Post by nick on Nov 15, 2024 14:35:29 GMT
Dear Season Ticket Holders, Lounge Members and Business Partners of Maidstone United,
You may have recently received a new edition of Stones Mail, as part of a revamp of our communications at the club.
We intend to keep supporters more informed and hopefully more entertained with variety and innovation in our interviews and special features on staff, business partners, supporters and ex-players.
In addition to Stones Mail, Terry and I will be writing to you, on a monthly basis, with insider thoughts on the club and how it is all going. Having said all this the best form of communications at a football (or rugby) club is simply winning games, that in itself seems to satisfy most fans!
Having said this, we have to be careful in how much we reveal while being open in our communications. Sometimes people are frustrated we don’t talk about why players are not playing or about player budgets. Generally we have no problem in discussing such things privately with supporters when the occasion arises. Putting such info into the public domain is another matter. The more we reveal our budget the more information we give to rival clubs in their recruitment of players and offers of wages. As for injured players, apart from their own wish for privacy, it is sensible not to give information to rival teams as to who might be playing against them shortly.
As I write this, just after our win against Hornchurch, the men’s team have been on a great run of performances and results in the league. It was a stodgy start which worried us all but the team has started to gel and with one or two further adjustments and additions we might just climb the table to the promised land of the play-off places.
We haven’t managed to maintain our run in the FA Cup though – sadly being knocked out by Solihull Moors but the team acquitted themselves well and there is no shame in this season’s cup run which took us to the first round. If it pales in comparison to last season’s cup run well so be it. It may be a few years before a Stones team repeats the exploits of last season. What an extraordinary FA Cup season that was.
While I was away for a couple of weeks recently, I decided to watch the full Ipswich match video for the first time. It was utterly compelling, the thrill and tension of the actual match being alleviated by the knowledge that however unlikely it seemed to be, I knew we were going to win. To relive the excitement and see our ecstatic supporters was incredible. This match will live long in our memories and remain forever one of the greatest FA Cup matches.
One perpetual headache we are blessed with is recruitment. It is a huge challenge to optimise recruitment, mixing youth with experience, judging injury records, competing with other clubs who somehow have huge budgets out of sync with their attendances, deciding if we should offer players a longer than one season contracts, blending contract players with loanees, etc etc. And all this while doing perhaps the most important act of all in the interests of the club, sticking to a pre-defined playing budget.
Currently we are facing losing a valuable loan player – who has started to fit in well to the team system – to a parent club recall because a third party club is prepared to offer him a very generous contract, the terms of which we simply could not match, even if we wanted to. This is immensely frustrating but it is what it is. The only silver lining to such situations is that we are close to a couple of interesting signings of our own. Our recruitment committee is working very hard for us all.
Earlier this season we highlighted the fact that we were putting a new emphasis on women’s football at the club, under the stewardship of Zach Foster-Crouch. I am delighted to say that thanks to his hard work and that of our player-manager Tori Campbell, the women’s team are challenging at the top end of their table. Like the men’s team it was a slow start but now they have hit their stride and are winning matches in some style. If you haven’t already done so I urge you to come down to the Gallagher and see them in action. It is very good value (especially for season ticket holders) and the team is definitely on the up. It should be an exciting promotion challenge over the next few months.
The stadium is now 12 years old and some areas are in need of renovation and renewal. Like with the repainting of the Forth Road Bridge, it seems that this process is constant. It also puts a significant strain on the club resources.
This is why we try and take advantage of any available grants through the Football Foundation, an organisation funded by the FA and Premier League to help clubs renovate and extend their grounds where appropriate.
Although this is very useful financially, it is a complex and time-consuming process (managed with great skill over the years by super-volunteer Mike Littleboy) and explains why sometimes you might think we are being slow in delivering what appear to be simple projects like reconstructing a toilet block, a control room or a TV gantry.
In one case, to obtain the grant, we had to add a land charge onto the actual title deed of the stadium, which for various reasons concerning previous charges on the land was frustratingly complex to execute. Believe me it is not simple but we are doing our best!
An area of the stadium which we have been trying to reconfigure is the upper Manchett Stand. We accept we made the error of thinking that our wheelchair-using fans would all welcome a move down to the designated areas of the Genco, since this is now the home fans’ end. Following discussions, we have now decided to maintain and indeed even increase the number of wheelchair spaces in that area.
Hopefully the new segregation arrangements for away supporters will be ready in the next few weeks too. This has also been complex but it is nearly ready to be finalised and fingers crossed will be up and running in time for Christmas and the possible fixtures where segregation is advisable.
In the meantime, it has been good to see the Genco Stand used predominantly as a home stand. It is a much more peaceful and family friendly arrangement. It is a challenge to keep up this family-friendly atmosphere as the years roll by because when a few supporters occasionally cause trouble it ends up negatively affecting the experience of others both directly and indirectly. This is a crying shame. Our ethos remains to ensure that for the vast majority of supporters, at the vast majority of matches, the Gallagher Stadium experience is one to fully enjoy.
Finally let me thank you again for your fantastic support. Please feel free to contact Terry, Bill or me with any thoughts, questions and comments. We can all be proud of Maidstone United and its role in the local community. Long may it continue.
Oliver
