Minutes from the latest meeting between Cambridge United and the Shadow Board...
Present
CUFC: Alex Tunbridge, Ian Mather, Dave Matthews-Jones
Shadow Board: Nigel Browne, Andrew Stephen, Anouska Wright, Ben Payne, Paul Mayes, Jim Hardingham, Philip Saich
Apologies: Andrew Fox, Ben Phillips
Agenda
Club Badge:
The owners and Board will meet later this month to formalise plans for the badge consultation process which will conclude by August, with the new design being used for the 2024/25 season. An update will be provided to supporters in May.
Ground Redevelopment
The ground redevelopment is likely to be a minimum of a five year project:
Key factors in the planning phase will be addressing concerns from local residents, as well as tackling areas such as ecology, community and transportation. The Club is working with Richard Arnold of Wrenbridge, who worked on the new training ground, and they are assembling a team of consultants and specialists to work on various planning aspects. It is hoped that the process of beginning the Planning Application will start shortly, taking 6-8 months to submit.
Golden Share
The landscape is potentially changing in this area with the government having tabled a Football Regulation Bill – which is currently before Parliament. They want this passed before the election. The new bill will protect football clubs through the appointment of a regulator and the requirement for clubs to operate under a licence arrangement. Contravening the stipulations of the licence would lead to it being rescinded. Ultimately, the regulator would have powers over clubs’ heritage items such as the badge, colours and location of the stadium.
The bill has been well-written but amendments are needed around finance, including parachute payments. It is agreed that the CUFC Shadow board should be seen as defender of the Club’s heritage, but that we need to wait and see how the bill is shaped before a Golden Share is created and issued as it may prove not to be necessary.
Details can be accessed here.
The State of the Game review is expected to be conducted to identify problems in football, particularly in the areas of club ownership, finances and ground renaming.
Ground Renaming
The Shadow Board felt that more notice could have been given about the plans to rename the Abbey. Alex Tunbridge explained that the Board were put in the position where a very attractive offer was on the table and ‘Abbey’ was to be retained in the name, so they felt compelled to take the offer on a confidential basis, and the deal was concluded swiftly.
Shadow Board Role
It was agreed that going forward the Shadow Board should review and endorse the Board’s decisions, but only after any confidentiality phase has ended. From now on there will be regular quarterly meetings to ensure nothing is overlooked and to maximise fan engagement and communication with the Club. The new Fan Engagement Officer will be central to this.
The Club will update the Shadow Board page on the website. It will also publish meeting notes in a timely fashion and flag dates of future meetings.
Shadow Board Constitution
This will be reviewed and updated where required.
The date for the next meeting will be announced in due course.