Troubled Falkirk beg fans for £500,000

FALKIRK last night called on fans to invest £500,000 before the end of the season as the club faces up to ‘serious financial challenges’. The Bairns are aiming to sell £250,000 worth of shares by the end of the year via a lump sum and a further £250,000 via monthly subscriptions by the end of May. In a message to supporters, Falkirk called on their fanbase to come to their aid with the club expected to record operating losses of £400,000. A statement read: ‘As you will already be aware, the club faces some serious financial challenges this season. After last season’s sizeable loss, we need to grow revenue by around 45 per cent, and tightly control costs in order to fund our football budget. Even then, we will still make an operating loss of around £400,000 and this has to be funded by new investment. ‘We still have £500,000 worth of shares to sell, and these need to be sold before the end of the season to ensure we can cover the projected losses (and provide a 25 per cent buffer in case we don’t reach our income or cost targets). ‘We fully appreciate that it’s not a great economic climate to be asking for investment, but we also know that Falkirk fans have a great history of “backing the Bairns” when the club needs us most.’

Last year, a group of supporters invested £250,000 in Falkirk. However, in an usual move, the Westfield club insisted that the remainder of their fans can do more. The statement continued: ‘Last year 25 fans invested at least £10,000 each as part of the Patrons’ Group, and they may invest more. A further 500 fans also joined the Falkirk Supporters’ Society at a monthly average of £12 each. ‘However, we have a latent fan base of at least 5,000 supporters and it’s simply not fair if 90 per cent of fans stand back and watch ten per cent of fans step up. If everyone chips in at a level they can afford, we can easily achieve these goals. But we all need to put our shoulder to the wheel.’