TELFORD TIGERS BOARD UPDATE Open letter to Tiger Society members and supporters. In the absence of a website, the Board felt that it was necessary to update all parties on progress to date, challenges facing the Society and plans to continue driving the club forward. All members will know that the Society made a financial loss of £10,782 last season and that in addition to this the Society had unpaid tax debts and also outstanding accountancy fees payable. These financial burdens have been accrued over a number of seasons but the work done to restructure the club off the ice during the last season has enabled the club to structure and agree payment plans to clear these debts with payments having already commenced. This has placed a massive strain on club finances particularly when you consider that there is no income whatsoever coming into the club during the closed season. The disruption to fixtures last season with the rink redevelopment impacted the clubs income last season with the initial games on the road and later in the season a number of games back to back which affected attendances, and placed additional financial strain on the club throughout the season. The Board have worked tirelessly to continue moving the club forward and have managed to secure additional sponsorship income which has covered the cost of retaining certain key individuals such as player coach Tom Watkins. Additionally we continue to scout and sign new players for the forthcoming season, the key objective though is to build a roster than can compete and win not just turn out and play. Telford Tigers is a unique club, owned and run by the supporters, with a board elected by the members to run the club on their behalf, and the board are fully aware of the responsibility that we hold. We all want to have a team on the ice that is able to take on the best and win, and the form that Tom and the team showed at the end of the season proved that Tigers are a team we can all be proud of. The sponsorship subcommittee of the Board continues to look for new sponsors and to attract new sources of revenue while the wider Board is actively organising a number of summer events to try and generate much needed additional funds. We will be announcing some of these events over the next week and look forward to seeing as many supporters as possible to meet some of the new and returning players. The upshot to all of this is that presently we are not generating enough pre-season cash to be able to fund the requirements of the Tigers moving forward. If you consider circa 150 members at £10 per membership, and while this revenue is truly appreciated it only makes a very small dent in the tens of thousands required to build a competitive roster from day 1. The EPL is getting more competitive year on year and as a club we have to maximise our strengths, the passion and unity of our fans, the impressive recruitment and development of highly rated young and upcoming players from both the local area and nationally. To build on this the board therefore have a number of requests; 1. Firstly, can everyone make sure that they renew their Tiger Tracks membership as soon as possible – it is really important that we can sign up as many members as possible as early as possible? There are currently 817 people who have joined the Tigers unofficial Facebook Page and 435 people who have liked the official Tigers Facebook page. Obviously many of these will be the same people but there is a big difference between 150 paid up society members and over 800 people who follow the club on social media. If we can increase the membership numbers that will really help the club. To join or renew your society membership please email [email protected] 2. Secondly, we would urge all fans and members to actively support any initiatives that the club put forward – for example, the own and loan scheme – the recent changes were an attempt to raise much needed cash for the club nothing else. After listening to feedback from supporters we have revised this back to last season’s scheme. The price has been increased to £125 per jersey, but this is still cheap in comparison to the rest of the league. All of the jerseys for announced players will be made available to coincide with the launch of the Tigers new website, and we will announce more details as soon as we have a confirmed website launch date, but this will be in the next 10-14 days. 3. Next Seasons tickets – We would ask any fans interested in buying season tickets to take advantage of the discounts they offer and purchase them by emailing [email protected] 4. Ghosting names on the Tigers jersey. This season supporters have a unique opportunity to have their name on every player’s jersey, home and away for just £25. We will be putting an illustration of how this will look on the website so supporters can see how it will look. If a quarter of the people who follow Tigers on Facebook had their name ghosted on to the jerseys that would raise £5000 for the club. All of these initiatives are aimed at raising money for the club while giving supporters value for money, and the board are always trying to get the right balance. To order your name ghosted onto the jerseys, email [email protected] 5. Finally, as we are all aware, Tigers is a supporters “owned” club – given that we are still working hard to clear debt from the previous 2 seasons, and trying to provide Tom with a roster fund that will enable us to make the playoffs we simply need more cash now. There has been some talk over the last few days on social media sites from fans indicating that they would be prepared to contribute to a fund for the club. This again demonstrates the passion and commitment of the fans, who are the genuinely the lifeblood of this club. As a result of this we are asking any and all fans or members who are able to make a cash donation to the club – it doesn’t matter how big or how small but we need to generate additional funds alongside all the other sponsorship and fundraising efforts that are going on by the Board. Telford Tigers is a great name in British Ice Hockey, many household names have graced the Tigers jersey over the years and there have been some unforgettable games at Telford Ice Rink, with everyone connected with the club pulling in the same direction we can drive this great club forward, get back into the playoffs and bring back the fans to this great sport. The 2013-14 season will see the club doing everything we can to attract more fans, new and old, the free season tickets for Under 10’s is a key part of this strategy, we would ask everyone to help spread the word about Tigers and encourage as many people as possible to come along and to join the trust, and together we can build a bright and successful future for our club, Telford Tigers.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:06:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015