done behind-the-scenes.
“The most important thing is we need to get the fans through the gate,” he said. “We’ve seen a general increase in the numbers coming in, but we’ve also been blessed by Altrincham, Southend and Stockport having good travelling support. The cricket season’s now finished so that allows people to come. I think people might have been disappointed with the lack of pre-season matches and not knowing who we were bringing in.
“Season tickets have held up well from last year, we’ve virtually sold the same number, and our sponsors are supporting us incredibly well. The takeup for banqueting and match sponsorships is good, John Williams (commercial director) is bringing in new sponsors for different areas. We hope it will continue to grow as the season unfolds. We need to get the hardcore of support between 2,000 and 2,500 to show real progress. But I guess that’s dependent on a winning team.”
When asked about the loan from Sport England that the club applied for earlier this year, Bosomworth said: “We applied for the Sport England loan and it was accepted, but we were only offered half the amount we originally asked for.
“We’ll shortly be in a position where we talk more about the detail on that.
“We’re like anyone else I’m not saying we’re cash rich, we’re not - we’ve taken in the loan from Sport England.
“Some clubs have already spent that money, some have spent most of it and are still working with.
“We’re a mixture of both, we’ve spent some of it and are using some to hopefully make up for the time it takes to get people back on board after not going out watching sport live, to get the bug again or to feel confident again to come to the games. You always have more money in the early part of the season because you get the central distribution, there’s the loan money, you’ve got your season ticket money, but that soon erodes as you pay wages and have all the costs.”
Bosomworth said that, with costs rising, it was a reluctant but necessary decision to increase admission prices.
“This is where the chairman’s lot is not an easy one because you’re talking about boring things like cost of stewards, medial people, match officials, which have all gone up,” he said. “So we’ve had to increase the way we bring some of the money in, including increasing from £20 to £21 the senior matchday ticket price.
“It’s not something we want to do, ideally we’d like to bring prices down but it comes down to what happens on the pitch.
“We can do incentives, and we have done, but a winning team and good football is what attracts people. And I do feel the quality of the football we’ve played so far this season has been excellent and is a different style to what we’ve played previously. We did try it last season but probably didn’t quite have the players in the right positions to allow us to play what is a refreshing method of playing. It is very good to watch, we just need to keep key players fit.”
On Town boss Wild, who Bosomworth appointed in summer 2019, the chairman said: “We’re punching above our weight, and we’re doing that because Pete works really hard and he’s got good people around him.
“He tries to maximise everything out of every single person, from the players to the physio to the kit man.
“He’s a very driven character and he wants to win. Perhaps on odd occasions that exuberance goes outside the FA’s perimeters! But he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he only wants the best for the club and himself. I think he’s doing a really good job, he knows where I am if he needs to speak but we chat regularly.
“We might question whether we want to sign a player for example, but we’ve always said we’ll never cross the line in terms of interfering with the manager’s decisions. He has a budget and he spends that budget how he chooses, and he’s judged by the results.”
Wild recently completed his masters in sports coaching, something Bosomworth admires about the Town manager, who he says is improving all the time in the role.
“Of course. He is young, he’s still learning, he’s taking all his badges and doing all the right things, studying outside of the job to better himself and put him in a good position for the future,” he said. “At some point, I’m sure Pete will move on to bigger and better things, but right now I think he’s in a good place where perhaps, like Chris Wilder, he’s serving his apprenticeship at the belt and braces end of the game, learning to cope with the frustrations that come along with that, which stands you in good stead if and when you get a job higher up the league.”
But for now, as well as a possible play-off finish, Bosomworth says what he wants more than anything is another good cup-run.
“We loved the FA Trophy final, that was special, we loved getting into the play-offs,” he said. “I’m yearning for a bit of an FA Cup run this season, which would be nice, and I’m sure the manager is too.
“There’s nothing like the buzz of a cup run, that’s something I’d love to see.”