Saturday 1 March 2008
Coca-Cola Football League 2
Bradford City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Welcome to the Coral Windows Stadium for today's match against Dagenham and Redbridge.

I am particularly pleased to welcome the players, supporters and officials who have travelled up from the capital today and I am sure that all City fans will join me in congratulating our visitors on their first season in the Football League. We hope that they remain here for many years to come.

As everyone will now be well aware, earlier this week we announced details of next year's season ticket prices. I would like to take this opportunity to answer a few of the questions that have been raised by supporters since the announcement was made.

If and when we sell 9,000 adult season tickets, then everyone who has purchased one of those will get a second season ticket for free. There are certain terms and conditions that will apply to this offer.

A lot of fans have been asking if those who took up the offer to buy a season ticket at last year's prices in the run-up to Christmas will benefit from the free season ticket offer. The answer is yes. And 25-year season ticket holders will also get a free ticket for the stadium if they pay £110 for an upgrade to one of the supporters' suites.

We appreciate that a lot of supporters who take up the offer of a free season ticket may be keen to move around the stadium to enable them to sit with their friends or family. For that reason, we have set a timetable for the offer which should allow us plenty of time in the run up to the new season starting for people to move around and swap seats. The key dates to remember are March 10 when the offer begins, May 15 when those season ticket holders who have not chosen to renew will lose their reserved seats, and June 15 when the offer ends and the price rises to £300.

The reason that we have put together this offer is to thank the fans that have supported us so fantastically this season, especially since we have not got things quite right on the pitch for them. We believe that the offer represents an absolute bargain - and potentially an even better deal than that we put together last year. If the deal does go ahead, then it will mean that supporters are effectively paying just £3.25 per game and I cannot remember a time when it was so affordable to attend a Bradford City match - perhaps someone with the necessary knowledge and statistics to hand could help tell us when it was!

We certainly hope that it would provide a tremendous boost for Stuart and the team if we can have crowds of 20,000-plus at every home game and I believe that it will also make it easier for us to attract players to the club during the transfer window.

The last two games - at Notts County and here against Rotherham on Tuesday night - have given us extra grounds for optimism as we look ahead. Please be assured that Stuart and the boys have not given up on this season and they will be giving their all in every game, even if and when it becomes mathematically impossible for us to reach the play-offs. In the meantime, let's hope for another entertaining game this afternoon - and another three goals would be nice!

Enjoy the game

Mark Lawn
Joint Chairman