Meeting with the new board
A report of the first meeting between representatives of TrustSTFC and the new board of the football club. The meeting was held in the sponsor`s suite at the County Ground on Thursday 7th February 2008.
On Thursday evening we had our first meeting with the new regime at the club, meeting Nick Watkins and Jeremy Wray in what was a very encouraging and cordial encounter. While we obviously had a whole range of issues we wanted to raise that Trust members had asked us to cover (and I think we covered most of them), the main purpose of the meeting was to introduce the Trust, explain what it's all about, and to find out how we can help the plans to take the club forward.
Most of the issues we raised they were already well aware of and taking steps to deal with (as evidenced by the 10-point plan), which was in itself extremely encouraging. And if there's anything we haven't covered, or that you'd like more detail on, you can ask them yourself - Jeremy Wray has agreed to attend the next Trust members' meeting before the Walsall game. Present at the meeting were:Nick Watkins (CEO, STFC)Jeremy Wray (Director, STFC) Paul Davis (Chair, TrustSTFC)Andrew Hounsell (Vice-Chair, TrustSTFC)Andy Ratcliffe (Communications, TrustSTFC) Andrew Fitton sent his apologies - he was not able to be present as he was away on business in the US.
Introduction
We started by explaining what the Supporters Trust movement nationally is about, then specifically how TrustSTFC came into being, what the aims of the Trust are etc. We emphasised that although we have perhaps been "the official opposition" to the previous board, that is not the Trust's primary goal - we are fundamentally about good governance of the club, enabling fans to have a voice within the club and within the broader community and working to promote the interests of both the club and the fans within the wider community of Swindon.
Moving forward, we very much hope to work positively and constructively with the new board to achieve those aims. We also thanked Jeremy Wray, and asked him to pass on the same to Andrew Fitton, for stepping in to save the club which was on the precipice of ceasing to exist.
Finances
Nick and Jeremy stressed the importance of achieving some degree of stability within the business before making bigger changes needed to move the club forward. The immediate aim is to introduce proper systems of financial management and paying the immediate debts to provide the basis for long-term financial stability.
In this regard we asked what the situation was with the CVA. Jeremy explained they had wanted to pay the CVA immediately, as well as most of the money owed to HMRC outside the CVA with the balance to be paid over a (short) period of time. However HMRC had insisted that their debt take priority, and as they were in a position to wind the club up immediately, with the agreement of the Football League, that was given precedence. The CVA is being paid off in instalments, to be fully paid by the end of the season (May 31st), and the first tranche of that money has already been paid to the CVA supervisor.
There's been a lot of over-inflated talk in the media and in some fans' discussions that because of the enormous wealth of the new board's backers, we are as a club "richer than Liverpool" etc. While a lot of this has been tongue in cheek, Jeremy and Nick were keen to emphasise that no-one is simply going to be throwing money into the club willy-nilly - that's been done in the past both here and elsewhere and the results have been disastrous.
Rather, having wealthy backers enables the new board to provide the funds needed to put the business back on an even keel and invest for a long-term sustainable business. They will seek to do that within strict financial controls and a proper budget -money will be available to invest, both on and off the field, but each investment will have to be justified. Nick Watkins cited the signing ofSimon Cox as an example of how the club had stuck to their guns in terms of what they were willing to pay both the player and the selling club and were determined to achieve value for money in any investment.
Progress on the pitch
Basically, they feel that with the correct management, this is a club and a business that can and should be paying its own way at Championship level, not a money pit losing vast sums every season and struggling in the lower tiers. As this is something we have long argued - that the losses the club sustained year on year were not endemic, but down to sustained bad management, we obviously agreed with this!
The medium-term aim is to get the club secure and stable in the second tier, then see where we can push on from there, but in a sustainable way that does not gamble the club's future. For this season, whatever we achieve on the field, and both were determined that the play-offs still remain a target, they will be happy to have made the club safe and to have the opportunity to work hard on it during the summer.
Radio coverage
They are very aware that most fans are very unhappy with the current matchday commentary deal with Brunel FM and would prefer the commentary to go back to the BBC. The two main areas of complaint being both the quality of the commentary itself and also Brunel's coverage area which prevents many fans from getting matchday commentary at all.
While they were not able to make hard and fast promises, as there were some aspects of commercial confidentiality etc (there is a contract in place with Brunel), they did promise it was a situation they were very aware of, wholly understood the problems people have with the current situation and one they are looking to remedy as soon as possible.
Tickets
The new board is painfully aware that the current ticketing system is woefully inadequate and they will be looking at introducing changes over the summer to make it easier for fans to buy tickets by phone, over the internet etc as well as improving the situation when buying tickets at the ground itself. They are also looking at the current pricing structure, something we have long argued that needs revising. They will welcome consultation on that and we will be dusting off the ticket price structure proposals we made a few seasons ago as part of that exercise.
Ground
Obviously we asked whether there were any plans for ground redevelopment. The answer was, as you might expect, that they'd look at all options but did not see an immediate need to do so. There are plenty of things that can be done to improve the current ground first, such as the ideas already mentioned to improve the seating, smartening up the exec areas so that businesses want to bring their customers here, actually relaying the pitch properly in the summer instead of the usual scrape off the topsoil job etc.
