Supporters Questions

Supporters Questions For The Advisory Board 13 June 2023

Catering Options

I would like to raise gain the catering in the Arkells Stand – a number of away fans have complained to me about only have pasties as an option, Town End have a burger van, could this not be extended to the Arkells home and away fans

Football Club Answer

Hot dogs could be made available to the away fans.

Other options could be made available, but need to be feasible – where would a burger van be situated in the Arkells Stand ?

Ground Atmosphere

I have mentioned this before to either this medium or via the trust medium; We need to generate an atmosphere before games, particularly the 15-20 minutes before kick-off with rousing music. I had the pleasure of going to a couple of Newcastle games last season and they really get the crowd going before and as the players come out. They have inexpensive flags permanently amongst the seats that are, I guess, 1 metre square of plain white, plain black or some chequered, mounted on plastic poles that are not worth taking home but create an atmosphere, much like last weeks FA cup final. They play Bladen Races and the Beatles song Hey Jude, amongst others. We could get a local Male voice choir to adapt a few popular songs to include Swindon lyrics, to play before games, and perhaps the crowd would adopt them and sing during games., perhaps making one of them our own, such as the Sheffield song known as the greasy chip butty song (an adaptation of John Denver’s “Annie’s song”) Google it to hear and learn about its creation

Football Club Answer

Survey sent out – meeting end of June

Travel to Game

I work for stagecoach Swindon - I wish to see if the club and supporters club would be interested in having talks with our company in providing football buses for home matches with success on the pitch and people trying to find places to park in side streets I would say this would a very good idea going forward to the fans getting to the ground also getting home from the ground afterwards with not a worry trying to find parking and also can stay for a drink after and beforehand if this is a good idea please let me know and can forward this to our commercial department I e with season tickets getting discounted journeys and also supporter members too with in time development of the Town end going on this

Football Club Answer

This to be passed to Chris van Roon at the Trust, he is working on a project re train travel, so this fits in with him.

Season Tickets

I would like to know how many season tickets have been sold and whether the new manager has made a favourable difference to increase sales

Football Club Answer

4,370

Very hard to tell what makes someone buy a ticket

Fans Forum

When will fans forum be?

Football Club Answer

When Clem’s travel plans are confirmed

Ground Improvements

How is the work on county ground going?

Football Club Answer

Details of the remedial work and also the initial meeting of the development group will be included in the minutes

The following questions came from one anonymous person, who asked for the questions not be shortened or changed. They sent the same one to the Trust – IMO it was a test to see if we would submit these.

Where is Clem Morfuni?

Where is Clem Morfuni? When Clem was buying the club and “saving this club from Lee Power”, he was free to FaceTime and Skype at the most random times and appeared on virtually every fan podcast possible. This season, where there have been on field/off field issues/concerns from fans, he has been mute? Apart from the late legend in Nigel Eady gifting us the CG, I’ve barely seen him comment on STFC.

Answer

Agreed that Clem would do a monthly ‘update’ for website when he is not here – ultimately he wants the manager and the players to do the talking and get out in the Community

Question

I presume this early business that you promised, when trying to sell season tickets and claiming things will be different, will all be occurring this week? Last season after the manager debacle and the never ending saga, we signed a player on June 23rd- this was considered extremely late given the season started less than 5 weeks after this date. Should this week pass without business, we will reach a similar point RE dates. A slightly lazy, but highly relevant, comparison would be the promotion season under Richie Wellens, where the first signing came on June 2nd. Other clubs in the league, who are serious about promotion, have signed 6 players for example

Answer

Works is being done, transfer window does not open until 14th (tomorrow), it is free agents that are available now, so things will start to happen, but need to be the right things.

Question

Well aware social media rumours should be taken with a pinch of salt, but please confirm Mike Flynn is working at the club and is actively making moves as opposed to the rumour he cannot officially work for us until July 1st.

Answer

He is working for the Club

Question

In the last AB, we were told the club would be making announcements in due course with regards to filling vacant football roles at the club. Where is this? How can the club expect to make any successful decisions without any football men at the club. It smells of cost-cutting, naivety and hoping for the best, unfortunately. Please ensure Chris Kiely (seemingly the only football man in the regime but has this degree of anonymity) is present at the next fan's forum- plenty of notice and no time zone confusion should occur.

Answer

Recruitment is progressing.

Chris Kiely is a consultant and helps with data – no reason he should be at the Fan's Forum

Question

Will PWR S&C still be the main S&C team this year? I noticed we lost Ricky Mcfarlane to Crawley mid-season. Is Joe Triolo still the club doctor? Are WOW Hydrate still an official partner? (All 3 happened at a very similar time in summer 2021 hence the question

Answer

PWR S& C – no

Joe Triolo – no

WOW Hydrate – no

Question

Do we intend on filing any of the vacancies in the immediate future? As far as I’m aware- we will soon/already have three vacancies in the form of head of finance, head of ticketing and head of retail - where we formerly had one person somehow occupying all 3 of these roles? We currently also have no Head of media, No head of player care and went a whole season with no official club secretary (interim only). The academy S&C coach left the academy months ago but for some reason is still listed and we also appear to have 3/4 (advertised) vacancies in the academy. RE first team behind the scenes staff, will this again be internal recruitment and Cost cutting where possible or will we actually replace each role with a human? (Well aware doubling up occurs at this level).

Answer

Work is progressing with certain key appointments soon to be made. The Club is always looking

to be as efficient as possible to ensure sustainability and to invest as much as possible into the

football side of the business

Question

Was Mike Cooks appointment largely due to the fact he aided and mentored Gav Gunning and Charlie Austin last season with their coaching badges

Answer

No – the Community Foundation know him and have done a lot of work with him (his Daughter came through there and went on to play for England, so long time association). He is well respected in the coaching/football world, DMA Coaching

Question

Is the new STWFC DOF appointment of Mandie Coe largely down to face Coe capital are a STFC commercial partner? Does this candidate have the required credentials and knowledge of the game to succeed as the new DOF for Swindon women?

Answer

Mandie Coe is not STWFC DOF – this is Tom Hartley. Mandie to Head of Women’s Football and deals with the operational side, and yes is qualified to do this

Supporters Questions For The Advisory Board 25 August 2023