Following a recent survey of Banbury United members and programme buyers, where it was explained that the Club spent more than £6,000 on designing and printing programmes last season than was brought in through sales, today we are laying out the future of the programme for the 2024-25 season.

The highlights of the survey results are as follows:
• 101 people completed the survey (members and programme buyers at two pre-season fixtures were invited to take part).
• 96% support the Club addressing the financial loss of the programme.
• 72% are against the option to put up the price of the programme, which would still result in a financial loss.
• To the idea of creating a monthly magazine-style publication to cover two to three matches at a time, approximately 55% said no, 25% said yes, 10% don’t know – to both print and online versions.
• 52% backed printing programmes only for special matches – the biggest match of the month or FA Cup and FA Trophy matches (25% said no; 14% said don’t know).
• 77% backed a digital match programme for every match, hosted online.
• 64% backed printing a ‘Team Sheet plus’ print-out with basic information for every home match. Available for £1.
• The most liked aspects of the programme in order are: team sheet, club news and updates, league table, player profiles, team and opposition analysis.

Where from here?

It should be noted that in the 2024-25 Southern League rules, it is mandatory for a club to produce a matchday programme, either in print or online, and subject to certain conditions.
Having received a mandate from the members to make difficult changes and given the financial situation at the Club that we are making huge efforts to turn around, we feel we cannot progress any solution that is still an overall cost to the Club, in any form.

As things stand, this principle rules out the publishing of a regular print programme, due to the cost of printing. It also rules out a print or online programme that is professionally designed, due to the cost of design.

Please note our current designer has been doing this at a hugely reduced rate out of love for the Club. The design of the programme consumes several hours per week, sometimes twice per week and regularly on a Sunday evening, under extreme time pressure. While we have appealed (unsuccessfully) for volunteer designers in the past, we have concluded that it is unrealistic to expect a volunteer to provide this level of commitment for free. With current available resource we are unable to provide a programme designed to the same level as we have enjoyed in the past.

1. New online programme for every match

We will produce a basic design online programme for every match, which will be shared on the website and via our social media channels for every match by 3pm the day before the match. It will be free of charge. Current editor, Sam Soanes, will produce this with the support of various contributors. Thank you, Sam!

2. Printed programme at selected matches

While a regular, per-match printed programme will not return for the start of this season, we plan to select a few stand-out matches, where a printed and online programme will be created. We will publicise this in advance and urge those who wish to demonstrate that there can be a sustainable role for a programme at Banbury United, to support these productions and buy one. This will be on a trial basis as we further analyse interest levels and cost.
We appeal for dedicated printed programme sponsors to come forward and cover the cost of design and production of individual programmes (£200 per free digital programme; £350 per £3.50 printed programme). If a printed programme can pay for itself, we will print one.

3. Printed team sheet at every match

From the first league match on August 10th, we will create a two-sided, A4 printed team sheet at a cost of £1 at the gate. This is in addition to the online programme, which will carry all the same information for free: names of the players and match officials, along with league table, matchday sponsors’ logos and a welcome message from Simon Hollyhead.

We understand that for some, the decision to retire the regular printed programme for now will come as sad news. There is a romance associated with a physical football programme that we strongly considered as part of this process. Thank you to everyone who took part and shared their views as part of this process.

If you would like to be more involved in the Club as a member of Banbury United FC, please purchase your membership (£20 for the season) via this link.