Fans Forum Directors Special - 25th April 2006

Keri Usherwood- Trust Chair (KU)
Steve Thompson Club Chairman and Trust Supporter Director (ST)
John Taylor - Club Director (JT)
Michael Hammond - Club Director (MH)
Howard Wilkinson - Club Director (HW)

The Event was held at the 1862 suite at Meadow Lane with an attendance of approximately 140 Trust members. The evening started shortly after 7.30 pm.

The evening was introduced and chaired by KU who gave apologies from David Rhodes one of the new Directors, who was very keen to attend but was unable to do so due to previous commitments.

KU gave thanks on behalf of the Trust to Lynn Lawson for her work in the Club shop and in continuing to promote Lifeline. The Trust has made an attempt to increase the membership of Lifeline in recent times and this has resulted in 40 additional members. Money raised in this way goes directly to the Club and the Trust will continue to support and promote Lifeline wherever possible. KU confirmed the potential for winning money through Lifeline by confirming he had won the top prize of £1000 in the last month.

KU also announced that the shirts used in Ian Richardson’s testimonial will be auctioned directly after the match in the Club shop.

KU stated that it had been as been a difficult and frustrating season for all but the Trust continues to look to the long term stability and future of the Club. In recent times off field events have overshadowed events on the pitch and have further destabilised the Club. By season end we will be financially stable with the ability to move forward and grow from a solid base.

Examples of this are the season ticket prices particularly the fantastic deal for children which is free for under 11s and £35 for 11-16 year olds.

After some time in decline Lifeline is growing again and the Trust will continue to support it in any way it can.

New Directors have recently joined the Club Board and they bring new skills and experience to complement the existing Directors.

The potential development of the Iremonger Road car park - all monies raised by this will come directly to the Club.

ST is standing down as Chairman and as Supporter Director and we should thank him for all his efforts for the club during the last few years [applause]

The aim with new Supporter Director will be to forge a new relationship with the Board of Directors – supporting the Club whilst developing a strong and credible voice for the Trust.

Steve Thompson outlined the difficult financial situation the Club had found itself since administration. Last year the Club expected to lose £650K but the actual figure was £800k and losses are expected to be £350k this year. Next year the Club is budgeted to break even and the Club will operate on a “money in money out” basis. We now have a Chief Executive in Geoff Davey who is willing and able to make the Club more commercially astute.

Much of the recent problems can be traced back to the period under Gary Mills. This is no reflection on Gary as a man or as a Manager the mistake made by the Board at that time - not including the new Directors here tonight- was in allowing the budget to be spent in the way it was. Gary had a good reputation for his coaching at Coventry and was an impressive communicator.

We have been unlucky this season the two players who we brought in during the transfer window. Dadi is on Championship wages and was injured soon after he arrived. Sissoko who was injured in his first game for us is also on high wages

The Club should have been promoted last year. Swansea had a budget of £1.7 million, ours was £1.5 million. Gudjon Thordarson (GT) has had difficult time this year but we expect to be in top seven next year.

There are several good announcements to come shortly. Season tickets under 11 free and 11-16 2.50 a game is an important first step in attracting fans of the future.

Nottingham Rugby Club playing at the Lane initially for 5 games bringing revenue into the club and using the ground facility more often. They are not training here and we get use of astroturf pitch at Lady Bay as part of the deal.

In 5 years I expect that we will be out of this Division and hopefully out of the next one

John Taylor outlined his background as a Londoner by birth, running a small regeneration consultancy and acting as a property and planning advisor to multinational company.

Member of Nottingham City Council but NOT a not a nominee of the City Council. His strengths are strong links to business community in Nottingham. Believes that the current ownership and governance of the Club is the way forward for league football. The Club has now a good financial basis, a competitive budget and an experienced Manager which will take it forward. JT was also the architect of the leasing arrangement for Meadow Lane which was a major part of the Clubs exit from administration.

Michael Hammond - Born and bred in Nottinghamshire - Supporter since 1948 49 season remembering reading Football post and Football news looking for Notts results. Many highlights including our many visits to Wembley.

Accountant by profession - Bought back own firm in 1993 and been Chief Executive for last 13 years - Sound financial background and will devote as much energy and time necessary to make the Club successful again.

KU – Sure that everybody knew of HW background but asked him about his role on the Board.

HW confirmed that he is not the Director of Football, gives advice on football matters where required in order to protect the Clubs best interest. Works closely with the Manager and offers advice and assistance whilst providing a conduit to the Board

Deeply disappointed by the events of the last 15 months – Nowhere near my expectation. Too much time has been spent firefighting problems both on and off pitch. Opportunity for fires has now diminished considerably. Within 3 months we will have turned the corner. We have the potential to be in the Championship in 5 years.

Q season tickets have a May13 cut time for pensioners Could this be extended?

ST Point taken- I will look into this

Q I believe that our better players were signed before GT reign – do you agree?

HW When GT took over many of the squad were on 2 year contracts – 16 of the squad were already under contract and highest paid players needed to be moved on and were aware of this. This meant very little of the wage budget was available to GT at the beginning of the season.

GT was aware that the Club was in serious financial trouble when he signed but he took the job on potential- takeover talk further destabilised the Club

We have suffered from an extended period of instability and lack of direction we should now stick to the plan and succeed by working within the Clubs means. This applies to everybody at the Club including Directors and supporters.

Q is GT the right man for the job

HW Yes!

Q Why do the reserves play behind closed doors

HW No longer in formal reserves league like most clubs due to cost.

Reserve teams often contain trialists who they, their club or agent do not want to publicise them playing. Football is a very small family sneeze in Newcastle hear it 5 minutes later in Southampton

Q There is rumour of JT being a forest fan and wishes to see club move from Meadow Lane.

