Hereford United to ask their fans how club should spend money

Hereford United are to consult their fans over how the Conference Premier club should spend the money generated by a forthcoming share issue.

Having been given permission by their current shareholders to attract new investors, the Bulls could raise £2.8m.

And chairman David Keyte has invited fans to contact him directly at the club to make suggestions.

"It is the job of myself and the board of directors to begin broader dialogue with all supporters," said Keyte.

"This share issue will only be a success if enough supporters purchase shares in the required numbers such that we can begin to make some significant investments that will positively impact the club going forward."

Despite a lucrative FA Cup run which cleared urgent tax bills last season, United are still paying the price for relegation from the Football League in 2012.

Having been close to administration last season, they saw their average home gates suffer a 30% drop from 2,553 in League Two in 2011-12 to 1,752 in the Blue Square Bet Premier in 2012-13.

After also losing £500,000 in Football League funding, they ended the campaign unable to meet their full wage bill on time, before offloading the majority of their squad over the summer,

And Hereford-born businessman Keyte, 59, has already pumped in at least £600,000 of his own money.

"We've had 40,000 shares on the balance sheet for the past 30 or 40 years," Keyte told BBC Hereford & Worcester.

"But, in writing to fans over the past few months, we have found that a good 40% have either sadly passed away or are 'no longer at this address'.

"In reality, we have 25,000 shares at 25p each as the share capital of the whole company.

"So we were faced with the question of 'Do we want to roll along from week to week with all our well-publicised financial problems, especially since relegation'?

"Or we do we try to make a radical change and try to take the club back in an upward direction."