There were about 50odd there. At the end there seemed to be a fair bit of interest from new people judging by the number of folk talking to the existing board members. I hope that is carried through to people actually playing a part.
Paul Medley spoke at length about all the good things Bullbuilder has done for the Academy and how even little things can make a difference when trying to attract young players to the club. Several big challenges are apparent. The training facility at Tong is one of the best in the game but costs a bit to rent. The owners of the facility lost a lot of money when the Bulls went into admin and are keen to recoup some of that so rents are going up. The Bulls really need to keep it and negotiations are ongoing. It’s geographic location near the M62 make it ideally situated to allow accessibility for kids from far and wide, unlike when the club trained at Woodhouse Grove. The facility is a cornerstone of the club and it would be a tragedy to lose it. There’s an opportunity for Bullbuilder to help in some way depending on what members want to do.
Another challenge is attracting the kids in the first place. The Bulls can’t offer a big cheque or say we’ll be winning trophies this year and that might not be for a while. That means things like doing the extras for the academy like improving facilities, buying extra kit and offering team building events can be make a difference when a kid makes a decision.
One of the Board members mentioned that Halifax have a supporters trust run by 4 pensioners that raises £25k a year for their club – that’s on an average crowd of about 1500 and fewer members of the Trust. If they can manage that then hopefully with a motivated and energetic bullbuilder we can do the same or better and really help out.
