Q&A with Andy Holt and Dave Burgess

[baldy]

Update on Cowshed and other things...!

Thursday 19th - 7:15pm!

https://www.facebook.com/events/817664205079012/?ti=icl

[cashman]

Woulda loved to go but thats the day we fly away.

[Revived Red]

Will there be a report on this one? I seem to recall that Macca never got answers to his questions and there was no report on the subsequent Q & A session organised by the OASSC.

[maccawozzagod]

I'll probably post what I remember, I'll be in my usual spot at the bar

[maccawozzagod]

Bump


Should be decent with lots to say

[AccyMad]

Shame I can't go as I'm working tonight - hopefully someone will post the gist of what's said on here at some point

[maccawozzagod]

reet then, apologies for not remembering very much but my hearing gets noticeably worse between these sort of meetings, and the bar isn't the best place to stand to listen. Any road, here's what I remember


The new stand MIGHT be going up this year, it is certainly the intention to do it sooner rather than later and everything (almost) is in place for it to do so. Planning Permission was granted but theyll need to go back to them for an amendment as the stand will be smaller (but longer) than the original - and they are awaiting Football Foundation Grant approval. When we did the Clayton End improvements apparently the FF were going to contribute (usually 50/50), but because we went ahead and did it without their official say so we ended up getting nothing. The total costs of improvements made last year (pitch, Clayton End, and 'stuff' was around 800k and that came straight out of the club/Andy. This time we'll be waiting for written approval and getting paid offa them. We are the only club in the football league who have never received money from the Football Foundation.

Smoking behind the Clayton End. I asked whether provision could be made for smoking BEFORE a match as currently I wait until 5 to 3 before making my way down. The ground manager or summat (Matt, thoroughly nice chappie) spoke up and said that they had made allowances for Coventry to do so on saturday and there was no real reason why this couldn't be applied to the home end. It can and will happen. I added that I dont think this will make any immediate significant difference, but the first and last two months of a season will show imporovement to the Fanzone once people know they can come in from 1pm onwards and still smoke.

Somebody made a very long comment regarding the standard of stewarding and that none of them seem to know anything. Or at least thats what I think she said, it wasnt any louder when she changed room position and took the mic. The answer was along the lines of unfortunately there is a high turnover of staff in security, predominantly because its via agencies (and is inline with other clubs). Prior to the Newport match (I think) there is a training course being provided, not only in security but in customer service as well.

Half time queues for the sheds. We are trying to address the situation and things will change effective almost immediately. The beer hut for example will reduce to 3 queues with 1 being reserved purely for tea/coffee. It is an ongoing thing and we will keep trying until we get it right. The current problems are being/have been identified and they are going to work through them, one being too wide a choice, another being that more people are coming through from the main stand, another being the till takes too long etc etc

On a similar vein somebody asked whether the Clayton End now doing things 'in-house' had improved revenue the answer was yes. Andy added that everything had improved - a little more later.

Plans for the new stand. There is no official designation as yet for what the new stand will be/become, and they will take the lead from the fans as to what happens. At the moment they are kind of assuming it will be pretty much half and half Family Stand and Away Stand overspill. The capacity of the stand will be between 1000 and 1300 and will have toilets etc behind it. The plan is not as grand as the original plan for that side as the ground neither needs it nor wants it from a maintenance point of view. Have a look at Salford City's ground and you'll see the stand we're getting. Andy and David Burgess went to view it, then went back again with members of the council to show them what the plans were for. It suits us and our needs. Andy said 2 or 3 times that he'd rather have a good ground with a 3500 capacity than a larger ground than we need where comprises had been made. Morecambe was his example, the ground was incomplete and had problem areas (away concourse?) yet the place where home fans ate their pie and peas was lovely ...

After Forest Green, have we any plans to put solar panels in? Yes/no. It's something we've looked at but there arent the same grants available anymore like previously. If it was osmething we could save money from then yes we would. However, we no matter how green we go meat will always be available on our ground

Player contracts. WE're doing what we can and when we can to improve the standard of the players contracts, example cited was the previous play-off team getting decimate and no income received.

Here's the little more later bit. Andy has spoken recently on twitter about how phase 1 was practically complete and phase 2 was soon to begin. This would have been one of my questions but somebody else asked something that led into it - namely "what's being done to attract more fans"

Phase 1 was what Andy identified when he came into the club. Finances had to be stabilised and get the club to a break even point. This is practically there. Attendances are up, beer sales are up, losses are down, club shop is up, commercial activity is off the scale, player sales are up (couldnt get any worse, only 4 of the team that lost the play offs ended up staying and we raised nothing in sales). Along the way there has been some grievances from us, such as prices rising, concessions disappearing etc etc, but here we are 2 years later with the club in much better condition. Average crowds have risen despite the rises and we are now generating revenue right across the board. This year we should at least break even if not turn a profit. This next bit wasnt said tonight but I'm sure I read on twitter that the original phase 1 plan was 3 years. PHASE 2 is to grow the club/fanbase. Andy wouldn't be drawn on what this entails but said plans will begin soon.

