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Community Share Scheme Extension and Ground Update

The Board of FC United have announced that the community share scheme deadline has been extended until March 15th 2012.

There has been a tremendous response so far with over £1.4m raised, a truly phenomenal effort and a great vote of confidence in what we are doing especially given the current economic climate.

To invest in the scheme, please go to www.fc-utd.co.uk/communityshares and complete an application form.

Although the scheme is open until March, we are urging people to act as soon as possible. The sooner we can confirm our funds in place, the better chance that we can secure the additional grant funding which is essential for us to build our own ground. For more detail read...

Update

It is two months now since the planning committee and supporters will be keen to know when the first spade will be put in the ground. Following that hugely positive decision back in October the project team have been progressing discussions with the city council and funding partners so that we can announce a date when we might start on site.

One of the most significant decisions is the appointment of the main contractor; we are at the final stage of negotiations with two companies and fully expect to announce an appointment in the coming week. A development project of this nature requires a number of legal agreements to be drawn up and signed before any build can go ahead and those discussions are also progressing well.

Without the tremendous response to the Community Share we would not have come this far, our discussions with other funders have hinged upon the progress we have made towards our £1.6M target. Two major grant applications are now under consideration and we expect to have a further announcement on their progress by the end of the month.

However, we still have to reach our target of £1.6m in order to be able to build our ground in Moston so we are asking members and fans to redouble efforts to reach this goal.

For the Community Share Scheme we would like to emphasise:

1. There are still around 90 people (totalling over £30,000) of shareholders who invested in the previous TAL scheme who are yet to sign over to the new scheme. You must complete a new application form for your previous application to count for the Moston scheme. We urgently need these people to do this.

2. We are urging any members who have not yet bought shares (around half the membership) to please consider doing so - we really need everyone to dig deep to help us achieve our dream.

3. The scheme qualifies for the Enterprise Investment Scheme which means that if you buy £500 or more you can claim 30% of this back against your tax - this equates to £150 back on £500 of shares bought, a better rate of return than you are likely to get on the high street.

4. Any existing shareholders who are under the £500 threshold for EIS should consider whether they can stretch to £500 - for instance if you have bought £400 of shares, buying an additional £100 could actually save you money.

There has been a huge effort to date and the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. If monies from the previous scheme are signed over, we are just £170,000 short of our target. Please redouble your efforts to get us to our home.

A full update on all funding and other areas of development will be posted on the members’ area shortly.

Further consultations with members will follow in the next couple of months; whilst the overall design of the buildings are in place we need your input if we are to make the new ground something we can all be proud of.



First Posted ~ 09:45 Fri 16 Mar 2012
News ID ~ 3983
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021