JT - Londoner by birth and so I am a Chelsea fan. Some will remember that I paid £800 for the signed Veron shirt at the auction at the end of administration.

In 1990 went to World Cup and saw games at the municipally owned shared stadium at San Siro

Also at Hillsborough when 96 football fans were killed in the decrepit deathtrap at Sheffield Wednesday.

At that time I was convinced that a high quality municipally owned stadium used by both teams was beneficial to all and pursued this option on the riverside development. It didn’t happen for a variety of reasons and is now dead.

I was the architect of the 125 lease for Meadow Lane and now believe that Notts County should stay here at Meadow Lane as long as they wish

Q Will the rugby damage the pitch?

ST We have checked with people who layed the pitch and they are happy. The rugby Club will not train here and we have use of the astroturf pitch at Lady Bay.

Any remedial works necessary will be paid by the rugby club.

Q Many years ago Notts County had a bigger support than Forest Where have the fans gone?

HW – Forest have have had an extended period of success under good management over two generations of fans. As a consequence they have built up a large base fan base.

We will hope to increase our fan base. The offer to young supporters of free season tickets is one of the things the Club will be trying to encourage a bigger fan base.

Q can Nottingham sustain two football Clubs?

JT The City has a population of 280k people but a conurbation of 650k which provides a fan per club basis no worse than Sheffield or Birmingham. If we can provide entertaining successful sport there are people in Nottingham who will come and see it. Club has a reputation as an old mans club we must change that and the Kids season tickets is the first stage of this process.

There was then a break of 20 minutes

KU introduced Colin Slater who gave a short presentation of the local media.

Colin Slater emphasized that neither himself nor Stevie Roden is ultimately responsible for the final output from Radio Nottingham and the Evening Post. Both are subject to editorial control and ultimately the output is out of their hands.

Notts fans do have a real voice and can be congratulated on restoring the commentary of Notts matches onto Radio Nottingham when it was dropped a couple of seasons ago. CS was unaware of the decision until it hade been made and the response from Notts fans played a major part in it being restored.

It costs RN £800 per game to bring away games commentary so over £20k per year plus the amount paid to Notts so it is an expensive business.

Notts fans are always complaining about the bias towards the red side of the Trent. There is a way in which this can be improved. The number of Notts callers to Matchtalk is heavily biased towards Forest. If more Notts fans would call the programme more would get on and the programme would be more balanced.

ITS DOWN TO YOU!

Would like to finish by showing appreciation to people at the Club who make his job easier by making themselves available and approachable. GT, ST HW and particularly KU with who he has an excellent working relationship and friendship.

Q What influence does HW have upon the players signed by the Manager?

HW I am always available for advice and suggestions but the Manager is responsible for the team and which players he brings in. I will offer an opinion if asked but my job is not to second guess the Manager.

I provide a conduit between the Manager and the Board on most footballing matters.

Q The deals on children’s season tickets are good news I hope they are a long term incentives and not just a flash in the pan

ST I see the encouragement of younger supporters to be a long term promotion and there is no end date for the scheme. The Club sees this as a long term commitment.

Q There a 60k students at the two City Universities. Do we tailor deals to this market?

Club and Trust have been present at the Fresher events and have handed out preferential tickets. Club intends to do more to with this group.

Q about lengths of contract and why so many are out of contract all at once.

HW The wages of footballers outside the Premiership is falling and 500 footballers did not get jobs last season so about fine balancing act of signing players at the right time.

1 year deals are now extremely common at this level and some 6 month contracts are now in place at other clubs.

This has been an extremely frustrating and difficult time for the Directors with so many off field problems If you want to pass round a piece of paper to be signed by everyone who is disappointed by this season give it to me I will sign it as well. Please please be aware that we as Directors do know how you all feel and we care deeply about what has happened – if you need any confirmation just ask my wife whether I care.

We all need to pull in the same direction. I hear of discontent among the Trust and the Supporters Club, well it should stop and if anyone wishes me to chair a meeting between the two I will be glad to do so.

KU Iris Smith and I issued a joint statement a couple of months ago calling for all of this nonsense to stop. The people who continue with this should now stop it is damaging the Club

Q Rumours of selling off Iremonger Road car park?

JT/ST The lease as we came out of administration prevented development of the surrounding land for 3 years to ensure the lease wasn’t attractive to property developers. Those 3 years comes to an end in December 2006 when we are looking at developing the Iremonger Road car park – all monies realized by this will go directly to the Club along with any other development opportunities that come along.

Q What does HW think about the current crop of players not trying.

HW – I don’t think that simple effort has been a particular problem this season. There a re a number of reasons for not playing well, direction, confidence and so on. I do not believe that out an out effort is the reason for the poor season. Footballers are no different from the rest of us and some perform better and more consistently than others.

Q Have we recently looked into making the Kop a home end?

ST it has been looked at many times and the Police who provide the safety certificate are not keen on it happening. It would also require a significant amount of structural changes. – not considered a high priority at the moment

JT – I know that there are obstacles but this is certainly something I would like to explore further.

HW Sometimes you don’t see the wood for the trees – this is certainly something I would like to see happen and make the most of our home advantage.

Q Scouting policy

Yes we have a scouting network and we have people around the country all the time and it could be better but like all things it costs money.

Q What is the future of the Centre of Excellence?

ST We are in discussion with the CoE staff but this is not the place to discuss things that affect peoples livelihoods. Once things have been finalized we will let everyone know. We need a strong youth setup

Q Prices at away grounds not being in accordance with Notts prices.

ST rule is that the prices for away fans have to be the same as the home stand opposite but I will look into it.

The meeting closed around 10pm