YORK City Supporters’ Trust chairman Mike Brown will join the York City board this weekend.
Brown will become the club’s third board member, alongside chairman Glen Henderson and chief executive Alastair Smith, and will be in place until May, when he plans to stand down from both his club and Trust positions.
He insists that there will not be a conflict of interest in holding senior roles within both the Trust and the Football Club.
The Trust’s longest-serving chairman of the past five years has committed to abstain in the case of any board votes, in fairness to Henderson, who has a 51 per cent shareholding.
The remaining 49 per cent is held by the Trust, who are also represented on the board by member Smith.
Following the takeover of City in July from former owner Jason McGill, Brown stated that he had no desire to hold a position on the board.
However, he has explained that an official position within the club, rather than working in an external capacity, will benefit his exclusive area of focus, digital marketing.
Writing on Twitter, Brown said: “I”m performing a specific role to save and make the club money. Everyone who knows me will know I’ll always do what’s best for the club and our fans.
“This principle has applied to every Trust/Club joint director since 2002. I will take my regular seat and receive no perks.”
The news was made public at the Trust’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was attended by around 40 members at the LNER Community Stadium on Thursday evening.
The Trust also confirmed that they had invested all the funds raised from the 51 per cent sale of shares to Henderson back into the club.
Brown reiterated a message delivered in the aftermath of the July takeover that the club must become sustainable and that he sees no reason why York cannot run at either break even or as a profitable organisation given City’s support base.
Elsewhere, in terms of finance, it was revealed that the club benefits from 17 per cent of takings at the bar on home match days, that the money earned from academy product Ben Godfrey’s 2020 move to Everton has been spent and that any cash raised from other matches, such as those involving Leeds United or Hull City, held at the Community Stadium, goes into the upkeep of the ground.
Brown also revealed that the Trust were seeking to launch a ‘Build A Budget’ scheme, a long-term fund to benefit first-team recruitment.
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