FALKIRK FC AGM

Our Annual General Meeting took place in the Brockville Bar on Thursday 24 October, the fourth AGM in Falkirk FC’s fan ownership era. It was another full house, thank you to all who attended! For everyone else, here’s a snapshot of the key points. Remember the AGM covered financial year June 2023 until May 2024.

The headlines

• A fantastic year on and off the park, with a league championship, invincibility, and several records broken, many of which rolling into this season.

• We did so pretty much in line with budget. A loss for the year of £340,000 pre-depreciation and loan repayments covered by income from the semi-final cup run andfans’ donations;

• Strong commercial growth, league match income and fans’ donations and investmentsupported a competitive player budget and let us replace the pitch, and upgrade the floodlights, all necessary for silver club licensing necessary for entering the Championship;

• A major investment saw FSS become the club’s single largest shareholder, just two years after launch. Fan ownership with a purpose.

• Last season’s performance allowed us to set a break-even budget this year, while putting a strong squad on the park.

• Comfortably the best commercial performance and season ticket sales in over a decade. Highest ever sponsorship and retail.

• After the phase 1 “rebuild” bringing the club back from the brink, we can now start think of the future, be those challenges of funding a grass pitch, a football development pathway, fourth stand, and growing our support further.

The detail

Sponsorship, hospitality and advertising income, already up 69% between 21/22 and 22/23, again grew significantly. We enjoyed the highest retail revenue in the club’s history, largely due to over 6000 sales of all three match kits in the first year of our new O’Neill’s partnership, plus strong training and leisure wear sales. The success of our Champions and Invincibles ranges were the cherry on top.

Gate receipts were down overall, with no Scottish Cup semi-final in the 23/24 financial year and fewer away fans. However, league attendances were strong with home gates boosted by10,000 extra Falkirk fans across the 18 games and season ticket sales yielded 25% more income than the previous year.

Fan donations, the large bulk via Falkirk Supporters’ Society, surged past £130,000. The FSS has more than doubled in size in over two years, a remarkable achievement.

We’d like to thank all supporters, FSS members, sponsors and commercial partners, as well as our dedicated team of staff and volunteers, for their contribution in delivering an outstanding 2023/24 revenue performance.

The other side of the ledger came under pressure during what was a period of high inflationfor everyone. Overheads continued to rise because of increases in utilities, rent, rates, water, and service charges.

The choices

Investing in the playing and wider football department budget paid dividends. Our financial performance will clearly be enhanced by a successful team on the park, and vice-versa.

The results do, however, show just how challenging it is to strike a balance between ensuring a highly competitive team on the park, while keeping financial stability off the park.

We all loved watching the team last season, as Falkirk FC enjoyed one of its most spectacularever seasons. Yet despite large home crowds and a magnificent commercial performance, the business still made a loss. Cup runs, concerts, player sales and other windfalls cannot be guaranteed every year to fill the gap.

Part-time football would have been inevitable had we not been promoted,

This board been consistent in making clear that the club had historically needed to generate significant extra income every season over and above a strong trading performance to give usthe best possible chance of reaching the Premiership and becoming sustainably successful.

This added income becomes even more important in the Championship. Several of ouropponents’ playing budgets are higher, and some owners are more willing and able to invest heavily or take financial risks to gain promotion. We have seen recently that these risks do not always succeed.

Clubs winning the Championship in recent seasons have reported annual losses in the £2m-£3m range, losses covered by their owners. Our club is not at this scale, and we will not risk its existence gambling on short-term gain. But that’s what we’re competing against.

Our financial position is much better than it was just two years ago, when we lost over a £1m but still finished in our lowest ever league position. The club was on the brink of part-timefootball, or worse.

As a club, we are still a long way from being wealthy or even financially secure and are still operating year-to-year. In 23/24 we were able to budget for an operating loss because of the 22/23 cup-run, so leaving us with cash reserves to support a competitive playing budget. Though we believe still not the highest in the division last season.

