Nottingham Forest Supporters Club Annual
General Meeting
04/11/00
| by Paul Ryan
The Derek Randall Suite, Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Firstly, the meeting was well represented by most Branches of the Supporters Club, and the Chairman Mel Hart passed on his thanks to all that attended, given the current transport problems and severe weather conditions. The AGM was referred to as having the best Branch representation in some years and postal voting was also high.
The usual AGM formalities were undertaken including the General Secretary's report, Treasurer's report and the election of Officers for the management Committee.
The members of the management Committee were unopposed and therefore the following continue to represent the Supporters Club for the 2000/2001 Season:
Chairman: Mel Hart
General Secretary: Rita Kirk
Treasurer: Paul Ellis
Social Secretary: Joan Bakewell
Membership Secretary: David Howard
Mention must go to David Howard who has recently returned from illness and the Yorkshire Branch would like to wish David well and offer their thanks for the help and advice in setting up the Yorkshire Branch.
A number of other members of various Branches were also elected to the Management Committee, and these shall be posted once confirmation has been received. (In other words I didn't make notes!!)
Representatives from Nottingham Forest Football Club
Mr Mark Arthur
(Chief Executive) and
Mr Tim Farr (Director)
Both representatives gave a short resumé in which they informed that neither the pending court case nor the club's financial status would be discussed. Neither Mark Arthur or Tim Farr were involved in the court case and the finances were subject to discussion at the upcoming NFFC Annual General Meeting.
A number of questions from the Supporters Club members were then answered by Mark Arthur and Tim Farr including;
Player Purchases
It was suggested that in order for Forest to attain promotion this season, that it was essential that Forest bought Robbie Blake (currently on loan from Bradford City). Mark Arthur explained that the Club (NFFC) were not currently in a financial position to purchase Robbie Blake regardless of public comments made by Bradford City chairman Geoffrey Richmond. He went on to say that Robbie Blake may or may not be the answer and that supporters, due to Nigel Doughty's involvement with the Football Club, should not regard him as being there to keep "putting his hands in his pockets" to finance the purchase of players. The club were appreciative to Nigel Doughty for his involvement, but stressed that it was unfair and improper to rely on his funding. It was explained that Nigel Doughty had previously expressed that consideration may be given to funding player purchases if Forest were in a challenging position at the end of November. First to third positions were mentioned at this stage.
Mark Arthur went on to explain that Nigel Doughty currently owned 40% of the Football Club following a £6M investment and there was an option to increase his ownership to 55% of the Club for a further investment of £6M. He also re-iterated that Nigel Doughty was indeed a fan and that he had the club in his heart alike all supporters.
In reference to comments made during the close season by both Mark Arthur and Chairman Eric Barnes regarding the availability of transfer funds to David Platt, Mark Arthur attempted to explain the circumstances regarding these comments. He explained that the money that was identified for David Platt to use to strengthen the squad was expected to come from the sale of certain players at the club whose wages far exceeded the ability, contribution and performances they had made to Nottingham Forest. It was the intention to sell these players and make the funds available to David Platt. Unfortunately, no offers had been made for these players and their wages were to high for some clubs to even take the players on free transfers.
At this point, I have to say I had mixed thoughts on the matter. Firstly, should something not be done about these players, on good wages, yet presumably not playing to their ability. Either that or the Club should be held responsible for making certain purchases and then paying these wages in a panic in order to escape relegation from the Premier League to players who clearly did not have the ability or desire to play for the Club.
Secondly, regarding the allocation of funds to David Platt. This season, Nottingham Forest have sold two players, each for £600,000, namely Nigel Quashie (Portsmouth. Bought for £2.5M) and Dougie Freedman (Crystal Palace. Bought for £950,000). In view of Mark Arthurs earlier comments that funds weren't available to purchase Robbie Blake (a fee believed to be in the region of £1.5M), then he had already contradicted himself. Just to recall his comments "No money is available at present, and the club wished to sell players to make funds available to David Platt". Well, in my view there should be £1.2M available for David Platt to spend on players. Either Robbie Blake is not wanted long term by the Football Club, or the Club are going back on their words. Or maybe there is somebody else available? (View of Paul Ryan)
The City Ground / Trent End
Mark Arthur referred to the players currently finding themselves being booed or subject to abuse when playing at the City Ground as soon as a bad pass was made. This prompted a number of questions and comments from the Supporters, one in particular saying that for that minority that booed, there were 15,000 behind the side. This led on to the location of fans in the City Ground and the noise generated from it.
