Community Ownership: 
A New Model for Bath City FC

Football clubs are places where people come together. Side-by-side on the terraces or active in the community, the Bath City family has helped to make Bath even better for 125 years.

But football has to evolve. Clubs like Bath City can no longer rely on a handful of generous benefactors for survival. The time has come for a new way of doing things.

We believe that community ownership is the future of grassroots football. It means bringing the resources, skills and talents of Bath's people, businesses, schools and charities together to create a renewed and refreshed community club - owned and run by the community, for the community.

The 'Big Bath City Bid'

In January 2015, the Supporters Society launched the "Big Bath City Bid", a three month campaign over the summer of 2015 that raised over £300,000 of pledges to buy community shares. The Big Bath City Bid team attracted interest from local business leaders and range of individuals and organisations.

The Bid fell short of the £750,000 target set by the majority shareholders of Bath City FC, but the shareholders made a fresh commitment to transition Bath City FC to a community-owned club in December 2015, if and when a planned ground redevelopment clears the club's debts.

​The Big Bath City Bid team relaunched the bid under a new prospectus in September 2016. In just 28 days, the new bid raised over £320,000. This allowed the Society to become the club's controlling shareholder, holding 55% of the Club's voting rights and a majority of seats on the club board.

Our ultimate goal is to convert the entire club to a members-owned Community Benefit Society, much like the existing Supporters Society. Our members will then vote on whether to merge with the new community-owned club.