The dust is starting to settle now on the 2022-23 season and the realisation is kicking in. It’s goodbye League 2, Papa Johns Trophy and Stockport County, and hello National League, FA Trophy and Oldham Athletic. If you’ve not fully accepted it yet, from conversations with supporters of Clubs who have been through what we have, the day it really hits home is the day that the EFL fixtures are released. Forewarned is forearmed and all that but any pain lingering from last season (and we know its not gone away) must be used as a motivation to ensure that everything is better on and off the field.
First of all, a massive thank you to everyone who contributed towards our Supporters’ Meetings that we held at the back end of the season. The response was far better than we expected and the feedback was incredibly useful and essential to our work. So much so, that we are already looking at how we can run similar events throughout the season rather than waiting another twelve months. This is something that we will look to build around the fixture list when its released next month.
There’s much to be done to ensure that we become that model club of fan engagement that we not only aspire to be but we need to be. As we have said all along, it’s all well and good hosting the meetings, but if we don’t have positive outcomes from them, we may as well not have bothered. Progress has started with the issues that we identified as being the priorities – the Ownership situation at the Club, what lies ahead in the National League and changes to the way the Trust is run.
In what can only be viewed as a real positive step towards achieving this, the Club have approached us this week with a twelve month programme of fan engagement. We are looking at finalising the schedule in the next few days before publishing all the dates. This is something that we as a Trust can build our activities around. Keep an eye on both the Official website and the Trust site for these dates that we are hoping to announce within the next few days.
Work will continue throughout the Summer, and we will update you accordingly. Our next wave of actions following the meetings are: Working with the Fanbase, Growing the Fanbase, Club Shop and the Kiosks. These should all be actioned by the end of June.
A further improvement (we hope) that we are implementing following these meetings is a new way of contacting the Trust. Previously, we have just pushed the info@daletrust.co.uk email address as a one stop shop for all enquiries but one idea from the meetings was to provide specialist roles within the Trust Board, with different committee members taking on different areas of specialism that meets the needs of the membership.
This is something that we are putting into place, and we have redesigned our website as a result.The purpose behind this is to give a clear and specific pathway for you to raise any concerns directly to the Trust. This may change over time, but at the moment, we are looking at: https://www.daletrust.co.uk/contact-the-trust-3/ We will reflect on this during the season and make change as and when necessary. Within that, where allowed by the Trust member, we will reproduce the questions and actions within the Trust newsletter each month.
Back to the ownership issues with the Club, we recently had former Dale Chairman Chris Dunphy linked to a takeover bid that was subsequently withdrawn. Representatives from the Trust met with Chris alongside other supporters during this time, and his passion for the Club was every bit as evident as you would expect it to be.
Despite his withdrawn offer, we as a Trust were very keen to get both Chris and the Club around the same table. We believe it is now getting close to five years now since Chris last attended at game at the Crown Oil Arena, and given he spent close to forty years on the Board of Directors, it could only be beneficial to have such a meeting. This was agreed by the Dale Board of Directors following our request but having reflected on it, Chris has decided not to pursue this opportunity. I am sure that we as a Trust are not alone within the fanbase in hoping that we can see Chris back watching his beloved Dale as some point in the near future.
Season Tickets will go on sale next week for the new season We took an idea to the Club to offer a tiered system for the Season Tickets that had come directly from a Trust member. There are a handful of Clubs that offer something similar. Truth be told, it was probably too late to introduce it in time for the 2023-24 season but there is definitely merit in such an idea and it’s something that we will push for the Club to look at for the season after, with consultation with supporters about what they would be prepared to pay extra for. Fans know what fans want so engagement is needed.
We hope that despite the disappointment of relegation that supporters continue to take advantage of a season ticket that we believe will be the cheapest in the National League. Last season wasn’t fun for anyone (or the last few seasons to be fair) but we doubt that games against the likes of Stevenage Crawley and Salford carry much more appeal than games against Woking, Dagenham and Oldham and if you are planning on picking and choosing your games, it’s still probably worth your while to go for the season ticket.
Finally, we were delighted to add to our ranks in recent weeks with George Brigham being co-opted on to the Trust Board. We think he will be a brilliant addition and we know that he will work tirelessly on behalf of the Supporters. Unfortunately, with this addition, we are losing both Ian Wright and Kirsty McDermott from the Trust Board. We would like to place on record our thanks to them for their service to the membership over the years.
