The club have asked us all to dig deep once again and assist the club by clubbing together to cover the £1500 a month payable to our CVA for the next 20 months. It's becoming clear that supporting the Poppies can be many things, but the main thing seems to be "expensive!"
I feared that compassion fatigue had set in amongst the Poppies brethren, but it would appear my negativity may be premature. A number of far flung Poppies, who can't necessarily get to games are chipping in. As ever, The Trust is coming up with ways of raising money, such as events, pledges and launching a half-season Club200 membership, with all takings going straight to covering the CVA.
Many supporters who, until now, have stood back from financially helping the club survive, for whatever reason, have an additional opportunity to dig deep and help the Poppies survive.
Hopefully the club will also take a bit of a lead and spell out better how supporters and businesses can invest in the club via Match / Ball / Player / Programme sponsorship. The official website still discusses sponsorship options at some place called "Nene Park". Unless Latimer Park has "Executive Boxes" which I've so far missed! What does it cost to sponsor a ball at Latimer Park? What do you get for your money? How do find out? Addressing all and any enquiries to Ken Samuel can't be a sustainable business model!
Whilst I appreciate that overhauling the website hasn't been top of anyone's list of "things to do", I can't help but feel the club might be missing out because the website is woefully haphazard. A well maintained website could be our best, most important marketing tool, but our website is painfully poor. The most bizarre aspect of our curious site is the player stats which tell you all you need to know about Legends like Roy Clayton and James McPike, but bugger all about Henry Eze and Steve Kinniburgh.
The CVA was, as we all know, instigated by one-time, future Poppies murdering, footballing banned, wide-boy, George Rolls. Not that you'd know it based on the documentation, as George's name doesn't appear anywhere. It was left to our, then, one Director, Gary Graham to be the solitary signatory, keeping George's pudgy hands well and truly clean.
Sad to say, but in reality, it could be strongly argued that George's completely unofficial decision to enter us into a CVA was the action that ultimately saved the Poppies. OK, a lot of people got screwed over financially, and we've suffered 3 relegations, but without this action we would have gone bust and ended our days at Non Park a couple of years ago.
I suppose this makes Rolls a Poppies hero? Of a sort.
No comments:
Post a Comment