Blog
Why we’re backing the Big Bath City Bid
The House has committed £1000 to buy community shares in the Big Bath City Bid, a £750,000 campaign to turn Bath City FC into a community-owned club. We are encouraging all Bath businesses to “Back the Bid”.
We’ve invested because we are inspired by the game-changing potential of a community-owned club with social purpose at its heart. We don’t see our investment as an act of charity – we are investing in the transformation of a vital community asset and local institution that will produce real social and economic returns for Bath. Having worked with Bath Rugby Foundation, we understand the power of sport to change lives.
What’s in it for us? Well, for our £1000 we get a special listing in the programme and a 10% staff discount. But for us that’s not really the point. We believe:
- A community-owned Bath City FC will improve Bath’s profile as a creative, future-focused, beautifully inventive city
- The volunteer structure and social impact programme that comes with community ownership will increase social capital, employability and ‘upskill’ local people, including the young, supporting the next generation of local talent
- A refreshed and renewed Bath City FC will create a new, attractive marketing channel for Bath business
Above all, community-owned Bath City FC can become a hub for business, local authorities and the third sector to work together and tackle local challenges such as elderly isolation, health and wellbeing, independent living for the disabled, mental health and the skills gap.
What excites us the most is that, as “owner-members”, we would have a direct voice in the future shaping of the club. With the best of Bath’s businesses engaged, the possibilities are endless: a Bath City Ladies team, a 3G all-weather pitch that makes Twerton Park the true “home of Bath football”, a co-working space for our innovative startups.
This is about more than ‘corporate social responsibility’. We know from our own work that businesses with a clear sense of “purpose beyond profit” enjoy a competitive advantage in attracting customers, employees and investment. We will be a stronger business for our involvement in the Big Bath City Bid. By buying community shares in Bath City, we are simply investing in ourselves.
We humbly suggest that every business owner in Bath watches this video and visits the bigbathcitybid.org.uk website.
Let’s give Bath the football club it deserves.