Cliff Crown believes that the biggest benefit of the new Brentford Community Stadium on Lionel Road, will come to the Community Sports Trust.
They will be able to have offices available to them 24/7 to continue the fantastic work Lee Doyle's team do.
And the Brentford chairman knows that the community arm of the club is one of the best aspects of the Bees.
He said: “The biggest benefit as I see it for the Trust is they're going to have their own offices available to them 24/7 which we didn't have.
“They're going to be located adjacent to the ground and it'll be a fantastic hub, not only for the club but the Community Sports Trust.
“We've spent the last couple of years working closer with Lee and his team and we're developing initiatives together so we can be an all encompassing business together as we head towards the new stadium.
He added: “The value they have brought to the local community has been independently verified at over £13m per annum.
“That's an amazing achievement for a Community Sports Trust. We're incredibly proud of what Lee and his team have achieved and continue to achieve each year.”
Brentford broke ground on the Lionel Road site on March 19 and Crown is well aware of the significance of the occasion, having been involved in the original purchase of the land.
He said: “It's a historical day for the club – there's no question. I've been working on this project for six years.
“Others have worked on it for up to 15 years. It's been a long time coming to get a spade in the ground prior to start the building of the stadium.”
He explained further: “The first thing I did when I joined Matthew Benham's companies was to help with the negotiation to acquire the site at Lionel Road.
“Then we went to the planning stage and I don't think any of us will forget that night at the council offices when there were 750 odd Brentford supporters cheering us on as we went through the planning meeting and we were successful in getting the go ahead on that.
“Since then we've done a lot of work in the mean time. We've revisited the plans and made them even better than what they were and we're virtually ready to go.”
Crown replaced Greg Dyke as chairman in 2013 when the former BBC director general left for The FA and it has been five years of progress in his time.
He reflected: “I consider myself a bit of a lucky mascot as it's been a pretty good five years. What I say to people is this.
Brentford Community Stadium groundbreaking
“If we can achieve the same improvements in the next three years as we've achieved in the last three years I'm very confident we're going to be there or thereabouts.”
Without Brentford fans, the project would never have got off the ground in the first place and Crown is grateful to the supporters.
He stated: My message to the supporters is thank you for all your support. Please keep coming to Griffin Park and buy tickets for the new stadium.
“I'd say to them all that we are 100 per cent focused on delivering great football, a great stadium and a great experience for our fans as we know without them we'll be nowhere.”
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now.
