The latest from Chairman Ben Clasper, from the programme of our Home game against Saltdean Utd on Sunday January 30th.

Last weekend we welcomed the Principal Environmental Health Officer from Southwark Council to the men’s game so they could evaluate how we prepare our staff and facilities for a match day and to verify that the repairs and maintenance needed to ensure Champion Hill remains a safe and functional stadium to host football games have been completed.

Those of you who have followed our long journey towards trying to secure a new stadium will know that a key driver for our application was the condition of the current stadium and facilities and it is clear from this most recent round of works that our predictions that the maintenance of the stadium would no longer be financially viable or an issue would arise that could not even be solved by throwing money at the problem are quickly becoming a reality. Completing our stadium certification tasks was a far larger undertaking this year than ever before and took a disproportionate amount of time, effort and money – all resources that could have been better allocated elsewhere.

On behalf of us all I would like to thank Mel Hughes, our General Manager for steering us through the process and Gavin Smith for working furiously to tick off the myriad tasks that only a few months ago seemed felt like an impossible goal.

So, after navigating the pandemic the time has come to put our new stadium back to the top of the agenda so we can reduce the risk to the club of being unable to continue playing in the current stadium before the new one is ready and we have a three-step plan in the works to achieve that.

Last week we finished the first of those steps which was an audit of how the club is managed today to identify what works and what we’d like to change. Our second step is to identify the additions and improvements we need to deliver that can no longer wait for a new stadium to solve. The third and final step will be to prepare our longer-term ownership and management model on which the club hopes to partner with the Supporters’ Trust. We had originally hoped to be in our new stadium in time for the 2022/23 season but the two years lost to the pandemic mean we can no longer tread water, we need to ensure we have a firm commitment from all parties involved that the new stadium will reach completion and then work backwards from the expected finish date to create a three-year plan that continues to deliver for fans, players, coaches and the community to the best of our ability with the current facilities.

Once the plans for all three steps have been completed we will be looking to engage with as many fans as possible so that we can ensure we protect the things you love and change the things you don’t and then we’ll be looking for people who might want to put their hand up to help us take each step.

A key factor in our planning is ensuring we deliver for the men’s and women’s games and so understand when one size fits all and when we need a different approach whether that’s different people being involved, different facilities or different match day experiences. If you are a season ticket holder or a supporters’ trust member you will automatically receive updates and invitations to contribute but if you are in neither of those categories and would like to be kept informed I would suggest that becoming a member of the trust is the easiest way (www.dhst.org.uk).

We have seen the women’s teams take some huge positive steps forward at our club in the most difficult of circumstances in the past couple of years but our facilities are now the single biggest barrier to giving Ryan and Jack the foundation they need to continue the development of women’s game at Dulwich Hamlet. Whilst the new stadium is absolutely critical to delivering the long-term sports provision goals for the women’s game in our community we have to be as proactive as possible and be smart about which of those goals we can realistically achieve and ensure we create the best environment we can for everyone involved.

We look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible over the coming weeks and months.