Scarborough Athletic Board Update Fans on Ground Situation

250 Scarborough Athletic Fans turned out for a meeting about the clubs future last night as Boro face life without a home ground again.

The open meeting at Scarborough Cricket Club was arranged by the Football Club to update fans "in-person" about the plans for next season which will see Scarborough Athletic play it's games at Bridlington Town's Mounting Systems Stadium.

The move comes after the discovery of serious structural issues with the playing surface at Scarborough Sports Village which could take over 40 weeks to rectify and cost around £3m.

At last night's meeting, the clubs board said that North Yorkshire Council, who own the sports village, have various options for the pitch repair with the preferred option being a 'partial excavation & installation of Geogrid 0.5m under surface'.

Club Directors reported that the council are talking to the original contractors, Wilmott Dixon, with a view to getting them on-site, a move which could 'benefit all parties'.

Fans were reassured that when Boro move back, they will be playing on a much-improved artificial surface, fit for National League football.

Club Director Paul Medd said that North Yorkshire Council are also putting money into improvements at Bridlington Town's stadium to ensure it meets the necessary FA ground standards for National League North football, he said the plan is for the work to ultimately not cost the clubs any money.

The Valley Bar Seadogs, a supporters group which runs travel to away games and raises funds for Boro, have donated £11,000 to help get the ground works at Bridlington underway.

Scarborough Athletic Chairman, Trevor Bull, said the football club had explored options for playing home games at other locations in Scarborough including at Scarborough Rugby club, conversations had also taken place with Whitby Town FC, but neither solution worked and instead the club reached an agreement with Bridlington Town to return to Boro's "spiritual home" where they played their home games for the first decade of the reformed clubs existence.

Bridlington CEO Gavin Branton, spoke about the situation telling Boro fans "It’s your ground, treat it as your own on match days"

The Bridlington CEO said helping a friend is priceless:

"I got contacted by the Scarborough directorship. We had a couple of meetings. We then got involved with the fa because the big thing was the ground up to step two or could it be brought up to step two?

It can be, it's been brought up to step two. And then, we obviously had meetings. How can we work together? How can we integrate the Scarborough fans? How can we get them through? And we're still having meetings to, to make things better for you all.

Yeah. It's, It's obviously a two way street. We will, we'll gain from the footfall, the hospitality and so on. But the big thing is that the end of the day helping out friends is priceless. And that's what we want to do"

Other issues discussed at he meeting included transportation from Scarborough to Bridlington for the home games. Scarborough Athletic Directors told fans that Esk Valley Buses / East Yorkshire Motor Services are looking at creating a special offer with Valley Bar Seadogs - To provide coaches for fans. They said that conversations with Northern Rail are also underway.

Director Paul Exley highlighted that the issues with the pitch at Scarborough Sports village doesn't just affect Scarborough Athletic. The loss of the pitch also means local teams need new facilities with clubs consisting of 250 local children needing a place to play and train. The club say the possibility of getting planning permission for floodlights at the Filey training facility is being looked at but it wasn't straightforward. Extra pitch use has an impact on pitches. Bridlington Reserves have also had to find other facilities to play at due to clashes with Scarborough fixtures in Bridlington.

There was also a fans Q&A. Dorothy asked the Bridlington Town CEO about facilities for people with wheelchairs. She was reassured that the facilities for disabled fans are good and under-cover, saying that supporters would be looked after.

Boro Chairman Trevor Bull said that the loss of the Scarborough pitch for the season will have financial implications for the club, he expects the annual turnover of around £900,000 to be "considerably reduced" with a potential six figure shortfall. He says the most effective way fans can help is to sign up for the clubs no battle no victory fund:

"really pleased with the attendance. I think just short of 250 people here tonight. So it shows a lot of interest in our football club

 It is not an easy message to get across that we've got a massive financial problem and we need some help. But hopefully people are gonna go away from this meeting tonight. They're gonna talk to their friends, they're gonna talk to the family. They're gonna try and get everybody signed up to no battle no victory fund and we can get through this 'cause.

The secret of what we're trying to achieve is lots of people doing a little, it is not about asking one person for a lot of money. It's if everybody chips in, we can get through this. 

I think the town's behind us and a lot of people are looking for an opportunity to help and they're just not quite sure how and hope, hopefully we've given them one. "

North Yorkshire Councillor for Weaponess & Ramshill, Councillor Rich Maw, was at last night's meeting and will be reporting back to the Scarborough and Whitby Area committee which meets on Friday. He says the Council Executive Committee will shortly be looking at a motion to provide a £3,.2m backstop to ensure funding is available for the repairs.

I'm very happy with what I've heard tonight with regards to how accommodating Bridlington are being, it looks to me that they're bending over backwards to provide support for Scarborough. That's a fantastic thing to hear,

We've got the area committee coming up this week, and this will be a brief to the 15 North Yorkshire councillors of that committee.

And then going on from there, this goes towards, the exec meeting. And at that exec meeting, the exec of North Yorkshire Council will be presented with various options. And one of those options is to secure a backstop. And this is essential for the fundamentals of the future of this club. That's a 3.2 million pounds backstop, just in case that we can't get anything out of the, the developers.

Fans are also being encouraged to buy their season tickets as early as possible.

To support the club with their No Battle No Victory Fund, click here