Christmas Directors’ blog

So, dear friends of Maidstone United, Christmas time is upon us again at the end of the year and, as ever, this is a good time to reflect on the important things in life – like the Stones!

Your club is in a good place at the moment despite all the challenges of running the business these days. It is such a difficult economic climate for all of us, with extra taxes and cost-of-living increases. We all feel the pinch. So the support the Stones continue to enjoy – from you, the fans, and from our generous business partners – when businesses, households, and families are all feeling the pinch, is a real boost for the club.

As we keep reminding you, the club has come a very long way in fifteen years. We both stood up and coughed up to rescue the club from its near demise in 2010; we did our best to ensure rapid progress in developing the club; and we have since tried to steady the boat in far choppier waters.

Now, as the years catch up with us – as Terry surveys his greying hair and Oliver searches in vain for any hair at all – it’s time for us to move on and (apologies for flogging the nautical metaphors) prepare to leave the good ship Stones in the hands of a new skipper.

Any new regime in place with new ideas will depend on you, the lifeblood of the club, in order to achieve renewed success and further progress, in whatever form that takes. If you wish to see the club move on in sustainable fashion – which we are certain you do – we, and any future owners, need you to please continue to back the club as far and as loyally as you feel able to.

Maidstone United has had so many extraordinary and memorable football days over the past fifteen years. Please stick with your club, now far and away the leading social and sporting institution in the town, and help it to produce even more wonderful days over the next fifteen years.

Having said all that, let us clarify two things: firstly, we are suffering from lower crowds this season, and this is having a serious impact on our revenues. We have analysed the whys and wherefores. Our thinking is that this is partly due to macro-economic factors beyond our control – crowds are down across the National League South on average – and partly due to local factors, which we can influence.

We are therefore undertaking a review of all our match-day activities in order to try and make the home match-day experience more enjoyable, more varied, and more stimulating for everybody – even in the unlikely event we lose the actual football match. In order to help us, we will be running a fan survey to better gauge where we should put our efforts.

Watch this space. In the meantime, we can only urge you to please continue to support us. We know these are difficult times, but every penny spent at the stadium for the club helps us optimise our playing squads.

Secondly, the question of ‘a new skipper’. Rest assured, we are not intending to interfere with the choice of a new playing captain. As we already said openly months ago, we are in the market with our advisors to find new investors to take over from us. This is a normal process in the life of any business, and we are still firmly committed to overseeing the club – and, as and when necessary, funding the club – during this marketing period. This does, of course, bring some uncertainty to the club, which can affect players, managers, staff, and supporters.

We are therefore doing our best to expedite matters as soon as possible, being reasonable in our demands and looking to choose investors who will be the best for the club going forward. Hopefully, we will be able to bring more concrete news on progress early in the new year, but in the meantime, please stick with us!

Finally, how to assess the first half of the season across the club?

The men’s first team have had excellent results and played some good football but have been somewhat inconsistent so far. Our pre-season target was to get to the play-offs. As we write, we are not far off the play-off places, but it is very bunched up in the middle of the table, and to make the play-offs we need to up our game.

Without wishing to make excuses, we have to operate with a fixed budget, as we cannot readily finance any losses which might otherwise leave the club at risk. Therefore, it has been tough to lose two of our leading recruits, Jamie Yila and Ruben Carvalho, who have barely been seen all season. We can’t simply go out and replace them. Despite that, we have stretched the budget as far as we could, and we believe we now have a squad capable of challenging in the second half of the season. The next few weeks will show where we are, and if you please get behind the team vociferously, it certainly won’t do any harm.

Elsewhere, we must mention the Stones women, who are having the season of our lives. This is what we hoped for when we made big changes in 2023/24 and appointed Tori Campbell to player-manage the group reporting to Zach Foster-Crouch. Unbeaten in the league, enjoying some victories with rugby-like scores and on the back of a good FA Cup run, the target is now clearly promotion to Tier 6 next season. Two key matches later in the season against Tonbridge will settle this. Please go along and support our wonderful Stones women!
Speaking of unbeaten, our under-23s are also unbeaten. A big shout-out to Nathan Baker, who coaches both the under-23s and the women and doesn’t seem to know what a defeat looks like.

Most other areas of the club are buzzing: our academy, our charity (soon to be renamed Maidstone United Community Trust), all our many community teams, and our room and pitch hire operation, which is at near capacity. We have also been ramping up our networking initiatives with local business partners.

It is the traditional time of year to say heartfelt thanks to all those without whom there would be no Maidstone United: thanks to our loyal staff, busy as heck in and around the stadium, in the office, in the bar (managing it and serving in it, we hasten to add); thanks to our dedicated and long-serving volunteers, who all work incredibly hard for the club; thanks to our playing squad and management, who wear the badge with pride and give their all in the cause; last but not least, thanks a million to you, the fans, who come along through thick and thin, through rain and howling winds to support the Stones and thereby keep your great club thriving.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, with Santa bringing you all many more special Stones moments to cherish in the New Year.

Terry and Oliver