Good Afternoon and a Happy Easter to you all from everyone here at the Coral Windows Stadium and a specially warm welcome to the Directors, players, staff and supporters of Macclesfield Town who have endured, over recent weeks, the tragedy of losing their manager Keith Alexander. Time moves on but I would like to commend the Silkmen's chairman, Mike Rance for the dignified way in which he has held his club together and in particular the very moving thanks he gave to a recent Football League meeting. It certainly brought a lump to my throat.
Whow! What an interesting few weeks it has been since the installation of Peter Taylor as Manager until the end of the season, and although we have printing deadlines due to the Holidays, and these notes precede the Bournemouth game, I think there is a fresh spring in the step of everyone, players, staff and supporters alike with a clear acceptance from the results achieved so far that 'Rome is not built in a day'.
Peter attended the Board meeting after we had played only 3 games and set out in a very professional manner what he required across the board. Clearly it is not for me to comment on PT's player observations, but we have already seen the departure of some members of the playing staff and Peter is very much looking to set the Club up for next season no matter who is in charge, a move which is a perfect mirror of the man's professionalism.
Whilst no-one has the right to a higher level of football, this club in my view, should be at least playing one division higher and possibly two but we have to earn it, and that can only be earned with performances on the pitch.
Today we are launching the second phase of our annual season ticket offer, which will see tickets purchased between today and Sunday 9th May available at the staggering price of £184 (£92 junior) or, to put it in plainer terms £8 per match.This cannot be beaten I would suggest and the ticket office will remain open on Sunday 9th May when the Club is hosting a Burns Unit Charity Match at the ground.
In our January offer, I guess that some of you suspected changes may come in the management structure and started to back the Club by the purchase of almost 7,000 tickets for next season, a staggering increase of over 40% on the previous year. Thank you so much.
The Club now needs you to back us further and back us hard with the aim to sell in excess of 12,000 season tickets for next season.
After 9th May deadline has expired season ticket prices will rise to £250 (£125 junior) which at just less than £11 per game still represents excellent value. Other payment options will be published in full over the next few days.
Over the course of my first season at the Club I have witnessed a tremendous team spirit from those off the field.Kath Brown, our recently appointed Club Secretary, has done a fantastic job in a short time of pulling around documentation and other general secretarial issues which were not in the best of order before and her additional role as Editor of Bantams World has resulted in the Club being awarded the League Two 'Best Read' Award for this season from 'Programme Monthly'.
Additionally we have been awarded the 2010 Family Excellence Award for our care in this area and I know that my colleague Steve Longbottom is extremely proud of the Best Boardroom Award for hospitality which we achieved last season and which we are hoping to repeat.Steve goes out of his way on match days and the award is a fitting result for him.
Budgets are tight and given the state of play in Bradford as a City there is not much wealth around which might come towards the Club. If there are any amongst you who feel you could dig deep for extra sponsorship of say 30 kit bags for the first team squad and even extend this as far as the same number of match day suits we would be delighted to here from you here at the Club .
Our plans to bring extra income to the Business Centre are moving ahead slowly and I hope by the start of next season the dental practice nominated by the PCT will be in place and operational giving us additional revenue.We are pushing forward with the leasing of the remainder of the space.
Further savings off the pitch have been made through our energy consumption and we have just been in receipt of a major report which could lead to significant savings over the next 12 months if we can find the cash to implement the recommendations.
You, as our supporters, can help tremendously in the next few months; the Board are fully committed to achieving success after what has largely been 3 dormant seasons.Remember, the Board are fans as well, so we are all in this together.
Enjoy the Game
Roger Owen
