New_Ground_Watcher wrote:The trouble with football is it's too short. You pay your money to get in and two hours later your on your way out. What about some pre or post match entertainment. I've seen a post on here about a club with pre match entertainment in a marquee, was it Plymouth? If there was a cover behind the Omega there could be something like that there, maybe a band or something. How about a warm up man to get the crowd going before the game, get some chants going and lift the atmosphere? If the whole experience lasted longer and had some guaranteed fun then surely more people would come.
Yes there is; it was set up by the Plymouth Argyle official supporters club to pay for the wages of non-football staff when the club was in administration (which I believe weren't guaranteed by the administrators), not the club itself.
FCoM has been mentioned earlier in this thread and dismissed as a function that could be of any use in terms of being a voice for the supporters as it is believed the club aren't very engaged with the group. Personally, I think it could be and is very useful, but isn't utilised by many supporters - it is there for all supporters, not just members.
The supporters club does have a dialog with the board which has been steadily improving over recent years. At the start of this season it had a meeting with Rod Taylor, Jim Bentley and Ken McKenna in which they requested assistance in fundraising towards improvements/facilities for the training ground and first team pitch. This has started with the Pitch Perfect fund, £2000 donated so far this season by the fans club to purchase a specialised peace of equipment that will maintain the pitch to an optimum level. Such funds were raised through the annual membership and a very successful race night. Tonight there will be a family night at The Globe (bingo, play your cards right, games, quiz etc) with the aim of raising the remaining £500 that we initially committed to. The donation form this season has been added to the money that was raised last season by the club staff and a few others that cycled to York, enabling the purchase to have taken place.
Unfortunately we (FCoM) don't have a particularly active membership base when it comes to people being participative in anything other than claiming your discount at the Hurley Flyer. Hopefully this changes. The next meeting is Monday 2nd November at The Globe.
I have argued that we should be pushing the club to improve the facilities behind the home end for the fans for a number of years. Pat Stoyles, the former chair, decided to step away from FCoM partly because he was asked by the club to view plans for such a development in a meeting and advised to tell fellow supporters that said development. This was supposed to have happened two seasons ago, two windows had been identified for the work to be definitely completed. I'm sure many have been told or heard something similar in the past, but these things for one reason or another never seem to materialise..... knock knock, who's there?!?.... not Shanghai Clever again! Its obvious that these plans which involve a relatively large capital investment (circa £250k) won't happen anytime soon; if the club won't oblige perhaps we, the fans, should be approaching them with a less costly short to medium tem solution along with fundraising initiatives?
