Hayes & Yeading United Fans' Forum

I’m wondering if, long term, the club staying at Beaconsfield Road is likely to be a help or a hindrance.

On the plus side we have lots of seats, a 3G training area and can raise some cash through renting out the car park and for filming opportunities with production studios nearby.

Negatively, it’s not easy to reach by public transport and away from residential development so it’s difficult to pull in a decent crowd. Development of what is largely an empty shell has been slow largely because of the money needed. The old Warren changing rooms and facilities are still in use. The “bar” is really a general purpose function room (sensible), but will it generate income at the back end of an industrial estate? Does the 3G surface get rented to third parties with Goals being so nearby?

From what I can see most of what has been built spends its time empty with no prospect of it generating income without lots of investment, which is not currently forthcoming. It’s just in the wrong place to be a magnet for social events.

I’ve heard our seating capacity is so large that it obliges us to have a higher level of stewarding than would otherwise be required and this makes ground sharing with another smaller club (Southall?) uneconomic.

I know it’s difficult to imagine moving away after so many years trying to get back, but ultimately, will the ground help the club succeed or just drag it down?

Very interesting read. Agree with a lot of what was said. Frankly and i have said it before the ground is at the arse end of nowhere. The bar is finally open and now shut until the season starts again. There is no doubt that this is the wrong location for a football ground. There is nothing here community wise and with the developments taking place it is industrial not residential.

The Ted Lasso series provided much needed funds during tough times and kept the club afloat and provided cash to carry out some improvements. Renting out the car park is ok but it is always at the expense of the home fan. With no public transport most of us have to drive here. Without a car park I would think a lot of fans would not bother coming anymore. Cars parked outside on Saturday afternoons run the risk of being ticketed as the parking restrictions are still operating during match time. It only takes one parking attendant to discover cars outside the ground and they would fill their boots. Once they find out they would be done there all the time. It is a massive undertaking to take this ground on and I suspect with a very little return makes it very difficult for someone to invest.

I know this may be controversial our neighbours Wealdstone are looking at moving into a new ground at the old Master Brewer site, and the ground I believe will be council owned. Perhaps Hayes should be looking at trying to get a ground share. It’s in a great location, plenty of transport car park and in a community. Sharing the ground would involve half the running costs and with decent lease repairs to be carried out by the council. I can hear the shouts and screams now its not in Hayes its not in Yeading. Staying put is also a gamble, Dev and TOD can only invest so much. Income is going to be very tight. This is even more so now we got relegated, the only good point of that is that we have been placed in a very local league and thinking about it we could see an increase in away support. AS we have dropped a league are admission prices going to reflect the standard of football next season.

I am 50/50 about staying put and if Hayes were to move it must be the right for everybody. To be fair to Dev there seems to be a lot more staff, there is advertising around the pitch which makes it look like a football ground, he has got the club shop open which people have been banging on about for years. A proper bar has finally appeared and I understand we will be entering the ground at that end. All we need now is our own tea and burger bar which i have been moaning about since day one.

Both posts make for very interesting reads and I’m surprised there is only the one reply so far. I’m not sure if many people know that the new forum is up and running seems to be the same people posting.

Location of the ground is definitely a major issue and I can’t personally see any resolution to this matter. Can’t see any bus company putting a bus stop at the bottom of Beaconsfield Road even if was just for match days between 1pm-6pm.
From the Coldharbour lane side, it means walking under the bypass, which is still 15-20 minute walk, I can certainly see some issues with evening games in the winter months from that side of the ground. I personally walk that way and have no issues few youngsters in the bypass but not on every occasion.

Think the initial size of the stand was optimistic in all honesty it’s great on the eye, but average crowd of 200 seems an error from the outset. Internally a long way from finished and will take some serious investment to get it finished.
The bar is a massive plus to generate some money but how many people will be in there before and after the game? Maybe more now there is a lot more space available to sit and chat.

I’m not sure there is an any sort of plan from Dev and Tony going forward? Heard that there no real communication between the two and that doesn’t really bode well when trying to move things forward. Seems to be a closed shop in terms of communication between the fans and the club in my opinion.

The London borough council doesn’t seem remotely interested in helping the club in any matter from what I’ve seen and heard. So new ground would be out of the question purely on the basis the LBC wouldn’t want to help us and can’t think of anywhere to put a new ground? Ground share would help reduce costs massively but would it attract any more Hayes & Yeading fans to the ground?
Last season there was some more on line presence and the ground had a different feeling to it early on but the season turned into a bit of a disaster and when the playing side is struggling you will only get the die hard fan supporting.
Ted Lasso money was welcome investment but how many times will we get that investment from the film studio going forward?

Every away game I’ve been to in the last 4/5 seasons the crowd is made up of kids from their youth teams and 14-18 year olds. I know we’ve had some issues with some, but the future of the club needs to attractant a new younger generation of supporters, let’s face it the average age of us Hayes fans is certainly on the higher side!!!

Hope we get some more replies to this thread definitely a topic worth discussing.

Does anyone know if there has ever been a supporters group to liaise with the club? If not would there be any interest from the fans or the club in exploring this avenue of communication??

With TOD at the helm this club had been going nowhere for many years .
He can be credited with saving the club initially but should have stepped down long ago.

Since Dev has taken over he has made many changes in a short time. The bar is generating an income and I believe that deals have been done to let out the upstairs areas.

Our main problem is lack of communication. People feel negative as they don't know what's going on at the ground.

We need to promote the club more and let people know what is going on.

Our club is a wonderful Asset and needed someone like Dev to take it to the next stage.

The location of the ground is not ideal as there is no passing trade and no easy access if you do not drive.

The stand (lovely as it is) runs the risk of looking like a white elephant given that the rest of the ground is lacking character. It is madness that the stand behind the goal is still not open and equally baffling that it took so long for a bar to become functional.

The bigger picture is not massively positive in my humble opinion. The club needs to decide what level of football that can be supported given our income and attendances. Maybe we should accept that we have been punching above our weight under Paul Hughes having come within a whisker of promotion to National League South. i guess we will find out this coming season exactly where we stand but i see no obvious reason why our home crowds will diminish significantly whilst with maybe 2 exceptions our travelling costs will be a fraction of what they were in the Southern League.

The club needs to generate income on non matchdays. We need to build a relationship with local primary schools. We need to attract more fans to home games. Could we average 300 with some innovative thinking? Whether it is a more visible presence on social media, offering reduced price entry to season ticket holders of EPL/EFL clubs or even switching the odd home game to a Friday night at 8.00 pm (Harrow, Rayners Lane or Uxbridge for example) it must be worth at least trying something different and allowing it to fail rather than not trying at all.

The location of the ground has always been a problem, but i'm not sure there's much can be done about that whilst the council barely acknowledge our existence.
I drive to games with my lad, which means i can't stay after games for a beer or two which is a shame and costs the club revenue.

The one thing i've never been able to get my head around is why we've never offered a groundshare deal to Southall FC. Surely them helping to pay towards running costs / some form of rent would help massively?

Interesting conversation - given the years that we spent ground sharing at the likes of Woking, Maidenhead etc I'm happy for the club to stay put

Whilst the location isn't ideal, I'm not convinced that this is the sole reason for our low crowds. I recall that around 2005/6 (when we were at step 2, playing at Church Road) we regularly had crowds around the 200-250 mark (little different from now).

So whilst most locals probably don't even realise that the club exists, not many of them came along to games when it was located nearer the town centre.