From todays Irish Examiner.
By Bill George
BRIAN LENNOX, who will take control of Cork City at the end of the season, yesterday pledged himself to leading the club to a bigger and brighter future after another season of unfulfilled promise.
“My predecessors have all done a very difficult job extremely well. But if Cork City is to survive they have to be successful,” he said.
Mr Lennox, 38, is the son of former Cork football ace Jackie Lennox. He grew up a committed follower of Cork Hibernians and it is his ambition to bring the success of Hibs in the 1970s, when they won all of Ireland’s major trophies, back to Cork.
He has been a boardroom supporter of the current administration at Cork City for the past five years and has been negotiating this handover for the past six months. The current directors will relinquish control after City’s last match of the season, away to Derry on March 31.
“The current board stepped in to save Cork City from collapse and they have done a marvellous job to keep it alive. I want to build on the base that is there and while we intend to strengthen the team with at least three new players for next season, the most pressing need is to secure the financial future of the club,” Mr Lennox said.
He intends to tackle this by bringing on board a number of new directors and with their investment money, plans to set up a series of working committees to handle the daily running of the club.
He welcomed the commitment of support he had received from the current board.
“Michael O’Leary is the current chairman and he will hold this position until the end of season. He will be an important player in my team as well and all of the directors have committed themselves to maintaining an interest in the club and helping wherever they can. Their experience will be invaluable to us.”
The transfer of control will not involve any financial negotiations — the incoming boss will just assume responsibility for the on-going finances of the club. And to maintain the club as a viable entity will require the provision of close to €1m per season.
“Cork City has been too reliant on gate receipts for operating cash. I am hoping the club will finance itself with off-field activities and fund-raising,” Mr Lennox said.
“To thrive we need to create a situation where gate receipts represent just 20% of our income. Securing the other 80% is obviously going to take a huge commitment and occupy a lot of my time and that of the new directors and the hard-working committees.”
Most of the new chairman’s work will involve developing the public side of Cork City and to this end he intends to take advantage of the new floodlights at Turner’s Cross by playing matches on Friday and creating an evening of entertainment for all the family.
”We will develop a special family enclosure as well as providing more entertainment in the form of pre-match activities and half-time promotions to create a more inclusive atmosphere.
”I would like to see Cork City develop into a more community-based club with many of the activities being organised by the members themselves. Communication is the key — communication within the club between the directors and playing staff and communication with our supporters as well.”
Among the issues affecting the playing staff which he intends to tackle is the provision of permanent training facilities. This season, Cork City have been training in a variety of venues but with the FAI committed to developing a football centre in Mayfield, it is intended to set up a long-term leasing arrangement there for training purposes.
“One of the problems we had this season was having too many young players in the team at the one time. We will keep all of them on and set out to surround them with more experienced players next season. They will be a year more advanced themselves in any case,” Mr Lennox said.
Cork will use the close-season to hunt down possible new recruits in England.
“Like every other team in the land, we need a goal scorer, and a couple of other players in key areas. Our manager Liam Murphy and his assistant Patsy Freyne will go to England at the end of the season and we will begin our search at Leicester City, with whom we have a partnership arrangement,” he said.
i am impressed with this. very good stuff. now let´s hope we as supporters can give him the crowd support and the backroom people the structural support. very ambitious plans though especially in regard to the club income vis a vis a gate receipts.
one slight gripe ' if matches are played on a friday how am I going to get down and see them
john flynn? - awesome!!!!!!
Sounds very good. I hope there are serious plans to fulfil all these. I agree dalo - We, as supporters, now need to give this venture our full support and dig in in every way possible.
I'd suggest people start by attending the Supporters Club meetings and the CCISA meeting next Monday. If enough people are consistently grouping together here we will have an even bigger say.
Keep the emails going in to Da Echo and Red FM and all this coverage may help to attract more people to games.
I sent this to Emmet Malone, Red fm and the de echo. How is it_
Hello there,
My name is **** and despite being domciled (or should I say exiled ;-) ) for the last 4 years i have been a regular supporter of Cork City Football Club.
Despite the present reservations I have about the present on-field performances of our great club, I am particularly excited about the takover of the club by Brian Lennox. Brian is a "Red" through and through and I hope your covergae of Cork City Football club will now make top priority in your sports coverage. I do know you are to the fore in your sports coverage of the "City" but it would be important to press home the message over the next few months. We all have a responsibility to the crowds back in supporting local soccer.
The people of Cork deserve the best soccer team in the country and I hope you in response to Brian's press release get behind the team, the club, the supporters and the people of Cork.
BTW I am not a member of any supporters club or affilated organisation.
john flynn? - awesome!!!!!!
same way the rest of us get up to dublin for away games ya lazy feicer-DOSSING!Originally posted by dalo
one slight gripe ' if matches are played on a friday how am I going to get down and see them
This is positive news really, and as long as actions match words, we have a very bright future. Neil is spot on about people digging in and getting themselves involved.
what time do you think the kick offs for the friday home games would be?
also there is a number of exiles like me who would be missing out on city games. we are small in number but strong in spirit
john flynn? - awesome!!!!!!
I'm presuming 7.30 or 7.45. OK, so it ain't easy to get cork-dublin or vice versa for a game on friday night, so just MOVE BACK! Dunno why ye all insist on living in that dump anyway!
Originally posted by Éanna
Dunno why ye all insist on living in that dump anyway!
Jobs?
As well of course traffic gridlock, high rent/property prices, queues for everything & minutes away from most of citys away games.
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