‘We’re not going to do a Gretna’
● Spiders chief Crawley says sustainable model will save them from similar fate
A League Two club playing in black and white backed by a wealthy benefactor signing Championship players has been done before, but it is being done differently according to Queen’s Park president Gerry Crawley.
The Hampden club are going through a metamorphosis from a 152-year-old amateur part-time outfit to a quasi full-time professional one, backed by Glasgow businessman Lord Willie Haughey, which is eyeing at least one promotion.
One-time Dundee United manager Ray Mckinnon, pictured inset, was brought in earlier this month to start the change process and he has recruited established professionals Peter Grant, Craig Slater and Ross Maclean as well as Tannadice youngster Jake Davidson on loan.
There is a promise of more players to come, however Crawley is determined to show that Queen’s Park are all about sustainability and any comparisons to the crash-and-burn strategy that befell Gretna over a decade ago are not welcome. Backed by the finances of businessman Brooks Mileson, big-spending Gretna stormed through the leagues all the way to the SPL and also reached the 2006 Scottish Cup final. But the club were forced to shut down just two years later when Mileson withdrew his funds due to ill health.
Crawley said: “I can see why people are drawing the comparison but without delving into the history of Gretna there are differences. We are a club based in a huge football-mad city and if we get the product right on the pitch and create a winning team, we will grow our fan base.
“There are three million people across the central belt that could get to one of our games and that is very different to being nearly 100 miles away from a large population centre.”
Crawley continued: “We have a long-term plan that is built on solid foundations and that plan is to create a sustainable model. The objectives are split into three-year tranches, they are robust and will be reviewed constantly.
“What you are seeing just now is the start of that plan which is to kick-start the club. We are the oldest club in Scotland and at the moment we are mid-table in League Two but expectations have changed.
“We are working on putting a team together that will get us into the play-offs this season. That is the first challenge put to our new management team. However, before we achieve one promotion, we cannot talk about another one or a rise through the leagues like Gretna did.”
Crawley reckons thatthephysicalmove out of the National Stadium to Lesser Hampden, which is set to happen next year, will provide another step forward for the Spiders.
He explained: “We are building a stadium to hold a capacity of 1,800 and the plan is to fill it every second week.
“Our average attendance is about 600 but we tried something recently with reduced prices when there were no other games on in Glasgow and we got 50 per cent more fans in. Football in Glasgow is dominated by two clubs but they do not play at home every week so there is a market there. If we get a winning team on the park and vibrancy off it we will attract commercial sponsorship.
“Going back to the Gretna comparison, we will not attract commercial sponsorship if we do not have a fundamental handle on the budgets that we have. There has to be a break-even model to get people on board.”
Crawley added: “We have to make attending a Queen’s Park game at the new stadium a positive experience. Attending games at the National Stadium where only 1 per cent of the capacity is in use may be a unique experience but I would argue it is not always positive.
“We want to build the club from the bottom up and the top down. Now we have to get the product right.”