Representatives from the Trust met with the club ahead of the friendly match with Huddersfield Town.
We discussed the prospect of a Xmas Party for young supporters. We were informed that the club had already plans in place for such an event, so we would discuss at the next meeting whether to support the venture or look to an independent event. We suggested we support the Kids Christmas party by donating gifts/money for gifts.
We discussed the Meetings with the Directors, and suggested November and April as being ideal times for such meetings. The meetings would be arranged around the club’s Board Meetings, and specific dates would be chosen soon. Regular meetings would still continue between the club and the Trust throughout the season.
We gave feedback to the club on the Season Ticket Roadshows. Trust representatives had been present at many of the events. Feelings were that it was a really good idea but some venues were more worthwhile than others. This would be taken forward for next year.
The 5-a-side project was reaching completion and no further fundraising was planned for this event. A joint announcement would be made when all parties would be in a position to do so. There has been a slight delay on one aspect of it but this should have no problems in the long term.
We discussed the work on the pitch. There had been a delay on the work that took place. This was as a result of changing contractors from Premier Pitches to Idverde. The new company hold the UK license for the type of pitch that we have that which protects against divots. The pitch will be extremely busy in the first few weeks with 11 fixtures taking place in six weeks, and this had led to the cancellation of the Blackburn Rovers game. A further meeting is planned between the club and the Trust to provide more details on the pitch and ongoing maintenance.
We brought up the ongoing issue of smoking. Issues are two fold with supporters not allowed to go outside to smoke, and those affected by smokers in the toilets. We contacted each club in League One to enquire about what they did at their ground. Replies suggested approaches were inconsistent throughout the division, with a mixture of clubs who allow people out to those with a total ban. We pressed how this issue is one which impacts on the non-smokers as well. The club were prepared to do a trial at a forthcoming match, and take it from there.
We had been contacted regarding online charges for season tickets over the Summer which went against previous communications with the club. The reason behind this is that the club had come to the end of their contract with the ticketing company and were being charged on a season ticket by season ticket basis by the company. The charge went to the company each time.
We asked about further payments that the club had received as part of the Scott Hogan deal. We were informed that as expected such information was confidential but would be available to shareholders at the club’s AGM.
At our last meeting, the club announced there would be a new Travel Club for the new season, and we’d been emailed to ask about progress with this. The club responded by saying that an agreement
has been made with a coach company for the new season, and they hoped the Travel Club would be ready for the Tranmere game. If it wasn’t ready for then, it would be soon after.
We’d been asked about the stadium becoming an ACV. This has now been put into place.
We asked again about the profits from the club’s LOTTO going towards the Academy. There will be a relaunch in the next few weeks and the announcements about contributions to the Academy would be part of that process.
One member had enquired about the ongoing investigation into the Bradford game. We were informed that this case had now closed with no case to answer by the club.
We’d been asked to bring up the selection of the Category A/B games, specifically the Rotherham and Portsmouth games. We were told that all selections had been made based upon matches that would see a large away following come to Spotland.
We asked again about a Trust representative attending a Safety Advisory Group meeting to see the level of planning that goes into each game. The club would ask again about this. They expanded saying that there is now a Medical Advisory Group.