We explained some of the past history of previous ill-fated ground redevelopment proposals from the club (ie they foundered due to being wholly unrealistic and in some cases probably illegal) and explained how we'd put together our own redevelopment proposals, still to date the only proposals to have been welcomed by the council, local community groups etc. We handed over copies of the Trust's ground redevelopment proposals, although we did explain that both the political and planning landscape had moved on in the 18 months or so since those proposals were written and also that we understood that they may have different ambitions for what they'd like to do long-term with a stadium.
That said, while some of the detail may not apply were you to sit down and write those proposals now, much of the background was still applicable in terms of the demographics of the town and the fanbase, local community expectations etc. I think this is an area where we'll see some improvements to the current stadium fabric in the short-term and then an assessment of what's needed for the future in the medium-long term.
Stewards
A lot of fans have expressed concern about the way the orange-jacketed security stewards deal with fans - complaints about their attitude ranges from simple rudeness through downright hostility up to some allegations that the "security team" have picked on individuals and banned them without good cause. Nick was very aware of complaints about the way some stewards interact with fans and has already spoken to all the stewards about the need to treat the club's customers civilly.
We also raised concerns about the procedure undertaken for the quasi-judicial interviews used when fans are banned which often fall far short of anything like a fair hearing, and asked specifically that he check whether rumours that the "security team" have been keeping dossiers on individual fans are true. While we obviously accept that the stewarding operation as a whole has a role to play in combatting potential hooliganism, it would seem that the "security team" see their remit as more wide-ranging than this.
Communication with Fans
There are no immediate plans to hold a fans' forum, although Nick did agree it was something they'd consider. The new board had all very much enjoyed meeting fans informally at the recent shirt sponsors dinner and they were keen to improve communication with fans at all levels. We said we felt that had already started and we'd seen a welcome improvement in that - openness in the press, the club website and the programme, the tannoy announcements explaining why Simon Cox was unable to play last weekend were just some examples.
Obviously Jeremy Wray's asking to attend a Trust meeting (Nick Watkins will not be able to come as it is on a matchday morning when, as you'd expect, the Chief Exec is a bit busy!) is also a good sign for things to come. We agreed that we would seek to establish regular feedback/consultation meetings as a follow-up to Thursday's meeting.
Business/Commercial
The new board are taking steps to bring in immediate improvements to the commercial offering, such as smartening up the executive areas etc. We pointed out that while keen Town fans who follow the club minutely are aware that we have new owners with a new outlook and that things are improving already as a result, this won't be immediately apparent to the "man in the street", who has grown used to regarding the club as simply an ongoing basket case.
This is all the more so with many local businesses who have been in many cases badly burned in dealing with the club in the past by bills not being paid, poor treatment in dealing with the club, disappointing experiences in VIP/Exec packages etc. Both Nick and Jeremy were very much aware of that and recognised that rebuilding the relationship with both local businesses and the local community is a long-term project.
Club Shop/Food
When we came onto the topic of the catering for "ordinary fans", we were pleasantly surprised to discover that Jeremy Wray was already aware of how poor a part of the "Swindon experience" this is as he and Sir Martyn Arbib had recently queued for food in the Kingswood recently and noticed the same issues we were raising - the time taken to serve food (many fans end up missing both the end of the first half and the start of the second), and the quality and value of the food once you did get it.
One of the responses we had from the email to members last week suggested that older/more experienced supervisors in each kiosk might improve the efficiency of service and we put that forward. Similarly, the discussion about the quality/availability/range of goods available from the club shop was also pushing at an open door. We also raised the difficulty of buying club merchandise if you can't get to the club shop e.g. for fans who would like to order goods by phone/internet.
Overall
We all came out of the meeting feeling very positive about the future: there were no grandiose promises, no sweeping "play to the crowd" gestures, just good solid business sense from people who clearly know what they are doing, fully understand the scale of the task they have taken on and have the wit and the wherewithal to rebuild this club.
It was gratifying that they were already aware of pretty much all the issues we raised (and demonstrated throughout the meeting a keen hands-on understanding of all areas of the club's operation) and have plans in place to deal with them. This might sound like a basic - that the owners/executives of a business should know what's going on in that business but as veterans of many such meetings with previous incumbents (and one chairman-to-be-who-never-was), it hasn't always been the case and it made a refreshing change.
That said, there was no element of "We know all that" - we did raise some aspects they hadn't looked at in quite that way and they were very happy to listen and take on board a view from outside. As we said when the takeover was announced, no-one should be in any doubt as to the scale of the task facing the new owners - they have taken over a club that needs rebuilding from top to bottom.
That will take time - unfortunately you can't just wave a magic wand and say "make it right". But having seen, as we all have, the measures they've started to take already, and having now had the opportunity to sit down and talk to them (as you will at the next members' meeting), we're a lot happier that these are guys who know what they're doing, and have the business nous, the financial backing, and the commitment to the club to put this badly broken football club back together again. For our part as a Trust, we're keen to do what we can to help them in that massive task.
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