Club Statement – Review of Season 2023/24 and Looking Forward

The review of the season is unfortunately not as positive as we hoped for obvious reasons. Relegation is a devastating blow and, like all fans, has hit the three of us hard personally. The single objective on the pitch for this season was to stay in League 1 and, despite looking like we would do so for most of the season, we failed to achieve this.

The board supported the manager in everything he wanted, including making more money available for players. But unfortunately football can be a game of very small margins – with the odd goal chance converted we would still be in League 1 – and despite Darren’s best efforts, it was not to be.

There were undeniable highlights – the performances getting through the Viaplay Cup group to a closely fought match against Aberdeen being examples – but relegation casts a long shadow and it will always remain a season of immense disappointment. Ultimately the team failed in its objective and the board felt a new direction was required to take the club forward from here.

We now need to move on and create a robust plan to get promoted again, the first part of which will be finding a new manager, the search for which is already underway. We will update further on that process, and the criteria we have for a new manager, next week.

Much improvement has been made in the plan to be a financially sustainable club. The board inherited a club making a £180k loss in 22/23 which will be significantly reduced for this season. However, going back to League 2 will bring financial challenges and much work is already being done to try and create at least a breakeven position for 24/25.

Away from the 1st team, we have made some great strides forward this season, much of which has already been communicated:

• We reviewed and restructured our youth development set up to make it more fit for purpose for today’s Scottish football environment and solely focussed on a targeted elite player pathway to the first team. We appointed the highly experienced Tony McMinn as Head of Youth Development to spearhead this change (supported by Andy Kennedy in his role as Football Operations Support) and he has made great strides in implementing the future vision. Youth will be an important part of the team this coming season and going forward so getting the new plan working well quickly is a top priority
• Behind the scenes, we have professionalised and introduced new technologies to much of the club’s operations and will continue to do so, to create a modern, forward-looking football club
• Working with Active Stirling, owners of Forthbank Stadium, we have made considerable improvements to the stadium, including getting both the North and South terracing operational again. Much is still to be done, but unfortunately it’s not entirely within our control how quickly improvements can be made
• We reviewed, refocussed and relaunched the Stirling Albion Foundation, which has been a great success. Led by new Football Development Officer, Craig Mair, the Foundation’s positive impact in the community has been greater than ever, highlighted by the Foundation’s turnover this season being higher than any previous Foundation or Club Community Department turnover and this with the relaunch only taking off since Craig’s appointment in September
• Commercial income has increased considerably, helped by working with Active Stirling to increase hospitality capacity by 50%. In addition, sponsorship and advertising income have increased considerably.

And some things haven’t worked so well this season:

• Our social media content, including the provision of match highlights, was not good enough. Partly this is due to the way it was set up originally and partly it is to do with lack of resource. We are working to resolve both these things and hope it will be better next season
• We know our website is not fit for purpose but we haven’t managed to change it yet. There is a project currently ongoing to introduce a new website and that will hopefully be up and running ready for the new season
• We’re aware that communication hasn’t been good enough at times. We have updated the fans on various developments at the club throughout the year but we will endeavour to improve this going forward

We have been working throughout the year on a long term vision and plan for the club, which we presented the headlines of at the Supporters Trust AGM and at the Club’s own AGM, and will communicate to the whole fan base soon.

Going forward, our current priorities are as follows:

• To help us progress and realise our ambitions, we need an asset to generate income. Other clubs we compete with have assets in addition to their football team which generate income for them e.g. a social club or other football facilities they rent out. Stirling has many benefits, not least population size, which, on the face of it, suggests the club should be able to compete successfully with clubs from smaller towns. But the simple truth is that is not enough. Other clubs, many from smaller towns, are able to punch above their weight because of the income they generate from other assets they own. In order to create that additional income required to compete, we are in talks with Stirling Council about taking over Forthbank Stadium and its surrounding football pitches. These talks are very much at an exploratory stage and, rest assured, we will not proceed with this plan if the financial package to support the club in this transition isn’t right
• Supporting the Foundation to drive forward with its community work
• Development of staff and volunteers
• Improving our infrastructure
• Fully establishing our new Youth Development set up and creating further partnerships to feed the youth pipeline
• Improving our digital marketing and communications and launching a new website.

We continue to seek new sponsorship opportunities and develop relationships with local businesses. The Club are running their very first business networking event, giving fifty local businesses the chance to hear more about the club and its plans, and offering them the opportunity to get involved in helping the club, either through sponsorship or other means. We’re delighted this number of businesses are supporting the event, showing the potential for the club to play an important role in the local business community. This approach of working with new local businesses has borne fruit already this season as we have a local business helping us develop our new website and retail platform. The networking event provides the opportunity to spread our reach in the local business community even further.

However, we are always on the look out for new sponsors so if your business, or anyone else you know’s business, would like to talk to the club about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Christine Curtis on cc@stirlingalbionfc.co.uk. We have a commercial catalogue detailing sponsorship packages and are happy to tailor a package to individual requirements.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our fantastic volunteers, without whom we couldn’t operate the club. We value their contribution enormously.

Lastly, it has been an extremely disappointing end to the season but the support of you, the fans, for both the 1st team and the club in general throughout the season has been simply fantastic. Stirling Albion had the 4th best average attendance in league 1, only 3% behind the 3rd place team (Queen of the South) and a whopping 42% ahead of the 5th place team (Alloa Athletic).

The board would like to thank you for your terrific support. Despite the disappointment of relegation, we hope that support continues for season 24/25. We’re going to need all the support we can get to mount a campaign for promotion and we hope you’ll get behind the new manager and team.

Last year, we sold a record number of season tickets, and it would be fantastic for the club if we could sell that number again. Season ticket sales are very important as they are money up front for the club at the start of the season meaning it is money which can be spent on building the playing squad and planning for the year. We’d encourage you to buy your season tickets as soon as possible when they become available. It really will help. Season ticket information will be published soon.

As well as corporate sponsorship, which as mentioned above is increasing successfully, individual sponsorship by fans is extremely important too. If you have sponsored e.g. players before you will be contacted nearer the start of the season and if you haven’t and would like to help the club then again please contact Christine Curtis on cc@stirlingalbionfc.co.uk. Your help and support for the club is greatly appreciated. You will be helping us create a playing budget to build a team capable of challenging for promotion.

As we said at the outset, relegation has been a huge blow. But it has happened and we now need to get on and run the club accordingly from where we now are.

The on-pitch priority now is to build a team capable of competing for promotion and off-pitch we will continue to focus on developing the club for the long term.

Alasdair Dunn, Chair
Robert Clubb, Director
Jim McAllister, Director
The board of directors of Stirling Albion Football Club

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