Mark Jones is partnerships manager at Destination Basingstoke. He has worked in Basingstoke for 26 years, including 13 years as editor of the Gazette and eight years as director of communications and fundraising at Ark Cancer Charity.

Basingstoke Town Community Football Club (BTCFC) is a key part of the local sporting landscape – but it has the potential to be so much more.

Before I continue, I’ll declare an interest. I’m proud to be one of the many people who pay £10 a year to be a member of the community football club. I know my £10 isn’t going to make a big difference on its own but the more BTCFC members there are, the better it is for the club. Every journey starts with small steps.

I love football, and for the 26 years I have worked in Basingstoke and Deane, I have followed the fortunes of the town’s leading football club.

Today, I think the club is in one of the most positive places it has ever been. A strong sense of community runs through it at all levels. The hashtag #OurTownUnited rings true.

In my opinion, the club needs, and deserves, its own community stadium. The power of a football club to foster and enhance local pride and identity, to bring people of all ages together, and to deliver an economic uplift for the wider community is undeniable. There are so many examples, but perhaps one of the most recent is Wrexham. What has happened there is awesome on so many levels.

Sadly, Basingstoke Town Community Football Club is unlikely to get a couple of Hollywood angels dropping in – we can but dream – so a different route to the higher levels of the Football League pyramid needs to be found.

The driving forces at the club have recently come up with a blueprint and business case for a new stadium on a revamped Basingstoke Leisure Park. The club, which is currently based at the Hampshire FA headquarters in Winklebury, will be league-locked at First Team Men’s level without a new stadium. However, the need for a new stadium is about much more than the Men’s side moving on up. It is about the whole Basingstoke community moving on up.

In my opinion, it is unreasonable to expect Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to fully fund a new football stadium, or any major sports stadium. However, there is hopefully room for a significant contribution for the greater good – the provision of the valuable land for the stadium would be a very big, and community-focused, show of support.

The goal is clear and the prize is massive – just look at what has been achieved at Wrexham. We must, as a united town and community, find a way to make it happen here.