Worthing FC owner gobsmacked as £43k crowdfunding scheme closes in on target

The Woodside Road chief said he was ‘gobsmacked’ at the response to the club’s crowdfunding bid – and admitted he had been unsure when they launched it if they would reach the target within the eight-week timespan for donations.

Instead the Mackerel Men will pass the total in a fraction of the time – enabling them to press on with a raft of improvements that will improve the Crucial Environmental Stadium for fans and players and get it ready for National League football.

The crowdfunder was launched at 5pm on Thursday, May 14, and had passed the £41,000 mark by Thursday morning – meaning an average of around £3,000 had been secured over 12 days.

The £43k will be added to £107,000 already secured from a national football grant scheme and a business donor to make up the £150,000 needed to pay for LED floodlights, a new food, bar and toilet block in one corner of the ground and improvements to the home changing room.

It’s a large chunk of work needed for Worthing to play and stay at National League level, something they hope be doing in August next year. Their promotion dream was crushed in the season just finished by football being suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dowell is still pinching himself at how fast the funds have flooded in. He told us: “I’m gobsmacked. It’s still not quite two weeks since we launched it and we are so close.

“I will admit I was not sure if we could raise as much as £43,000, even in the eight weeks the crowdfunder people said it was reasonable to keep it going for. Now they’ve told us it’s one of the fastest fundraisers they’ve known in terms of how quick the hoped-for total looks like being reached.

“We knew we had a strong fanbase and a lot of business support in the area but this has shown just how strong it is. It’s amazing.

“We’ve even sold out of the ten lifetime season tickets we put up at £1,500 each.”

Dowell said club bosses had met contractors now they knew the funds were in place for the whole revamp planned this summer. “We have been able to get phase one booked in but basically we now know we can go ahead with the whole project this summer,” he said.

“We are aiming to get it done before next season begins, though at the moment, we don’t know when the season will begin.”

Dowell said construction of new food, drink and toilet facilities in the north-east corner of the ground would make it possible to segregate home and away fans – an ability demanded for some National League games.

Some jobs other than those being done this summer would still be required for Worthing to remain at National League once they got there, said Dowell.

But he said it was unlikely Worthing would go to their fans for a similar fundraiser, at least in the near future.

“I don’t think it’s something you could or should keep doing. People have been very generous but we wouldn’t want to take advantage of that. We’d hope any further funding needs would be met in other ways,” he added.

Worthing had hoped to overturn the FA’s decision to write off the season for clubs at non-league step three and below but the challenge has faded, especially as the authorities have still not decided how to end things for higher divisions.