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.
Repaying Investors
 
The Society, not the Club, will be responsible for eventually repaying investors but before this…

  •          the club must clear all debts from directors’ loans, which we expect it to be able to do via a partial development of Twerton Park
  •          the Society raise enough funds to acquire a 75% shareholding in the club and convert it to a community benefit society
  •          The club must return to operational profitability.
  •          In particular, we must stress that, unless and until the Society is able to secure full control of the club and convert it into a community benefit society, the shares in the Society cannot be withdrawn and will not receive any interest.
 
The key risks to the repayment of community shares are therefore:
  •          The club being unable to realise a financial windfall via a partial redevelopment
  •          The Society being unable to achieve a 75% stake in the club because it cannot raise sufficient funds (both through this community share offer and other future funding sources) to purchase the current majority shareholders’ remaining shares
  •          The Society’s business plan failing to return the club to long-term operational profitability