Thank you to everyone who attended the first meeting. It was encouraging to be able to talk to supporters about how we can move forward. Our next meeting is this coming Wednesday at 7.30pm in the Jock Stein Lounge and we would urge anyone else interested to come along on the night.
We will be looking at the below issues again and putting plans into place for the coming season, as well as discussing the Matchday Experience Report 2021/22 that was carried out by the Fan Experience Company in conjunction with the SPFL during one of our home matches this year. We want to open an honest dialogue with supporters on how we can improve the matchday experience.
With Season 21/22 coming to an end, we would like to thank our supporters for the backing
they have given the club throughout this campaign as we come out of the Covid-19
pandemic.
Our eighth-place finish was one that the coaching staff, playing staff and board were
disappointed with.
Sustaining ourselves in the SPFL is our fundamental aim when we go into a new campaign,
but it should be the minimum goal for our club.
Looking around us, we have witnessed the strength of the clubs in the Lowland League and
Highland League with Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic’s comprehensive play-off victory over
Cowdenbeath.
These sides deserve the chance to climb the pyramid system and it would be foolish to not grasp the backing, support and ambition they have.
At the top end of cinch League 2, Annan Athletic and Edinburgh City both had a shot at promotion
to cinch League 1, with City prevailing and both of these clubs are no bigger than ourselves.
We must as a club establish and build our own future and continue to build on and off the
pitch, rather than stagnate, or simply accept where we are now as good enough.
With this in mind, we are asking for your help to ensure we are as self-sustaining as we can
be, and that we making the most of what we have across the football club.
We do not have the same level of resources as other clubs but we need to use the
resources that we can harness from our loyal supporters, who have a true affinity with Albion
Rovers.
Three key areas of our club have fallen way behind the levels they should, and need to be
at. The Covid-19 pandemic has seen parts of the club come to a halt and we thank those
beforehand who tirelessly gave up their free time to ensure these things happened.
Our Club Shop is truthfully non-existent at this time and we are not bringing in what could be
valuable income on a regular basis.
A long-term goal would be to have a group of volunteers in place who could help operate
and run the shop on home matchdays, with board members helping to ensure stock levels
were maintained.
We’ve had many supporters ask for Rovers-themed items in recent times and have been unable
to provide anything, this shouldn’t be the case.
Ground-hoppers also frequent our historic Cliftonhill and souvenirs are another area that we
should be looking to plug into.
Player Sponsorship is another area that we simply haven’t tapped into in recent times.
It would be great to have local businesses and supporters back on board for the upcoming
season and this is something we want to bring back.
A long-term goal here would be to have each member of our squad and management team
sponsored by supporters or a local business, with those who pledge money to the club
getting ‘their money’s worth’ through social media/website advertising and programme/team-
sheet placement.
Hospitality is something we don’t currently offer and it is a great revenue spinner for clubs at
our level and we have the space to make it happen.
A long-term goal would be to have some sort of medium-scale hospitality package on offer
for every home match.
Other areas include the operation of the bar within the Gordon Dishington Lounge, our social
media output and our stadium + pitch maintenance and general matchday duties just to
name a few.
Committed people are key to running something like this and once again, with the help of our
board members, we would appreciate some support in undertaking an operation like this.
The current board and fellow volunteers are fully committed to running the club efficiently,
helping to oversee the management of the team, maintaining the stadium, meeting
Scottish FA/SPFL licensing requirements and local authority safety regulations, but we are running
on a skeleton operation compared to other clubs around us and below us.
We are asking for anyone who is interested in helping the club in these areas, or simply
interested in volunteering some of your time in any way, to join us at a meeting at the
stadium to explore and plan what can be achieved over the summer.
Any help is appreciated immensely by the board of directors and those involved with the club
already.
We need people who are committed, engaged and talented and we are excited to hear from those interested in helping out in whatever way they can.
