Cherries trust meeting minutes - February 2022

The club has recently gone through a round of supporters’ group meetings, which have been grouped closer together than usual due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the January transfer window.

The minutes of that meeting can be read below.

Monday 28th February, 2022

In attendance:

Mark Dean – Chair, Cherries Trust
Peter Ive – Vice-chair, Cherries Trust
Caroline Overton – Secretary, Cherries Trust (via conference call)
Craig Beazley – Vice-secretary, Cherries Trust
Brian Troake – Community, Cherries Trust

Neill Blake – Chief Executive
Jeff Mostyn – Chairman
Richard Hughes – First Team Technical Director
Elizabeth Finney – Operations Director
Olivia Hammond – PA to Chief Executive

AGENDA (minutes agreed from last meeting)

COVID/FFP/Finance

How much of a financial burden was put on the club by the pandemic? How does this balance against the FFP rules? The supporters are grateful for Max’s continuing support of the club but what are the implications for him during this period of uncertainty? Is he looking to attract other investors?

Hard to put exact figure on it but roughly a £25-30M loss for Maxim Demin/Club due to Covid. We were not able to furlough staff, there was a significant loss of sponsorship and ticket revenue and £7.2M had to be repaid in PL broadcasting fees. As a positive, we were able to recoup £2.5M from the Club’s insurance.

This football club is no different to any other in that we are always looking for investment but that does not mean Maxim is actively looking to sell his shares. As with any business, we must look at all revenue and what we can bring into the Football Club, although this has become harder due to Brexit, Covid and relegation. Huge credit must go to Maxim as he has done everything he can for the Club during this difficult time.

No loans have been taken out by the Club and while in year 1 we deferred our VAT payments and these were then paid this off over 10 months. With player sales we used advance payments and this is very common for a football club.

To cover social media rumours: Maxim is a British Citizen who also holds Swiss residency and there are no issues with Maxim.

Training Facility

Is there any update on the development or has it been mothballed? What are the long-term plans for the site if development does not go ahead?

Continues to be on the agenda for the Club, however there is no further development on this currently.

Vitality Stadium

As far as fans are aware the lease with Structuredene is due to expire in 2030. What are the club’s long-term plans in relation to this date? What feasibility studies have been undertaken?

Again, continues to be on the agenda, however there is no current development on this.

Transfer Window

With the signing of so many players at the close of transfer window, can RH and SF provide some background on how targets are established and decided upon in what must be a chaotic period. Particularly as so much of the final negotiations appear to occur at the 12th hour.

We signed 7 new players for AFCB in the January Transfer Window. The last day of the window was a very busy day, especially with medicals and contracts getting signed.

In January, historically, there is not always a lot of activity however this time around there was a lot of opportunity out there. This, coupled with the fact that the team had lost a couple of players due to injury, meant we had room for new players to be signed.

We had to be ready and reactive as Clubs often won’t let their players go until the end of the transfer window so that they have the benefit of them for as long as possible.

A lot of the transfer fees remain ‘undisclosed’; the reason for this is the selling club don’t want people to know how much they have sold them for and sometimes this is the case with the buying club. This doesn’t stop the media from speculating or releasing the figures that may have come from club contacts or sources.

Supporters Experience Group

Can the club explain its thinking behind creating its own SEG?

There are concerns that there is a ‘divide and conquer’ reason for this. What did the club feel they could not consult with the CT on that required a club-appointed group?

We felt it was a good opportunity to set up a Supporters Experience Group as another way for fans to feel more involved with the Club.

As the group will be aware, we reached out to all supporters to apply to be part of the SEG and had a really good response in the number and calibre of applications. We tried to select as diverse a group as possible in terms of seat location, STHs/points holders, gender and age, together with representation of disability and Cherries Trust members. The club will go through this process again so that the group is refreshed annually, with a view to meet 3-4 times a year.

It was felt that the Cherries Trust growth over the last few years was disappointing and that at the present time did not cover a large enough cross section of the supporter base. It was felt that interaction with a wider diverse group of supporters was necessary to allow all voices and opinions to be heard. However, the club and Cherries Trust have undertaken to work together on attracting a wider group of supporters to engage with the Trust.

We feel it is important for supporters to have a voice and interaction with the hierarchy of the Club, together with existing feedback mechanisms and groups, promotes that engagement, while giving the club the opportunity to hear about supporter experiences.

David Brooks

Could we have David Brooks photo on the boards on the 7th minute or something to ensure that he remains current in the clubs thoughts.

David comes to nearly every game unless he has had treatment that week. While he would hugely appreciate the gesture of his photograph on the boards on the 7th minute, he is very private and would not want that it was thought. However, NB will speak to David to get his opinion.

David and the Club do very much appreciate the applause in the 7th minute and that fans continue to show their support for him.

