Our work started before the season had even started. We surveyed supporters as to their concerns regarding Studds Bar at the club, and with help from supporters and the club, we set out to transform the club bar into an establishment worthy of its name. By the time of our first league game, we had the walls decked out in Dale shirts from the past thirty years and a tribute wall dedicated to our outgoing captain Gary Jones with pictures from each of his seasons with the club.
As the traditional season curtain raiser, we welcomed John Coleman to Spotland and gave him his first taste of a Fans Forum at the club. The event was as always well attended with a top table consisting of both management and directors with hopes high for the season ahead.
The Trust held its AGM in which it covered the previous twelve months, detailed its plans for the coming season, and members had opportunities to ask questions. The Trust committee were re-elected as the members backed its work over the previous year. Amongst the plans were a re-launch of Junior Dale in time for the 2013-14 season.
In October, we entered the world of gaming by hosting a Fifa Night in the Ratcliffe Suite. Around thirty fans descended on the venue aimed with becoming the Dale Trust Fifa Champion. We were delighted to welcome Rhys Bennett, Joe Rafferty and Ray Putterill to the event, with Rhys making it all the way to the final before a narrow defeat. He’d have won had we played on Xbox apparently.
Supporters were given the option in November to choose the kit they wanted to see Dale run out in for the 2013-14 season. The Trust had pushed hard for supporters to be given this choice, and was delighted to see so many supporters take part in this vote. We hope this becomes an annual tradition.
In December, we hosted a Mad Friday event in the Ratcliffe Suite. With our game switched to the Friday evening, we hosted something of a Christmas party, with mince pies, Christmas quizzes, Dale videos on the big screen, drinks discounts and a free Dale scarf given to all those in attendance We’d love to take the credit as Dale hammered promotion chasing Cheltenham on the night, but it made the night much more enjoyable to welcome the team and management into the bar after the game with smiles on everyone’s faces.
Just before Christmas, following much work by the Trust, the club took on trial some pitch covers that it was hoped would alleviate some of the problems that have hampered the Spotland pitch in recent years. Unfortunately, the trial of these covers proved to be unsuccessful, but not one single penny was wasted during this trial.
We met with the directors in January – mere minutes after the dismissal of John Coleman had been made public. Amongst the concerns raised on the night were junior ticket pricing at Spotland, catering at home games, possible online ticketing, player discipline at the club, the financial health of the club, the lack of a “Team Rochdale” feeling, and obviously the managerial situation at the club. A full report of this night was placed on the Trust website.
March saw the annual Exiles Day where. The Trust has over 100 exiled supporters amongst its membership, and we invited them to our match sponsorship of the Aldershot home game. Around 30 of them managed to attend this fixture on Good Friday and were pleased to see Dale escape with a hard fought point.
April was a busy month for the Trust. We started by finally being able to place an order for the Pitch Covers. It seemed a lifetime ago since we set out to try and raise £30,000 for the Bowlee Project which ultimately became the Pitch Cover project. The new covers cost £5,250 and will help protect parts of the pitch from frost that previously we were unable to do.
We finished the season with two events. We hosted the club’s End of Season Awards Evening in the Ratcliffe Suite in which over 300 people attended to witness Jason Kennedy being awarded the Supporters’ Player of the Year for the second year in succession. With Keith Hill recently having extended his stay at Spotland and turned around the fortunes of the first team, the night was dripping with the feelgood factor that was so evident in his first spell of the club. The night raised close to £700 for Cystic Fibrosis through ticket sales and the raffle.
Two days after, we joined forces with Dale kitman Jack Northover as we hosted a Kit Auction and Quiz Night at the club. It’s become an annual event now for Jack to auction off the club’s first team kit and training gear and this year was no exception.
The Trust has increased the links with the Supporters Team by purchasing a kit for them to play in next season. They will be representing the club next year wearing the Celtic style kit that was originally organised for Barnet away last season should the referee have deemed the kits as clashing.
Much took place behind the scenes as well. This season, we relaunched our online presence with a brand new website, new feeds for both Twitter and Facebook and a weekly emailed members newsletter with a hope of improving interaction between the Trust and its members.
We extended our list of Friends of the Trust to bring benefits to Supporters, and have worked with the club on a number of matters with the intentions of improving things for both supporters and the club. We urge you to regularly check out website as the number of Friends of the Trust is always increasing.
The Trust has run the Player of the Month award for a number of years now but this year we took things a stage further with one Trust member drawn at random from the votes being given that player’s shirt in recognition of the award.
So all in all, a busy season for the Trust, but one we hope to beat for the 2013-4 season.
Click here to join the Trust 2013-4 online
Click here for the application form to join through the post