"We are not facing oblivion"
(The following interview by Chris Wickham, with BU-nominated Executive Club Director, John McGlashan, appeared in the 30 December 2004 edition of the Chronicle newspaper)
Brentford Executive Director John McGlashan has said that the club have a bank willing to discuss re-financing the club, but they need to make an indent into their overdraft first.
McGlashan, speaking exclusively to the Chronicle, said that the club's financial situation has not altered in the past two years. Brentford are still overdrawn to the tune of £4.5m and have to meet� interest repayments of £300,000 a year. But taking this out of the� equation, the club are trading at a profit.
McGlashan said: "We do have a bank interested in re-financing, but they want to see new streams of revenue and a reduction in the overdraft by about half. We're looking to find £2m from somewhere to reduce the overdraft and develop Griffin Park, so there are new revenue streams.
"It's the £300,000 overdraft interest that is the key thing in all this. If we can find some way of covering that, in theory, we could go on indefinitely. That development puts a big whole in that £300,000. If it doesn't go ahead, then we'll need to find another way of raising the cash.
"If we were selling out every week, it would cover it, and we could look to pay off the overdraft itself. But I can't see any way of doing that at Griffin Park, to be honest."
McGlashan was also keen to point out that if the Bees United option to buy the club were to expire in May 2005, this would not necesarrily mean the return of ex-chairman Ron Noades. He said: "I think Ron Noades is reasonably relaxed about the situation. If the option were to expire, he would take over a club that can see the way forward � a very different one to when he left.
"I don't think he wants to take the club back, he'd be happy to allow things to carry on as they are. I think he would be reasonably okay with agreeing to guarantee the overdraft as long as he could see things improving. He wanted a way out, it was either cut us off or put more money in.
"We didn't want a bigger debt, it's not interest free, and we've been given a chance because the supporters are putting their money in."
McGlashan, a 54-year-old from Ashford, has been on the board at Brentford for almost three years and said the club were perilously close to going out of business in the summer of 2002.
"We had a board meeting the week after the Play-Off final, where the board agreed that the ground should be sold or the club should go into Administration," he said. "The club had just touched the overdraft limit and were budgeted to lose a huge sum of money in the next financial year. We had a deal set up with a developer for the sale of Griffin Park. It would have given us the cash to see us through the season, written off our overdraft and put some cash in the bank. It didn't go ahead so we were going to go into Administration. But then Crystal Palace bought Darren Powell for £400,000 to see us through the season. Ron Noades gave control of the club to the supporters that season, and we aimed to prove the club could be run as a viable business at Griffin Park."
To a large extent, they have done that. Brentford has made a trading profit in each of the last two years and steadied the overdraft, but McGlashan knows that in order to make progress, the Club need to develop Griffin Park and ultimately move to a new stadium. Both seem to be likely, despite the deferral of last week's planning application for Griffin Park by Hounslow Council. McGlashan said the council had been on the verge of refusing the plans after complaints over proposals to move the New Road stand back to it's original position, before a series of phone calls changed its mind.
He said: "I'm really annoyed, the council admitted it hadn't handled the application well, and we had a justified cause for complaint. Basically, they had no staff. The planning application came in and they left it on the desk.
In May 2003, the Borough Planning Manager came here, we walked him around the ground and told him what we wanted to do, including replacing the back of the New Road stand.
"We then got a letter from his office confirming that was what we had said. When we went to see the planners a couple of weeks ago, they said the Borough Planning Manager was completely unaware of what we wanted to do. We told them it was on the plans, and they said they hadn't looked at them.
"We showed them the letter from them to us, which showed he was quite aware of what we wanted to do. It was on the basis of what he said that we went ahead with the plans. If we were told there was no way we could put the back on the New Road stand, there wouldn't have been an application. The whole thing is dependent on the New Road, that's where the revenue will be raised."
