Bracknell Town chairman Kayne Steinborn-Busse has released a video interview on the clubs YouTube channel talking about Larges Lane, it’s history and what a possible future promotion will mean fore the club.
The interview, released on Wednesday included a segment on the limitations of the clubs current home – Larges Lane – where the club has been based since 1933.
The Bracknell chairman said the club had achieved a Grade D ground grading allowing the Robins to play at step 4 (Isthmian League) but that the Football Association did not believe the club would be able to play higher while at the current ground.
Mr Steinborn-Busse said: “The Larges Lane site is currently grade D, what that means is, you can’t fundamentally just rock up in non league and get promoted through the steps with just a park pitch. The FA set down a grading requirement for each of the steps.
“We are currently grade D, we’ve just got that upgrade to grade D and it was quite tough to get that on this site but we managed to achieve it.
“When we were going through that process to get grade D to play at step 4 it was made very clear to us by the FA that grade D was as high as we could go on this current site. They don’t believe we could achieve grade C. Our current ground is good for where it is but if we have aspirations, which we do, we’re an ambitious football club, the reality is we wouldn’t play higher at Larges Lane. We’ve reached the top of it’s capability.
“You look at the ground and it’s never really as a football club, it never has operated above the level it is at now. It would require an incredible amount of work that the FA have highlighted within the current footprint.”
It’s almost certainly going to mean we will have to ground share.
Kayne Steinborn-Busse on what a future promotion will mean
The Bracknell chairman goes on to say that the current site at Larges Lane was part of Bracknell Forest Council’s future housing development plans and that the clubs priority was to find a new site that meets the clubs needs in the long term with sites already under discussion.
He added that in the short and medium term, if the club earned further promotions it would almost certainly have to play outside of Bracknell and ground share with a club that had suitable facilities.
Listen to the full interview with Kayne Steinborn-Busse below where he discusses plans for a new ground for Bracknell Town here:
