Simon Leslie: Best part about owning a football club? My answer may surprise you
People often ask what the best part of owning a football club is.
It isn’t winning, losing or drawing. It’s seeing a player earn a move into the Football League, knowing you helped someone reach a dream.
It’s a family holiday they could never have afforded. We’ve already sent supporters away on a cruise with our partners, and another family is about to find out there really is an Eastbourne in Barbados.
It’s a single dad making memories with his kids. A single mum able to give her family a day out without worrying about the cost. Disadvantaged children playing the game they love because sponsors donated the boots and kit that made it possible.
It’s our disabled team getting the support they deserve, thanks to partners like Octopus Energy and Viasat.
It’s opening the gates for the whole community to watch the World Cup together, not because it made commercial sense, but because football should bring people together. We hosted major tournaments and welcomed thousands through the gates. Not everything that matters shows up on a P&L.
Those are the moments that remind you why football clubs exist.
The truth is, you never really own a football club. You’re its guardian for a while. Your job is to leave it better than you found it: better facilities, better opportunities, more memories.
One day someone else takes over. Hopefully they’ll have deeper pockets, be a better operator, and love the club as much as you did. That’s stewardship.
The hard part is that dreams cost money. Community programmes, academies, women’s football, infrastructure, none of it is free. That’s why non-league football needs local businesses.
Not charity, investment in something bigger than ninety minutes on a Saturday. In children who find confidence through football. In families making memories. In volunteers who give up their time because they care about their town. In a place where people belong.
Every sponsorship board, every programme advert, every hospitality table helps write another story someone in this community will remember for the rest of their life.
That’s why people take on running a football club, even though it’s never easy, because for a while, you get the privilege of looking after something that means the world to so many other people.
And now the fun starts. Our first home game is next Tuesday (August 11) against Three Bridges, then a huge one the following Saturday, (August 15), against Barry Hearn’s Brentwood Town.
The women’s team open their season away at Brentford on Sunday 16.
I’m super optimistic for the year ahead. See you all soon.
Read Simon Leslie’s thoughts from Eastbourne Borough FC in the Eastbourne Herald and at sussexworld.co.uk/sport throughout the season