Jamie Vincent

Jamie Vincent played over 100 league games for AFC Bournemouth and is one of only 13 players to play in a cup final at Wembley for the club. Why was there not a minute’s applause or silence following his sad passing? In light of this, can we ask why the club doesn’t have a former players association like many others in the pyramid?

NB was also surprised that a minute’s silence/applause did not happen and apologised as this was an internal miscommunication. Each case will be decided separately going forward.

Maximum Points Holders

Due to the club not releasing new Season Tickets, there are fans who are maximum points holders who are being financially penalised for their loyalty. Is the club willing to consider a scheme which values and rewards their continuing loyalty?

Maximum point holders feel their support in terms of attendance and financially is not being rewarded in the same way as STHs.

They felt disappointed that season ticket holders were able to get Boreham Wood FA Cup tickets ahead of maximum Cup point holders. This felt wrong to fans because many season ticket holders do not attend many cup or friendly matches, while point holders spend a lot of money to maintain/gain their points.

EF explained that that there was no disadvantage for those maximum Cup points holders vs STHs because, adding the total number of the two groups together would still not reach home capacity. In addition, it gave the points holders more choice of seats where STHs did not book.

Some point holders have suggested a discount in the Superstore and EF explained that the Club had looked at this but it was tricky in terms of the mechanism of processing the discount through the system. However, she explained that it was possible to offer a discount online if the group thought this would be appreciated and they agreed it would be a good move.

Tickets

Are there plans in place to dispense with paper tickets? Season ticket holders are unsure of why they are charged to have cup game tickets loaded to their ST. Could the club explain the reasons for this?

There are no plans currently to move all tickets to cards currently, but the club will continue to explore options to benefit both the fans and the Club. NB’s view was that this was a new system which had inevitable teething problems and these have been overcome so we are on the right path. However, he felt it was good to have a period of stability before looking to change things too radically.

Regarding the early season ticketing issues, EF explained that there were a number of factors at play. In effect, while we have had the new ticketing system for 18 months, it was only fully used by supporters and the club since the start of this season and you would always expect some teething problems in this case. At the same time, a key technical member of staff left as did the ticketing manager so there was a gap in both numbers and importantly technical knowledge of the new system.

The club has worked hard over the past months to resolve these issues with specific system training, restructuring the ticketing team and brining in both permanent and casual ticketing staff. EF felt that the team was now working really well and doing a good job and the group all agreed.

Disabled Fans

a) Standing/climbing in front of wheelchair users in Row A is still an issue, despite concerted efforts from stewards, who in turn, suffer much abuse from supporters for trying to enforce this. Will the club conider painting of yellow ‘no waiting’ hatching in gangways? This is a method used at other grounds which have busy walkways with viewing areas associated, cf St Mary’s stadium. NB this was previously discussed with Ben Abberstein as an alternative if the comms approach did not work

Fans are continuing to stand in front of wheelchair users in North, South and East Stands which blocks their view and also narrows the walkway meaning that some have been walked over/pushed. We have repeatedly asked supporters to be more considerate in all our pre-match emails and matchday announcements as well as tasking stewards to ask supporters to go directly to their seats. Unfortunately, many still ignore these requests and have been rude to both stewards and disabled supporters. to fan, announced on the big screens and had Michael make announcements.

As suggestion was to hatch the relevant area with “no waiting” and EF agreed this could be trialled in a small area and then rolled out to remaining stands. In the meantime, Accessibility team will continue and check on wheelchair users to make sure they are happy.

b)  Wheelchair fans continually feedback that there are issues buying away tickets, where a phone call is required, as opposed to the online option for able bodied fans.

Purchasing wheelchair tickets online: Liz has followed up with the ticketing team on this and where there might have been a glitch early on in season the team were not aware of any particular problems currently. However, supporters should let the ticketing team know if they do have issues.

c)  Are there any plans to review the disabled transport offering? Specifically the allocation of tickets and the contract for next season? If there are discussions with transport companies can disabled fans be involved?

The accessible minibus, operated by Riverside, has received great feedback since we have been working with this company this season. There is the potential to get a bigger vehicle with slightly increased capacity which Hannah Powis, our new EDI Manager, will update on should it be possible.

d)  Whilst we are aware of the Equalities group that meet, would the club consider plans to engage with disabled fans as a specific group?

Disability has a significant and varied representation on the Equality Focus Group and where we asked the question previously about having a separate disabled supporter group, it was not felt to be of any more advantage. EF will check again though at the next EFG meeting.

Mr Blake

Companies House advises that Mr Blake resigned his directorship for a period of 6 months last year. Was there any reason for this?

NB stated that for personal/family reasons he had made the decision to step down as a director last year. and the board reluctantly accepted this. However, the board subsequently asked NB to reconsider this decision and NB agreed to re-join the board of directors.