Ten weeks ago, in my first open letter to supporters, I expressed my commitment to improving communication with our fans.
It is only by communicating with you regularly that we are going to drive fan engagement and bring all supporters with us on the journey we want to travel as a club.
That is why I am writing to you all again, roughly 10 weeks on as promised, to say what has happened and what projects are currently ongoing at the Croud Meadow.
It is safe to say it has been another action-packed few months with lots going on both on and off the field.
As always, I will focus this update on the off-field position and the steps we are making - starting with that number one point around communication.
Since the turn of the year, we have continued our progression by holding our first Supporters' Parliament meeting.
At that meeting, supporters had the chance to ask questions to me, to our director of football Micky Moore and to other staff members.
The full, unedited, video of this was then published by the club online.
It was also agreed at that meeting Micky would publish regular updates to supporters similar to this one.
His first open letter is due to go out later this week.
In February we held a meeting of our Fan Engagement Panel – the second time the group has met since its inception in November.
At that panel meeting, we specifically looked at the issue of ticket pricing.
For me here the key point is that communication works both ways and where possible, the club will always try to listen to the views of supporters.
That is why we introduced the February Freeze on early bird season tickets and – after further consultation with supporters - managed to implement the direct debit scheme at that point.
The next Fan Engagement Panel meeting will take place towards the end of the month.
Once again, full minutes will be shared on our club website.
With season tickets, we also teamed up with our stadium partners, Croud.
They supported us with our digital marketing plan and the introduction of the weekly season ticket raffles to help boost sales.
As a result of this, we are delighted to say that season ticket sales have flown and we are on course to significantly surpass last year’s total.
We would just like to thank all our supporters who have already purchased a season ticket and those who still plan to take advantage of the Early Bird prices in March.
We also surveyed our Sovereign Club members and already some subtle changes are underway as a result of the feedback.
There are plans to do a full fan survey as we come to the end of the season.
In January, we introduced our new technical kit supplier, Oxen, and have already launched some exciting projects with them.
As discussed at the Supporter’s Parliament meeting, we gave our fans the chance to vote on our 2024/25 away shirt.
As part of our commitment to improving equality, diversity and inclusion, we also teamed up with groups of our female supporters to give them the chance to design our third strip for next year’s men’s team.
That kit will also be worn by the women’s team as their away shirt.
Speaking of supporter engagement, in February we were pleased to announce the creation of a new fan engagement officer role.
That position will work closely with our existing supporter liaison officers but with more focus on attracting new fans and also re-engaging with lapsed supporters.
Green shoots of this role are starting to come through as we recently announced some exciting plans for our first-ever Youth Voice.
The Youth Voice will be a panel of young people aged 12-17 who will get together and share their views on the future of our football club – with the ultimate aim of engaging the next generation of supporters.
Speaking of the future, there are exciting plans afoot between the club, foundation and the academy to bring the STFC academy back onto the main Croud Meadow site.
This is going to result in a large cost saving for the club and it will also give the academy the opportunity to spend more time in and around our fantastic stadium, hopefully giving them even more aspiration to one day pull on the famous blue and amber.
With regards to the foundation, Jamie Edwards will leave his role as CEO after nine years of great work, and the recruitment process for a new foundation director is underway.
The work we do as a club and foundation in the local community is second to none, with our health and wellbeing programmes and our educational opportunities proving that Shrewsbury Town is a club for more than just 90 minutes on a Saturday.
In the last few months, we have also been presented with a cheque for £5,000 from the Super Blues to help us purchase storage containers.
They were previously leased along with the new West Stand Ticket office booth.
A big thank you must go to every one of the Super Blues members for all their help - their support is allowing us to make good financial business decisions.
As a result, the club’s media and commercial teams are working closely with the Super Blues to improve the group’s marketing in order to attract new members, as this has a direct benefit to the football club. If you want to join the Super Blues, click HERE.
In terms of revenue-driving initiatives, we are keen to explore lots of new ideas as well as bringing back old favourites.
Many of our supporters will have recently enjoyed the fantastic 1993/94 reunion event and I am sure all in attendance will have told you what a thoroughly entertaining evening it was.
This has now set the standard for our introduction of quarterly events at the stadium for fans of all generations to enjoy.
More information about a calendar of events will be released in the coming weeks.
A huge thank you to the players who attended and also to Roger Groves, Stuart Dunn and Ryan Jervis for their support on an evening that raised almost £10,000 for the club.
In terms of events, our catering and events team posted their biggest-ever Christmas revenue numbers this year and we look forward to the return of our popular “Black Tie” end-of-season awards night, as well as the traditional supporter’s awards night.
Details about both will be available in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, be sure to take advantage of our final reductions on this season’s kit and training wear online, or at the official EPS merchandise store or the pop-up shop, which will close its doors for the final time at the end of the season to be renovated as our new academy office.
As we approach the end of the season, we were delighted to launch the “Play on the Pitch” initiative and bookings have been great, with only a few slots now still available.
If you want to play at the Croud Meadow, click HERE.
This will not only give fans the chance to play on the hallowed turf, but it will also help us generate much-needed revenue to support the end-of-season pitch renovation.
The coming months will also see the Shrewsbury Town Women’s Team play a league fixture at the Croud Meadow.
That will be a really special day and we urge as many of you as possible to come down and show your support to the team.
Other renovations around the stadium are planned for the end of the season.
And following the recent advertisement for businesses and supporters alike to volunteer or join the business network, we now have upwards of 100 volunteers and 30 businesses to call upon to help us do these renovations with as little cost to the club as possible.
We would just like to take our chance to thank all of those people once again for their support in advance.
For those supporters interested in the finances and the future, the 2023 accounts will be published in the coming weeks and will confirm the situation we are in right now.
But rest assured the process is already underway to cut these losses as the club continues to try and increase revenue in new innovative ways and cut costs wherever possible.
We also continue to look for new investment, and while expressions of interest are still ongoing, there is nothing imminent.
Finally, on behalf of the Chairman and I, can we once again say thank you for your fantastic support.
Please stick with us on this journey off the field and please continue the fantastic support you’ve given Paul and the team in what will be an exciting final few weeks of the season.
To those that haven’t already done so, we urge you to take advantage of our fantastic Early Bird season ticket offers for the 2024/25 campaign and get behind the team as we move forward in to next season!
There is not long left to go with the deadline April 2. You can buy a season ticket by clicking HERE.
Thank you,
SALLLOOOOOP!!!
Liam.
