Help Stockport County Buy Back Their Ground for a Pound

By: Daryl | March 13th, 2008

Edgeley Parl

While the fan ownership experiment at Ebbsfleet United is definitely interesting, it’s also kind of gimmicky. And by that I mean there are a lot of co-owners who weren’t Ebbsfleet fans before myfooballclub.co.uk bought the club, but are now picking the team over the internet.

The real fan ownership groups in England are the less publicized but infinitely more interesting Supporters Trusts. Three clubs in the English Football League are properly fan-owned: Brentford, Notts County and Stockport County. Rather than trying to pick a left back from 6,000 miles away, the Supporters Trusts are ownership groups who work to secure the long term future of the club they love. Like the Stockport County Supporters Trust, who’ve come up with a plan to buy back their Edgeley Park ground (above.)

On Ground for a Pound, they’re selling off an image of Edgeley Park, pixel by pixel. With one million pixels at £1 per pop, they’re going to raise the necessary money to put down a million pound deposit on Edgeley Park. If you’re in the USA, then no problem. Even with the currently insane exchange rate, £1 is still only $2.

The old ground has been home to Stockport County since 1902. That’s more than 100 years. But when the League Two club was sold to The Cheshire Group in back 2003, the consortium sold Edgeley Park to the Sale Sharks rugby union club. Eggchasers. Understandably unhappy, the Stockport County Supporters Trust bought the club from The Cheshire Group in 2005, with an eight year option to buy back Edgeley Park.

I’ve already visited the site, bought a pixel (right in the middle of the letter C for County) and uploaded a tiny image of The Offside logo. There’s also a competition, where every pixel is entered into a draw, and whoever bought the winning pixel gets a stand named after them.

Just think, one day I might be able to watch a game of football from TheOffside.com stand (though the chances are literally one in a million.) So if you want to help Stockport County FC keep their history and secure their future, and possibly have a stand named after you, pay a visit to Ground for a Pound and buy yourself at least one pixel.