History

The inaugural meeting of people anxious to support Bromsgrove Rovers Football Club Ltd (BRFC Ltd) was convened following a request from the board of directors to Mr. Phil Baker who set up this initiative on 19th September 2000.

At this meeting it was agreed that a steering committee would be formed to pursue these aims and Mr. Baker was nominated as acting chairman. At that time the primary objective was to set up a trust to place a large number of individual share holdings which had been sold by BRFC Ltd to the public at large, under one ‘umbrella’ as the football club had no jurisdiction at that time to create some 271 new shareholders. This situation has never been resolved.

It was agreed that the group would be known as Bromsgrove Rovers Supporters Society Limited (BRSS) and would be affiliated to Supporters Direct. This is a body set up and funded by the Government to encourage football supporters throughout the country to have greater involvement with their respective club.

With the aid of partial funding from Supporters Direct and the benefit of their solicitors advice (Cobbetts of Manchester) a legal constitution was drawn up forming the basis of the aims and objectives of the Society. This document and title has been registered as a Society under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 (No 29196R).

Our first fund raising evening hosted by Mr. Bobby Hope, the manager who led our club to Conference level, was a great success recruiting 167 members paying £5.00 per head; a night well remembered! It was the forerunner of many fund raising events. Unfortunately as the Society went from strength to strength the football club went into steep decline. Early 2001 saw the club at the request of the club's directors taken into administration. Worse was to follow when the club was relegated at the end of the 2000/1 season.

The start of the 2001/2 season saw the club playing in the Midland Alliance. This was only made possible by the Society paying off various fines and debts totaling £1270 which had been incurred the previous season.

In July 2001 Mr. T. Herbert, at that time a member of the Society, launched a bid to buy the football club out of administration with an opening bid of £25,000. This was rejected, prompting BRSS Ltd to donate a further £5,000 to Mr. Herbert on the understanding that if he gained control of the club he would give 5000 paid up shares to BRSS Ltd in respect of this contribution. The sale was eventually concluded for the sum of £40,000.

The football club was consequently taken out of administration in September 2003 with Mr. Herbert as chairman and majority shareholder. Since then contributions in excess of £6,900 have been made available for the benefit of the football club. In addition, Society members have put in as much time and effort on maintenance and improvement to the Victoria Ground as anyone else.

The last two years have been hard work with difficulties encountered that at one stage seemed insurmountable.

With the support of our membership (which is better than any other trust based on % of average gate) and the hard work of BRSS Board members we have achieved our goal of becoming shareholders in our club. Hopefully this year will see a continuation of better relations between club and Society and we can once again contribute to the success of the Rovers.