On Monday 23 September, we met with Darren Royle, the Club’s CEO, and Dale Harris, Head of Commercial, as part of our regular monthly engagement with the Club. Here are the notes from the meeting.
This month’s conversation covered:
National League Cup
Entrance from Fan Bar to North Stand
Catering
Stewarding
Latics Volunteer Group
Away Travel
Community Outreach
Increasing Attendances
National League Cup
We presented the results from our survey on the new National League Cup competition which 492 supporters completed. The results were overwhelmingly negative and we expressed that most fans didn’t understand what was in it for the Club in participating and were sceptical that the prize money made it worthwhile.
Darren agreed that more information needs to be provided and explained that the Club were going to put a statement out explaining the Club’s reasoning for joining the competition.
He explained that the main benefits to the Club of playing in the National League Cup is to provide competitive games for young players to develop and provide game time for first team players like Will Sutton who currently isn’t getting enough game time. The whole Club board made the decision to join the competition, in consultation with Micky Mellon and his coaching team. Darren explained that, in the absence of a B team this season, which everyone overwhelmingly wanted, this is seen as a next best solution for a player development pathway and way of getting game time.
Darren also explained that other benefits to the Club included the opportunity to build contacts and relationships at the top academies and showcase the stadium and club to young players, with the view to loaning good young players from those academies in future.
Many supporters raised concerns about whether participation would be profitable for the Club. Darren explained that they think they’ll make money on it given all games will be played at home so no travel costs to be met, and the Premier League will be covering the medical cover costs of hosting the games and paying a fee for each match out of the £1m prize pot. Dale also mentioned that 1,500 Manchester United fans went to watch Stockport vs Manchester United’s U21 team last year so we could also see increased revenue from away fans.
Supporters also worried about the risk of injuries to first team players. Darren said that the management team will manage the risks to players but highlighted that injuries could also occur in training or in behind-closed-doors games that the Club was playing last season against Premier League U23 teams. The first team squad played a Premier League U23 team last season behind closed doors and sustained an injury, but this is a factor that has to be managed and extra games are required throughout the year to fulfil gaps for match fitness and pathway development.
Darren also explained that while early negotiations were led by the Executive of the National League, clubs were consulted before an agreement was reached and provided feedback which was acted upon by the National League. For example, changes were made so the Premier League covered the medical cover costs of hosting matches. Darren pointed out both Rochdale and Altrincham are local teams also in the 16 National League clubs that are participating.
We explained that many fans felt this undermined the rationale for scrapping FA Cup replays and would prefer to retain those. Darren explained that the Premier League clubs were the ones that scrapped those replays, not the FA or the National League. This was due to the onerous UEFA schedule. Darren also said that at the League AGM the FA presented a revamp of finances so that there is a bigger prize money pot for non-league FA Cup games this season which will more than cover the amount lost from not having FA Cup replays. He stressed that the scrapping of FA Cup replays is not related to the introduction of the National League Cup.
Dale and Darren acknowledged that the competition wouldn’t draw huge crowds at Boundary Park but said the Club would host fans if fans wanted to come. Dale explained that the Club is quickly developing its ticketing policy for this competition and asked for our feedback. We recommended that adult tickets be £5 and children either £1 or free. Dale said he is also exploring package deals for all four games and discounts for season ticket holders, but needed to check there were no competition-specific restrictions on pricing, like a minimum price.