Hornchurch announce plans to go full-time after promotion to the National League

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Hornchurch chairman Alex Sharp says the club will move to a full-time model next season as preparations continue for life in the National League.

The Urchins secured promotion to Step 1 for the first time in their history earlier this month after beating Torquay United in the National League South Promotion Final.

Now attention has turned towards ensuring the club can compete both on and off the pitch following their rise into non-league’s top tier.

Speaking to club media, Sharp confirmed Hornchurch will adopt a full-time structure ahead of the new campaign.

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Professional

“The National League is professional football,” he said.

“From our level, we’ll be moving to a full-time model next season, which is a bit of a shock to the system.

“It means full-time training, it means that we’ll be doing a lot more travel and overnight stays in this league as well.

“We need to give ourselves the best possible chance of success in the league.

“Off the field I think we need to match that professionalism that we’re going to see when we go to Carlisle, when we go to Southend and some of these big, well-established clubs in the National League.”

Sharp also revealed the club will appoint a new CEO on June 1 as part of a wider restructure aimed at strengthening Hornchurch’s off-field operations.

Financially sustainable model

“We’re bringing in a CEO who has real experience of running a football club,” he explained.

“He has experience of taking a football club from non-league into the Football League and then flourishing in the Football League.

“But also developing the off-field infrastructure which underpins everything that you’re doing because the biggest thing that occurs, as you look at the biggest step-up from National League South to the National League, is the costs that are involved.

“Everything is more expensive and so it would be great if we could say we’re going to go to an average crowd of 3,000 every week, but the reality is we won’t.

“And in fact with the ground developments we could end up having to reduce the attendance through the season.

“So we are now going to look to generate more significant revenues but not one-off hits.

“They are useful to the club but we want to build lasting partnerships with surrounding businesses, with associated industries, so that we can not only benefit, enhance and grow the club but so that we can also put a financially sustainable model together that underpins us being able to develop the squad and the facilities on the pitch for Darrell [McMahon] and the management team.”

Redevelopment

Hornchurch are also set to redevelop their stadium in order to meet National League ground grading requirements.

The club had hoped to move to a new stadium on land acquired by Sharp, but planning delays linked to green belt regulations mean work will instead focus on the current ground in the short term.

“Now, the hard work commences because we’ve essentially got to add 1,000 capacity to the ground, which we’ll do predominantly by redeveloping the riverside of the stadium,” Sharp said.

On the new stadium plans, he added: “The reality is we’re probably two years away from being able to develop that site, so that doesn’t work with the timings for the National League.

“We have a timeline of March 2027 put on you to achieve the ground grading, so we’re having to move forward with a plan to develop this stadium.

“There’s various other things as well, turnstiles will be required at the opposite end for segregation and for separate entry for the away fans.

“And then there’s some general redevelopment around the ground that we would need to do as well.

“So I’m in discussions with the council at the moment regarding that and looking at the various mechanisms, looking at what approvals we would need to do it and then generally making sure that we can put a plan together that all parties are agreeable to, us, the Football League and the council, in terms of doing these improvements to the ground.”

Realist

Sharp says simply establishing the club at Step 1 would represent success next season.

“I think success for me is that the season after next we’re still in the National League,” he stated.

“I know that sounds very unambitious and Darrell has already told me off for saying that several times because his ambitions are much greater than that.

“We’re probably a couple of seasons ahead of when I thought we would be in the National League and that’s great because I love being ahead of a programme.

“I love the challenge of redoing plans because we’ve overachieved and that’s fantastic.

“For me, the first priority is to try and secure our tenure back in the National League for next year once we’ve established what the league is all about and know that we can compete.

“I think it’s building a competitive squad that would be very successful for me but building a competitive squad within the constraints of a realistic and sensible budget.”

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