Right, I'm struggling to remember much else. What I will add though is I spoke to the guy who is currently in charge of the ground, on matchday, at length after the meeting. He is a good chap who has been around the place long enough to remember the problems of the Newcastle match, and he wasnt naiive enough to lay the blame elsewhere - he knew what and why the problems occurred. He explained how the club was currently trying to be as flexible as possible. He used the example of having dragged one or two 'problem makers' up to the control box to show them exactly what they could see from up there, and that there is no hiding place. The last people they took up there had been responsible for a smoke bomb and the police had wanted to take them away and issue banning orders, he overruled them and said there was a better way - I am so happy to have heard this. The many problems that occured post Newcastle were all avoidable and as a result of the club being weak with regards to the police. WE have none of the problems that almost all other clubs have, and this is recognised week in week out by police reports from all over the country, Lancashire Police are not being allowed to make us look like something we're not.


IF you want to know the answer to a question that hasn't been listed here then please feel free to give me memory a nudge, if it was asked and I remember it or the answer then I'll post

[Exile on Spencer St]

Thanks for your efforts, Macca.
And to Andy Holt for his.

[Wynonie Harris]

Cheers, Rob. Just had a dekko at a pic of the Salford City stand - looks just right for our needs. Much better than erecting a large stand which would be half empty while draining much-needed funds out of the club. Been there, done that etc!

[baldy]

Think Macca has covered most bases!

Club are looking for stewards so we can have regular “faces” so get in touch if you know someone or you fancy it!

Club always looking for feedback even if it’s constructive criticism.

Andy Holt was asked how close Jimmy was to going Port Vale and his answer was “If we’d have lost to Forest Green, we’d have been dropping him off on the way home”...On a serious note, Andy said there was no chance in his mind Jimmy was going!

Andy has no problems with disclosing fees for player sales but due to other clubs wanting to be hush hush he can’t say much, although he did say we made just over half a million combined for Matty, Omar and Shay in the summer!

In Mattys contract Barnsley wanted a clause that if they stayed up we got an extra 50k, Andy told Barnsley he wasn’t gambling on them staying up so said he wanted the money now (To be fair 3 years ago we would have said “Yes Barnsley, No problem Barnsley” at their first offer so shows we’re growing as a club!!)

Last but not least...Andy is in talks with JC to get him tied down on a decent contract!

[choirboy]

Originally Posted by baldy

Think Macca has covered most bases!



Last but not least...Andy is in talks with JC to get him tied down on a decent contract!

FIFTEEN YEARS SHOULD BE ABOUT RIGHT!
WITH JIMMY ON THE SAME TOO!

[Exile on Spencer St]

Is this the Salford stand that was mentioned?

[Tom D]

If it is, it's a lot less ambitious compared to the original design

[NORTHERNSOUL]

Originally Posted by Exile on Spencer St

Is this the Salford stand that was mentioned?

Yes that's the very same one

As someone who has followed the construction of the Salford stadium with great interest and visited the ground before during and after the build inc twice since the 3 stands were completed i find Andys comments on this very concerning as all you're doing is swapping a tin shed with concrete steps for a newer tin shed with tin steps.

These stands are quite honestly bloody awful and i can't believe Andy is even thinking about one and it certainly won't attract a premium over the the standing price from away supporters which surely is one of the reasons for building one in the first place nor will it provide a facility which will attract new supporters particularly families.

Although the plans and animation for what was planned originally looked good i thought they looked a little over ambitious and were really just the results of somebody at Frank Whittle's imagination which had run away from him.

What you should be looking at is a smaller version of what Oldham have built where you build what is basically an office block whose roof extends over a dozen or so rows of seats which rake up against the back edge of it with all the facilities on the ground floor with two floors of office spaces above it [ there is even the possibility of including a row of boxes should you wish though i doubt at Accy that would be a high necessity ]

Yes this structure to provide 1500 seats would probably cost in the region of two and a half times the Micky Mouse Salford effort but would give an income which would service any loan taken out to pay for it [ look at the PNE model ] and i doubt the shed would gain you the maximum 500k grant [ which as Accy have never claimed in the past they should be nailed on to get particularly as there aren't any new stands being built at the minute to compete with for the cash ] which would in effect be a waste of free money and then of course there's our friends at Tiffosy who have just done a bond issue which raised 600k for Stevenage to build a similar capacity structure which was oversubscribed at close with straight investors who were in it simply for the returns it generates as well as supporters who are willing to take their repayments in kind as currency to spend with the club for the next ten years.

I really do think the tin shed would be a big mistake crowds of 5k might seem a long way off right now but lets say the dream came true and promotion was achieved just look at the clubs currently in division one [ many of whom have never played Stanley ] its very northern-based and to make up for the odd one who'd not bring very many you need to have the capacity headroom to accommodate those who would as well as the times the required nos go thru the roof [ for instance two years ago the final game of the season at BP was Oxford they brought over 2.5k as a victory saw them promoted]and dont forget once the far side is developed it would be very hard to increase capacity significantly without a major expenditure.

But for me its not really about the capacity of the new stand as the difference isnt really that much its more about providing a stand which could provide facilities that would entice new supporters [ look at the kids room at BP which was created utilising unused space under the stand which has been a massive success despite falling crowds and think how much extra beer and food you could sell to the way fans if it was done in the dry of a concourse.

Have another think Andy you only get one chance to get it right and i know that you only want what would be best for the club and its supporters in the long term as well as the short.

[monkey hanger]

actually been to salford this season and sat in the new stand. gave an excellent view and is actually better than the photo. underneath it there is a corporate type bar area and probably other things as a didn,t study it too much. wish i had now. if this is not an improvement on what we have already i,ll put some pepper and brown sauce on my trilby. think it is an improvment on the original plan as it goes the length of the pitch. much better than building a massive structure like at morecambe that is more than half empty most weeks and will give a better atmosphere if we ever did get promoted playing more local sides.