POWER could be put in the hands of the fans at Billericay Town.
Under new proposals the club's supporters are being encouraged to buy shares in the Blue Square Bet South club, giving them a voice in the boardroom and safeguarding the future interests of the club.
The idea is the brainchild of chairman Steve Kent and majority shareholder Grant Gordon, who bought the club from Kent in August, who would eventually like to see the supporters own the club when they're no longer able to run the day-to-day operations.
"I'm mindful that I'm not going to be there forever and Grant's not going to be there forever, so going forward, how do we ensure they [the fans] have a bigger voice?" said Kent.
"It would be good if the fans owned the club but you've got to have the right people sitting on the board ... going forward they'll hopefully get an understanding of safeguarding the club for the future. You couldn't just hand the club straight over because they wouldn't know how to run it, but one day I'd like to see it."
The offer to fans is 50,000 shares – around 12.5 per cent of the club – for a knockdown price of £20,000 and Kent will meet with members of the Billericay Town Supporters Association on Thursday to weigh up their interest. "We'll try and find a way to make it happen for them," he said. "It's a way off yet, but hopefully it'll get sorted in the coming months but not the coming weeks and days.
"I think it would be too much for them to find £50,000 and 20,000 shares wouldn't give them a voice especially going forward," explained Kent.
"If they only had 20,000 shares and there were new people in five years' time, they could take them away but 50,000 is a big chunk of shares."
Kent stressed that this wasn't a quick way to pump money and said he and Gordon were to be 'very flexible' on how and when the fans paid for their shares.
In other news this week the club has secured a new shirt sponsor until the end of next season.
Teamkitsdirect.com will be on Town's shirts after an initial sponsor pulled out of a four-year deal at the start of the season.
"It's a good sponsorship," said Kent.
"It's until the end of next season at least and hopefully we can make it longer than that."
Meanwhile, midfielder Paul Semukula has signed a permanent contract at the club.
"Craig [Edwards] has signed a few young players in recent weeks and it's all about moving forward," said Kent.
