Inverness Caledonian Thistle reach goal of £500,000 investment
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CALEY Thistle are ready to kick on with new cash-generating plans after achieving a £500,000 investment target needed to stabilise the club.
The Championship outfit announced last night it had added another £200,000 to the £320,000 raised by December 20 last year.
Welcoming the financial boost, chief executive Scot Gardiner said the fresh influx of funds would give Caley Thistle breathing space to pursue new income streams off the field and attack promotion on it.
The full scale of the financial peril facing the 25-year-old club became aarent when an emergency general meeting (EGM) was called last September.
Following that, Caley Thistle brought new directors onto the board to add fresh expertise and impetus to development plans.
These include future development of ground surrounding the Caledonian Stadium, including a potential park-and-ride scheme. Other commercial ventures remain under wraps.
Mr Gardiner said: “We had an initial surge of investment after our EGM. That gives you confidence, but we were still shy of the target.
“Getting there gives us breathing space to work on securing the club’s future in the short to medium term.
“The chairman and myself have worked tirelessly while our two new directors, Allan Munro and David Cameron, have also been enormously helpful.”
A gig by Westlife at the Caledonian Stadium on June 28 is expected to generate around £100,000 income and Mr Gardiner is hopeful another high-profile concert can be secured.
He said: “We’re working on a variety of projects, some public knowledge, some not, to allow us to operate as a proper football club and attack promotion from the Championship.
“If and when it happens we can create a really solid base, whatever division we are in.”
The club, meanwhile, has been hit with an undisclosed bill after flooding on the new £100,000 playing surface laid in June.
Contractor Greentech Sportsturf began work yesterday to remedy drainage problems along a strip of pitch near the main stand, using a so-called earthquake ground-breaking machine.
Mr Gardiner said: “We do have a fairly serious issue 2-3ft below the ground. Hopefully remedial work will be completed by Tuesday.
“It is not a matter of liability on Greentech’s part, it is an extra cost for us.
“The undersoil heating in previous years has effectively baked the ground solid in that stand-side area. It is like a layer of tarmac and no water can drain away.
“It is an expense we didn’t need, but we have to do it.”
