Football Focus Issue 72 | Page 16

Dunbar United FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/FOOTYFOCUSMAG FF: Is the club doing anything to maximise its commercial potential? GJ: This is an on-going battle. We have a very small committee of hard working people but they can only do so much. We need to earn more money if we want to compete and realise our ambitions. But raising money is not easy and at the moment it mostly comes through sponsorship advertising boards in the ground and through our weekly lottery. I think the commercial potential is large, particularly with our proximity to the East Coast mainline which runs trains all day between Edinburgh and London. A very conservative yearly passenger figure based on a 50-week year is 4.8 million passengers, travelling on the East Coast Mainline and passing New Countess Park. Advertising boards of the right size and situated in the right location will get tremendous exposure and I think this would be quite appealing in bringing in major sponsorship, which is what’s required. 16 Issue 72 FF: What do you believe could be some of the biggest challenges the club may face in the next 5 years? GJ: Our biggest challenge until we can attract major sponsorship will be generating enough income to compete in the higher divisions. The league above means more travel and this comes at a cost. Also better players cost more money and at the minute we are not competing on a level playing field with other clubs in our area in that respect. We need more committee members to help out the guys that are there now. New ideas and fresh faces would give everyone a boost. My main worry is that the energy levels of the current committee might start to dwindle, which is only natural when you are over stretched – this is the biggest challenge I see. If we can convince more people within the community to join the club and build a bigger committee of club members, then I think we could really kick on. I sincerely hope we can do that. FF: What are the clubs ambitions for the next 5 years? GJ: We want to reach the Superleague (one league higher than we are entering now) and compete for all trophies. My aim is to be the best Junior team in Scotland. It’s not over ambitious to say that. We have the facilities in place to do it. We have the potential in terms of players here and are within a catchment area which could see us add the right quality. We just need an infrastructure which allows us to realise these lofty ambitions. We need the community to come on the journey with us. If they do, then we can give them a team to be really proud of.