However, after meetings with residents, the club is confident a compromise can be reached. McGlashan continued: "The residents said they are happy to sit down with us and reach a compromise over the New Road, but I'm going to have to work all over Christmas to sort it out. If we go back with an agreement, then the council will approve it. We have suggested creating a living wall along the back of the stand, so that it's hedged all the way along. The New Road residents didn't know we'd offered to do that. We turned up at December's planning meeting looking like we were at loggerheads, but we just hadn't been properly informed."
McGlashan also said progress had been made on the Lionel Road site. He said: "I think that it's going to happen now, the council are making so much commitment to it. But again, it's down to cash. We want Brentford's football ground to be in Brentford, but the value of land is huge because poeple want to build houses on it.
"We've identified a piece of land that doesn't have that same value, because you can't do the same things with it. We're dealing with developers, the council and government departments, and they say it can be done, we just have to find the right way of doing it."
He said the club has been told for two years that the sale had gone through and is nearly complete. "We met with the owners, the British Railways Residuary Board, and the Strategic Rail Authority, and for the first time they told us: 'if you really are interested in this site you'll have to make an offer'. Up to then, they'd always said it had been sold," McGlashan added. "There has definitely been a shift, so we'll see. Even the people buying it have said they'd be happy to see a football ground on the land. For them, being involved in a landmark project would give them a huge amount of kudos, and they'd be happy to do it. But they're concerned about a funding gap themselves. So if we can demonstrate we can close this gap, we can either buy the land ourselves � and there may be a way of doing that in partnership with the local authority � or we can let the sale go ahead and work with the new owners."
McGlashan is confident Brentford can find the funds, saying: "All the people we are talking to, say the gap in our funding can be bridged, they're just not sure how to do it at the moment. Griffin Park won't pay for a new ground. It is likely to cost £30m, and the value of Griffin Park is likely to be £15m, perhaps less. We've had an offer for Griffin Park from a builder of £15.8m with no affordable housing, and £7m if it has 50 per cent, which is what is in the section 106 agreement.
"We need to find ways of raising the £15m, and we will have other things on the site. One idea is to build a hotel as part of the stand, with one level of rooms looking out over the pitch so they can be used for match day hospitality. We would not be able to bridge a £22m gap, the project depends on affordable housing at Griffin Park. We've never signed the section 106 because we were unhappy about the clause that said at least 50% affordable housing.
"The disagreement between the council and us is that clause. But we've now agreed it will stay as it is, but a new clause will be inserted that says any of the conditions that have been opposed � apart from a replacement
stadium – can be renegotiated. The council have made it clear that if we were to sell the ground and not
build a new one, there must be some gain for allowing the site to be turned into housing, and one gain would be affordable housing. We've said we're going to put any money we raise into a new stadium, and if that happens, the council has said it will talk about the 50 per cent. But until we can guarantee them a new stadium, the clause stays as it is.We agreed, as long as it could be renegotiated."
McGlashan believes the important thing is keeping the club alive until all these problems can be resolved, and is pleased with the change in atmosphere around the club.
"I've seen people with smiles on their faces this season," he said. "People have told me the change here in the last year is unbelievable, it sort of creeps up on you. I think that's the best thing we can do – put smiles on people's faces."
McGlashan also explained why the first-team squad had seen several new additions in recent weeks and admitted the club were over budget by four players wages. He said: "We've signed extra players because we have needed them. Our first-team suqad was meant to be limited to 19 players but with our
injuries we've had to get others in. We are over budget, but other players have gone out on loan which means we don't have to pay them. The club doesn't want to keep players for the sake of it, they have to do
a job for us. We won't keep players unnecessarily but come January we may be looking at players for next season.
"If there are good players around we will have to look at them, it's just a case of being careful. He also assured fans the club was not being run as it was under the Noades regime. When Ron Noades was here we had a number of players earning a couple of thousand pounds a week, and they were in Steve Coppell's team." said McGlashan "When Steve left most of those players went too, but we kept a couple and signed Sonko, who cost us a lot of money. We have no-one on that sort of money now."
BEES UNITED WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS ITS THANKS TO THE CHRONICLE, FOR THEIR KIND PERMISSION IN REPRODUCING THIS ARTICLE.