Below are the details of how our ownership scheme works, some common questions that come up from our fans and also details about how to own your own share in.
As we all know, most football clubs up and down the country are privately owned organisations with wealthy investors plugging large funding holes with their own cash.
As Dorchester Town FC found out under the previous ownership of a property developer, and what many clubs are discovering today, no matter how big they are this is a rather unsustainable business model that has seen some clubs cease to exist.
In 2015, Dorchester Town FC transformed the club into a Community Benefit Society, thereby allowing fans of the club to become owners themselves. We believe that thousands of fans owning an equal share is more sustainable, not to mention appropriate, way of doing things.
£30 per year for Adults and £10 per year for U18s (In order for us to become sustainable, we need owners to renew annually). Membership mimics the football season, running from 1 July to 30 June.
OK. For £30 (Adults) / £10 (U18s) annually you get:
One. No one can own more than one share in Dorchester Town FC, no matter how much money they put in.
Our system is, ‘one owner, one share, one vote’. This is to protect the club from being bought by one unscrupulous owner. There are quite a few doing the rounds in non-league we feel.
However, you are welcome to buy a share for someone else too; a friend, a family member or even a child (though they won’t have voting rights until they are 16). Just enter whatever name you want to be listed as the shareholder in the ‘name’ box, just up there on the right of this page. Any share you buy will be valid for a year from 1 July.
It’s a great way to support all the work that Dorchester Town Football Club does.
It’s not just about the First Team. There’s the U23s and U18s where local young players are developed with the aim of getting into the first team; Dorchester Town FC Youth that comprises of over 450 local children playing in over 34 teams whose ages range from 8 years to Under 18 years. And not forgetting Kix Start – our not-for-profit organisation who is running the clubs Ability Counts team and the clubs Walking Football and Supporter Fitness projects.
And we have ambitious plans for the future with making big changes at our ground, The Avenue Stadium, to turn it into a seven-days-a-week community venue.
Dorchester Town Football Club is the only supporter owned football club in Dorset.
We believe in the principle of supporter owned clubs. We believe we should be an asset at the heart of the community. Buying a share in our club will help us grow and thrive and make our plans possible.
Firstly, this is not an investment and there is no return on or of the money that you put in.
Secondly, our lawyers, DWF, want you to know that “Dorchester Town Community Football Club Limited is registered as a Community Benefit Society which means that (like a company) (1) it is a legal entity in its own right, independent of the members and (2) the liability of members is limited to the value of their nominal £1 shareholding (which will be taken at the time of joining out of the £30/£10). Any claim arising from the activities of the Society will therefore be a claim against the Society not the members.
If the Society were to become insolvent, the members would lose their £1 stakes but could not be called upon to contribute further.”
In short, buying the share doesn’t lay you open to any responsibility or liability.For our Rules for Dorchester Town Football Club Limited (Registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014) CLICK HERE TO VIEW