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What is Bees United all about?
Bees United’s core objectives are to ensure:
- Brentford Football Club is maintained as a sustainable full-time professional football club competing in the Football League;
- the Club is safeguarded against bankruptcy;
- the interests of its members – supporters of Brentford Football Club – are fully represented;
- it is a unifying force for all those associated with the Club.
What is Bees United trying to achieve?
- To reduce the Club's cash losses to a level that Bees United can support from its own cash income;
- To progress a new stadium that will contribute to the profitability of Brentford Football Club;
- To increase its net cash income each year, thereby increasing the chance of success for both Bees United and Brentford Football Club;
- To engage the Club more closely with its local community.
How many members does Bees United have?
As of 15 February 2010, Bees United had 1,996 members, of whom 1,297 are Adult Members and 699 are Other Members (including Life, Senior, Junior and Student Members).
How many members have standing orders to Bees United and how much revenue is raised via standing orders?
Currently just over one third of our members pay for their membership by Standing Order. The minimum payment is £1.25 per month, but many contribute more than that. Our annual income from 675 Standing Orders is just over £70,000.
What is Bees United's target income goal each year?
As much as possible! Bees United’s partnership with Matthew Benham will see him invest £1 million a year into Brentford Football Club in return for preference shares and without increasing the Club’s debt, thus securing its foreseeable future. Bees United, too, would like to raise £1 million – not every year, but over the five-year partnership. We would be delighted if you could help.
If the other two-thirds of our members were to take out Standing Orders at the same average rate as our existing ones, we would have an annual standing order income of more than £200,000, and be able to reach our target in less than five years.
Why does Bees United still need Standing Orders and other revenue now the Matthew Benham deal is completed?
As Brentford Football Club’s majority shareholder, Bees United is the custodian of the club's future. A supporter recently described Bees United as acting as an “insurance policy”, which is a good way of describing how Bees United ensures some degree of independent, supporter-based scrutiny of the way the Club is run.
Bees United still has substantial loans to pay off – from Barclays Bank and from one of our supporters – and there is the possibility that Matthew Benham might decide not to exercise his option to take a controlling shareholding of Brentford Football Club in 2014.
Should Matthew Benham not exercise his option, Bees United would need all the money it can get to stave off the prospect of the Club going into administration. The Club would owe some £3 million that would be due for immediate repayment, and owe more to be repaid later. All of the money Bees United could contribute would help us refinance that debt.
Should Brentford Football Club ever go into administration, Bees United would lose control of the Golden Share which protects against the sale of Griffin Park or any future home ground without our approval.
Contributing to Bees United now will help us pay off our outstanding obligations and will enable us to build up a fighting fund of working capital which can be used as an insurance policy against the worst possible scenario occurring in 2014.
Who chooses how the money is to be spent?
The Bees United board would make a collective decision, taking into account the wishes of Bees United members.
What does Bees United owe?
Bees United has to pay off the loan from Barclays and a fellow supporter by the early part of next year. These originally totalled £300,000, but thanks to our fundraising to date, the figure is now down to about £100,000. Bees United also paid another £200,000 back to former Club director Ian Jones during that time.
Should Matthew Benham decide not to take up his option then Bees United would continue as majority shareholder with control over the Club. Our primary challenge then would be helping the Club to repay or refinance all of its loans.
How much is the Bees United loan from Barclays Bank, what is it for and when is it due to be paid off?
Bees United is paying off a bank loan from Barclays Bank as part of the original purchase from Ron Noades four years ago. The loan from Barclays was for the sum of £250,000. This is now down to around £50,000, and is due to be paid off by early next year. It currently costs Bees United around £5,500 per month to service the loan and interest.
Why is there no regular fund raising activity, such as events and walks?
Towards the end of 2009 we held a meeting specifically focused on how best to raise money for Bees United. Present were the Bees United board – both outgoing and incoming members at the time – as well as some of the people most active in our fundraising in the recent years.
The key conclusions from the meeting were twofold: first, that the source of the most funds, for the least burden on Bees United volunteers, was membership, and specifically Standing Order membership; and second, that for one-off events to be a success we needed a volunteer for each event who was keen to spend the time making sure it was properly organised and managed.
Bees United is therefore focusing its attention on maintaining and increasing its level of membership as well as improving its communications with its members. We are happy to consider any suggestions for fund raising and will welcome any offers of support from our members.
What are Bees United’s funds to be used for in the case of: Matthew Benham takes up his option in 2014; Matthew Benham does not take up his option?
If Matthew Benham takes up his option to purchase a controlling shareholding of the football club and stadium, then all monies will be used to pay off Bees United's existing debts and outstanding loans. Any surplus will then be used to further the objectives of Bees United as detailed above. Quite how this will be best achieved is difficult to say so far in advance.
We will need to talk to our members, as well as Matthew Benham and the board of the Football Club, to determine the best approach. This could include augmenting the playing budget, enhancing Local Community programmes or even returning excess funds to the membership if this is what they prefer.
If MB does not take up his option, then all funds – and far more in addition – will be needed to help pay off all outstanding loans and to campaign to help save the club from administration. Administration is a fate that would cost Bees United its Golden Share which protects against the unapproved sale of Griffin Park or any future home ground.
Bees United recognises that it might not be able to stave off the threat off administration from its own resources. However, we will use our funds to ensure that everything possible is done to ensure the survival of the football club.
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