It’s actually been over 10 weeks since our play off final and with so much happening, with less than four weeks ahead of the new 2024/25 season, I wanted to provide a progress report on all things Worthing Football Club.
First of all, I wanted to recognise again the magnificent job that Aarran, Dean and Buddy did at the end of last season. Not just finishing one place higher than the prior season, but also in making the play off final – another experience that we will undoubtedly be all the richer for. I also thank Nathan for navigating the board so capably through this challenging period, following Adam’s departure.
The board appointed Chris Agutter on 11th May and his first decisions were to include both Aarran and Dean in his front-line management team. It was a decision that was very well received throughout the club.
Agi has been hard at work from day one and has done an outstanding job in retaining key players from last season’s squad. He and Nathan have also been successful in securing the services of a number of impressive new signings designed to strengthen and rebalance the squad for what we expect to be another very competitive season.
Our Women’s team finished their season in third place, the highest in the clubs’ history, in their inaugural season in the National League structure. I want to thank John and Kelly for their outstanding work ethic and achievements over their three-year tenure.
At the same time, we welcome our newly appointed Women’s team manager, Jesus Cordon to Woodside Road, someone with a strong pedigree in the South of England. This season we will be competing in the South West division of the Women’s National League following boundary revisions. Pre-season training kicked off two weeks ago and we wish Jesus, his support team and the playing squad another successful season.
Congratulations to our Under 18s for a third successive league title and a Champion of Champions title last season. With three former youth players finishing the National League South play off final game, the club’s reputation in developing its own, continues. Trials over the summer for our various youth teams from under 14 to under 18 attracted 390 trialists, of which 92 were recruited, including a second U14 squad. In addition, once GCSE exam results are confirmed, we will be recruiting 20 college students to join our U19 Education Academy. Further illustrating the growing reputation of our player pathway programme. The future certainly continues to look bright.
Planning continues for a girls development pathway, something we are working hard to secure.
Off the pitch, we were delighted to complete the development of the new West Stand before the end of last season, which has been well received. Our new North Stand development is progressing well. It will increase our capacity by over 1,000 to circa 4,200, ensuring we future-proof ground capacity for the National League. As will have been observed with the new men’s fixture list, our first few games will be played away, following discussions with the league, to enable works to be completed.
We will also complete the new North West supporter facilities in time for the new season, including a toilet block plus a food and licensed beverages kiosk.
These ground developments will mean we can provide supporters with significant covered shelter and modern facilities on all four sides of the ground.
On Woodside Road itself, we are creating a new club reception area, administration office, board room and a new hospitality lounge. All this work is well underway and scheduled to be completed for our first home league fixture. Added to which will be an upgraded fan zone area behind the East stand, including a roof structure and new flooring to improve supporter experience.
2023/24 saw a 18% increase in our average home attendance during the regular season to 1,432 and we hosted two live broadcasts on TNT Sports, for the first time in our history. Pre-audited revenue grew again at healthy levels and is now nearly 5x pre-Covid levels of 2019.
This revenue growth has enabled our transition to a full-time team of staff off the pitch in key positions including administration, operations, commercial, communications and football administration. The growth has also enabled consecutive seasons’ growth in our player budget, a key driver of our squad development.
In Ralph Gilbert, we have a great new addition to the board, a highly successful local businessman and in Focus Group, a prominent employer in Sussex. Ralph also brings new equity investment which is being deployed, alongside available grants, to deliver the various capital developments we see around the ground.
As we launch ourselves into the new season, we do so on the back of a 42% increase in season ticket sales as our core fan base grows from strength to strength. Work is underway to introduce a new ticketing system and a process to capture necessary supporter data so that we can address the ticketing challenges posed by the play off final, thus creating a fairer way for our most loyal supporters to access tickets when games are restricted. We hope to announce details in the coming weeks.
I want to finish by thanking all the clubs staff for their unbelievable hard work in a fast moving environment and wish all our supporters, sponsors, partners and all other stakeholders a great rest of summer, in the hope that “Sunny Worthing” lives up to its name, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back to the Sussex Transport Community Stadium to support all of our teams in what we plan to be another year of adventure and progress.
