By Rory McKee
EFFORTS are underway to form a committee of Ards Football Club fans who would act as a support group to the current board of directors.
A first meeting of supporters interested in assisting the club with practical and financial matters was held earlier this week (February 2), at which the board gave its blessing to the idea.
Among the initiatives proposed so far from the group is a subscription fund in the form of monthly standing orders that would go towards the everyday running costs of the club.
Ards FC supporter liaison officer Adrian Monaghan, who has helped to co-found the support group, said there was a recognition within the Ards fanbase that the current board is the smallest it has been for 20 years.
He added that the first meeting was positive and everyone present was ‘of a similar mind’.
Adrian said the group are ‘very conscious’ of the current cost of living challenges and stressed that any amount, ‘no matter how big or small’, which supporters are willing to contribute towards bills for training expenses and costs associated with progressing plans for the new stadium, will be gratefully received.
In August 2022, more than two decades after Ards’ former Castlereagh Park home was sold, the club signed a long-term lease to build a 2,000-capacity stadium on six acres of previously council-owned land on the Portaferry Road, known as the Floodgates.
Ards have spent in the region of £80,000 on advancing the project, while an appeal to the local community raised close to £20,000 towards the costs incurred – but in September the club was dealt a body blow when its bid to net a share of long-awaited Department for Communities money for football facilities was unsuccessful.
Twenty football clubs throughout Northern Ireland’s top three divisions saw their projects advanced to the next stage of the funding programme, however progress has stalled partly as a result of legal challenges from some of the clubs who failed to make the cut.
Speaking at the time of the announcement, Ards chairman Warren Patton said he felt ‘let down, not just for Ards Football Club but most importantly for the community of Newtownards’.
The chairman hit out at the programme’s criteria, specifically around a question which in his view left Ards and fellow homeless club Institute ‘behind the eight ball’.
“I do honestly feel that the way the scoring matrix was designed, we, along with Institute, were at a disadvantage straight away.
“We scored very highly in terms of need and benefit to the community, but there was a question worth 10 points around finance sustainability for your own ground, and we couldn’t score any points on that because we don’t have our own ground.”
Three weeks on from the funding snub, an Ards FC delegation including board members and local elected representatives met face-to-face with the Communities Minister Gordon Lyons and department officials to seek further clarity on the decision.
A date for the next meeting of the support group, when it hopes to elect a committee of supporters, will be announced in due course.
