Open Goal Broomhill FC can confirm that Manager, Simon Ferry along with his coaching staff of Derek Lyle and Paul Slane will be stepping down from their roles at the end of the current football season.
The completion of the 2022/23 football season will also see the conclusion of the commercial partnership between Open Goal and Broomhill FC.
It has been a record-breaking year for the club which has seen many highlights on the pitch as well as unprecedented growth off it.
Simon and his staff helped the club navigate an exciting Scottish Cup campaign to the 3rd round, only to suffer defeat to a last-minute penalty decision against SPFL League 1 side Alloa Athletic. His coaching expertise has also helped develop and improve a number of exciting young talented players in the squad who have achieved breakthrough seasons this year.
This season at our new home Broadwood has seen the club achieve record-breaking attendances with 8k+ fans having walked through the gates to watch the team, an increase of over 6k in comparison to last season. The club also had the highest attended match in the 1st Round of the Scottish Cup with 1550 fans attending our victory over Highland League side Brora Rangers.
Commercial revenue also reached an all-time high following the increase in exposure and attention on the club this season through Open Goal’s partnered online content and distribution on their social platforms. The club’s twitter following has increased by 13,500 to total 20.3k and has achieved 20 million impressions since the Open Goal partnership announcement. Instagram also saw a huge increase in followers, now sitting at 11k, an increase of over 8k since the start of the Open Goal project.
The project has not only seen an increase in attention on Broomhill but Open Goal’s behind-the-scenes documentary YouTube series, Crossing The Line has also shone a spotlight on the Lowland League as a whole, covering multiple other teams and grounds. The 6 released episodes so far have a total viewership of 631,000 views with the full 10-part series on track to reach 1 million views, providing unprecedented exposure to the Scottish Lowland League and its players.
Open Goal Broomhill FC General Manager, George Fraser: “Firstly I’d like to thank the Manager Simon Ferry and his staff for their efforts this season. The excitement of the Scottish Cup campaign will live long in the memory and his team of players have created some amazing moments for fans to enjoy, particularly our Friday night games under the lights at Broadwood.
The project with Open Goal has been an amazing success for us off the pitch and has been crucial in our mission to build and enhance an engaged and passionate community around our club which this partnership has achieved beyond our wildest expectations.
The growth in our online presence has been remarkable and will be extremely valuable to the club’s development going forward. To give context, we as a Lowland League club have a higher combined following on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram compared to some Scottish Premiership-elect sides which proves the power of the project.
We are a young club which has only been operating for 10 years and so this type of innovative idea was exactly what we needed in our journey in building the club’s fanbase both online and offline. It now gives us a fantastic platform to grow the club further both commercially and from a community point-of-view which we aim to reinvest back into a successful football team.
There are plenty of exciting times ahead for Broomhill FC and we’d like to thank Open Goal for their contribution this year and wish both them and Simon Ferry all the best in the future.”
Open Goal Broomhill Manager, Simon Ferry: “My first year in Management has been an invaluable experience and one I will take a lot of learnings from going forward.
It’s been fantastic to work with this group of players and see how much they’ve developed this season. They’ve given me everything including showing their impressive level of character and ability particularly in our Scottish Cup campaign this season. I’m confident many of them will go on to progress their careers further following the year we’ve had together.”
An Open Goal spokesperson: “From the outset of our sponsorship with Broomhill FC, we aimed to support the club in delivering a successful season on the pitch as well as drive the overall interest and engagement in the Scottish Lowland Football League through the production of high-quality, free-to-consume content that provides insight into what this level of football has to offer to a mass audience.
As the figures show from an attendance perspective and online viewership, we were able to significantly expand the reach of Broomhill and the Lowland League by millions through our content including the fly-on-the-wall YouTube series, match highlights and club-dedicated podcast. Such was the extent of the exposure that it allowed the club to benefit from a new and higher-level of commercial input which was reinvested back into the squad and club infrastructure.
Unfortunately, as is the nature of football, success on the pitch can never be guaranteed but we thank the efforts of Simon Ferry, his backroom staff and squad of players who we know gave everything in trying to deliver that this season.
We believe we achieved a lot of our original aims and as such we would like to extend our thanks to every supporter who attended our Home games at Broadwood this season, our sponsors and Broomhill FC themselves for believing in the concept of adopting an innovative approach to growing their club in a self-sustainable and contemporary manner.
We would like to wish Broomhill FC all the best in the future with them now placed in a stronger position to continue their growth with a higher level of commercial reach and public interest which will aid their journey going forward.”
