Much more than a football club
Colin plays a striking role in making sure Accies reach out to the community
Colin Mcgowan doesn’t have much to do with the football side of Hamilton Accies – he’s more interested in the club’s ‘social conscience’.
Chief executive Mcgowan admits he takes much more of an interest in football than he ever did before though – and says he’s delighted to be associated with a club that reaches out to the community in the way that Hamilton Accies does.
Like many at the club, Colin puts a lot of work into making sure everything ticks over as it should and says the Superseal stadium is always open to supporters or members of the public.
He said: “Yes, we’re a football club but we can’t ignore what is happening and we want to be a club that has a social conscience and a voice.
“We’re a community club, we have a community outreach team that’s exceptional. We’ve built our own model, we have a mission statement that tells us absolutely what our vision and mission is here.
“Hamilton Accies is no longer just a football club, it’s serving the community that physically has a football club attached to it. I know fans might not want to hear that if it’s put that way, but the reality is Hamilton Accies are so much more than a football club – and that’s what keeps me here. I’m here almost every day of the week. The stadium needs managed. We have the biomass, the electricity, all the different tenants need to be looked after, which is almost a business in itself.
“I run and co-ordinate all the charities here – Blameless, Soldiers Off The Streets, The Shed Men, and we’ve built a cinema upstairs for the autistic kids and a sensory room.
“We’re building a safari walk that’s going to have every animal in the world on it. We’ve built beaches, we’ve built up the biggest youth academy in the country, we’ve managed to have nine years’ consecutive profit.
“We’re a stadium that’s open every day of the week. George Cairns, Allan Maitland, Les Gray, Ronnie Macdonald – they look after the football academy stuff, I look after the invoices and accounts.
“Once the football team runs out there, that’s the manager’s job and the players’ job.
“We start every season being told we’re going to get relegated. They’ve been wrong quite a few times, but we start every season with that, and it’s Ronnie, Les and Martin Canning’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen. I try to make sure the sponsorship money comes in, that customers are looked after, that we continue to promote the social conscience of the club.
“If this was just a football club I would have better things to do with my time, but I’m starting to get to know all the players’ names, and the actual truth is that I’m starting to enjoy football.
“If you speak to the fans they have a right to be proud of what this club does, of the outreach team.
“Many other clubs don’t seem to have a soul, or a heart. They only open up on a match day. When you walk in here the lights are on, the smiles are here, and absolutely nothing is going to happen to this club under our watch.
“I do as much as possible to make this club the success that it is. This club will go on and on, this club will be here when we’re not. This club has a strong board, it has strong directors, and they firmly believe in what we’re doing.
“It’s all football men, nobody gets a salary in here out of football. We have no directors getting £150,000 a year and motors and different things.
“Ronnie and Les are here because they love football, I’m here because I love the challenges of being able to serve the community. It’s an absolute honour.”