Reference was made to the Trent End and the City Ground in general where home supporters were often drowned out by the noise from the away fans contained in the Lower Bridgeford. Tim Farr had looked at the Trent End and agreed that the acoustics in the stand appeared to escape from the Ground, hence losing an enormous amount of noise. He referred to being in Eindhoven during the Euro 2000 tournament where he had noticed that the PSV Eindhoven stadium had a 'lip' on the stands, and due to the atmosphere in the ground, assumed that this had held the sound in the stadium. He indicated that this was a possibility regarding the Trent End, though no firm commitment was made. Mark Arthur also recognised that due to TrentEnd season tickets being reduced that many non-singers were in the Stand.
Thanks were also passed on from Season Ticket holders in Pinnacle Place for the club listening to them when allocating seating and pricing tickets.
Ticket Pricing
Mention was made that the City Ground and Nottingham Forest had the highest average attendance in the first division currently nearing 20,000 and he firstly thanked supporters for their continued support. He referred to his belief that Nottingham Forest would be successful again and that he awaits the return of the Club attaining sell out 30,000 attendance's, which would precede the club striving forward to rebuilding the Main Stand at the Club.
This prompted a number of questions as to how the club could increase attendance at matches, particularly during the current 2000/2001 season. Mark Arthur referred to a number of schemes currently in operation aimed at children. One of the schemes being the birthday scheme where 2 tickets were made available on a child's birthday and also the scheme where local school children were rewarded for good behaviour and attendance. He referred to a future game where it was likely that the upper and lower wings of the Brian Clough stand would be full of children and that this was a good way of introducing future supporters of the Club.
Ticket Pricing was also raised and a number of options suggested in supermarket 2 for 1 fashion. The Club were reluctant to drop ticket prices in the interests of not upsetting season ticket holders. However, a number of options were being looked into, most notably the proposal (to be confirmed) that the home match vs. Sheffield Wednesday would be made a flat £5 ticket price. It was hoped that this would be well received by supporters new and old, and due to it being a one-off, that season ticket holders were not in any way losing out.
The FA Cup third round was identified for reduced prices by one member of the Supporters Club. Mark Arthur explained that FA Cup ties are subject to both clubs agreeing a ticket price for the match, and that should Forest draw a lower league side, that any smaller club would see it as a big pay-day and wish for the biggest gate receipt possible. He said that this was accepted as Forest would act in the same format should they be drawn against Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea. Nottingham Forest would attempt to reduce ticket prices as much as possible, though this was not always possible. If a fee could not be agreed then it would go to arbitration and that the smaller club would undoubtedly be favoured in such cases.
Season Tickets
A suggestion / offer was made from one Supporter for part payment to be made on season tickets for next season at some stage during this season. This could allow the club to compete with other clubs for available players in their push for promotion during the current campaign. Mark Arthur went on to explain that the Club were looking at a similar proposal for next season based on the Norwich City early bird scheme. He indicated that this would require further notice to season ticket holders and could therefore not be put in place for the current season.
Under 21 Internationals
One question raised the opportunity for the club to stage an under 21 International at the City Ground, given the success that Derby County have had when staging the matches at Pride Park. Under 21 games are poorly attended within London and it was felt that the City Ground would be a good venue to hold such matches and the Club should look to the FA to stage these matches.
Mark Arthur indicated that the last time the Club approached the FA regarding the stadium was when England were bidding to hold the World Cup in 2006. It was during that time that the FA had indicated that Pride Park was considered to have better facilities than Nottingham Forest at this time. He confirmed that the Football Association still held the City Ground in high regard though, pointing to the visit of FA Chairman Geoff Thompson to the City Ground for the afternoons visit of Preston North End. Nottingham Forest were being presented with an award for 'Football Stewarding Qualification' at the City Ground.
My apologies for the exclusion of any further items discussed during the AGM, I had not intended to produce this page, and had therefore not made any notes regarding the content.
by Paul Ryan
Branch Secretary
Nottingham Forest Supporters Club
Yorkshire Branch
http://www.yorkshiresupportersnffc.co.uk