The future

Our ability to continue to progress will be influenced by our ability as fans and owners to fund our club, alongside continually strong commercial performance. But the fact that we were able to budget for break-even this season shows the progress we have made as a club and a collective. That is a credit to every single one of you.

As a result, we started season 24/25 with depleted cash reserves and had no choice but to budget to break even. Most of the increased income expected from being in the Championship has been absorbed into that.

We nevertheless increased the playing budget and continued to invest in the squad. This has been the benefit of building a squad capable not only of winning League One, but of being immediately competitive in the Championship.

An excellent start to the season that saw us top after the first quarter. Defeating Hearts and giving Celtic a run for their money has brought welcome unbudgeted income and will ease pressure on cashflow towards the end of the financial year.

Our journey so far poses questions and presents options – do we further invest in the playing squad or keep any potential surplus back to, for example, ensure we can move our Academy up a level in 2026 as planned?

Do we invest more in football infrastructure, be that a scouting network, medical, or sport science, so we can and give our players the best chance of staying fit over a gruelling season?

Or do we perhaps start a ‘pitch fund’ towards the seven-figure sum needed to switch our new surface back to grass, as now deemed necessary by Premiership clubs, despite the pitch meeting UEFA Champions League standards? And what about a fourth stand as home games increasingly sell out?

As a club we have the ambition, ideas and energy to build better football infrastructure, elevate our Academy (with integrated pathways for girls and women), further develop the Falkirk Stadium site and to create new income-generating and community-based assets.

However, the vision is the easy part. Making it a reality needs every single stakeholder in the club to pull together. Money isn’t the only factor – as our team are currently showing by punching well above its weight – but it is obviously vitally important.

We will keep growing our commercial revenue, income which enables the improvement of every aspect of the club. We are recruiting two vital positions in our commercial departments who will be central to that ambition, and again thank Graeme Stewart and Graham Carbis for their brilliant contribution to the club.

Ultimately, the only goal which could have a truly transformative impact on the club would be to reach the Premiership, which means we must prioritise the playing squad while making sure every penny spent counts.

Our club

Fan ownership and funding remain at the heart of our strategy. Every penny donated via the Falkirk Supporters’ Society currently goes directly into the playing budget.

Via FSS membership, and other initiatives such as the Manager’s Fund and Academy Patrons, we’ve collectively grown fan-funded donations to around £200,000 this season. This is a phenomenal achievement and testament to the Falkirk supporters’ love for their clubsince fan ownership moved to the next level in 2021, when the club was at its lowest ebb and its future in doubt.

We have all shown that our model of fan-ownership can be successful. With over 1000 FSS members from a standing start less than three years ago, we see great potential to grow further, considering home supports selling out and over 3800 season ticket holders.

So please, if you can afford to and if you agree with what we’re doing, join FSS and encourage your friends and family to do likewise. But please rest assured that everyone deeply appreciates the support you already give your club. We’ve never done this before at Falkirk and our FSS is already near in size to organisations at Premiership clubs.

For the club’s part, we’ll continue to support the manager, increase commercial income, keep costs low and improve the club’s infrastructure.

We will also continue to seek investment to bolster the “third leg” of the stool by talking to individuals or groups who want to be a part of our story, while protecting our club from unsuitable investors.

The AGM appointed three new directors – Mark Whittet, Bob Leishman, and Stuart Adam – all of whom bring decades of experience in different sectors, bolstering a board which is still very hands-on, supporting our CEO Jamie Swinney. We said farewell and thanks to Kenny Jamieson, who was instrumental to the club’s rebuild since 2021 and relentless in his pursuit of excellence for our club. And to John Wright, who left the board during the last financial year having helped turn round our IT operation and represent FSS.

But the saddest farewell was to Gordon Wright, who passed away after the end of our invincible season. A father of fan ownership, the achievements of 2023/24 would not have been possible without him. The AGM wasn’t quite the same without his unique personality and dress sense. Gordon’s hard work and dedication in helping us turn around the club’s fortunes will never be forgotten.

Falkirk FC is forever in his debt.