Community is at the hub of Stenhousemuir initiative

Assistant Sports Editor

Friday 6 July 2012

WHY should the business model of one football club be predicated on the health of another?

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Richard Winton

The question, posed by David Reid, should be rhetorical but instead some of his colleagues in the boardrooms of Scottish football are desperately trying to agree upon an answer to appease their creditors.

As the repercussions of Rangers' ruination threaten to rent the game in this country asunder, the Stenhousemuir director and Scottish Football Association council member is conflicted. Anguished by the havoc being wreaked and the divisive nature of the issue, he is also hopeful that the situation can act as a catalyst for change and that his own club are among the best placed to lead the revolution.

The shaft of optimism he believes can percolate the gathering gloom is the Tryst Community Sports Hub. It might be just eight months since Reid proudly attended the launch of the project at Larbert High School but he has already seen enough to realise that his emotional investment was worthwhile, even if its genesis was unusual. It was while visiting members of their famed Norwegian supporters club that Reid alighted upon the simple notion – long established on the continent – of a football club being the driving force of a wider community entity in which schools and sports clubs are sheltered under the same umbrella. Seeing no reason why the model could not work in Scotland, the 45-year-old lobbied the council and Larbert High School for several months before finally reaching an accord that not only unlocked facilities unused outside school hours but also brought an audience of 2000 pupils keen to participate.Already, Tryst has witnessed an increase of 20% in local kids using facilities in sports ranging from tennis and rugby to cheerleading and dance but it is the impact on Stenhousemuir that has given Reid the greatest succour. "We realised it was not enough to tell people we were the centre of the community; we needed to act like it, too, and provide something they wanted," he explains. "They're not going to support you just because you are there so we needed them to regard our club as their club; that's not just a twee phrase, it's genuine."With free season tickets given out to under-16s and a reward scheme introduced whereby children attending three games are given a scarf; eight games a boot bag and 12 games a top, attendances are rising as well as demand for the club's youth programme. Limited to 150 kids before laying a synthetic pitch five years ago, Stenhousemuir now have up to 700 youngsters attending sessions every week. That, though, would have to be scaled back dramatically should a Rangers newco begin in the third division, a consequence of the SPL clubs defaulting on the settlement agreement to the SFL.Other local clubs are enjoying a similar upsurge and all thanks to a concept wedded to simplicity. The facilities are available? Then open them up. People are eager to get involved? Then let them. Our target market are telling us they want it done a certain way? Then let's do it that way. Basic economics dictate that if you provide a service that people want, it becomes self-sustaining. Scottish football, says Reid, has forgotten that principle. "Instead of gazing at their naval and complaining about external factors, how many clubs have changed their mindset and done something different to make themselves sustainable?" he asks. "We can't control external forces but we can all be innovative in some way, even if that is straightforward plagiarism in terms of picking up an idea from someone else. We're not being smart Alecs and saying 'this is the way all clubs should go' but this happens to be our solution to make our club sustainable. This is not a lecture, its just how we do it."This Rangers thing should be a catalyst for positive change and by that I mean everyone looking at themselves and asking why they should be bound by what happens elsewhere. Too many clubs are concerned about where they might be next season rather than 10 seasons down the line."Given the Scottish Government and sportscotland are eager to launch 141 hubs across the country's 32 local authorities as part of their 2014 Commonwealth Games legacy plan, the opportunity is there for other clubs to follow Stenhousemuir's lead. With an annual budget of £1.5m National Lottery funding until 2016 and 104 hubs initiated in 24 areas, tangible progress is already being made and Reid insists he will happily advise rival club directors eager to seize the initiative.The civil engineer is, however, anxious that he should not become some sort of poster boy, citing the work done by Martin McNairney and Bill Darroch, his successors as chairman at Ochilview, as well as Jamie Swinney, who oversees the programme on a day-to-day basis. As far as Reid is concerned, all he is doing is continuing to serve his club, having been a ballboy at the age of six, kitman by the time he was 17 and a board member for the past 25 years."It's the community's club," he insists, outlining plans to launch classes for adults and develop pathways for elite athletes. "If we say 'this is your club' we can't then dictate how it's going to be. They have to have a say in how it is run."

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Community is at the hub of Stenhousemuir initiative

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