A bit concerned about finances.

[NYFLEETFANNo1]

"QUOTE".... I park round by world of leather. Now the footpath round there is not exactly friendly to the less able footed , and is blocked by a bloddy bi bush. Can we just get the council to tidy up a little. Makes it more appealing for people to come , park up , get in and get out. Theres roadworks outside the ground , and it looks generally messy. If it looks accessable , maybe the fans will come.

What if you and the others that use off road parking used the club bog....sorry carpark and paid your 50p (thats what it was when i used it last)??? Then after about 600 matches the debt would be wiped out.

Please note this comment was made tongue in cheak.

[Hempstead Gaz]

on a slightly more serious note, when crowds get over 2000, parking DOES become a real problem. If we eventually do upgrade the ground to 6000 capacity, god only knows where everyone would park if we had a crowd that big.

When we played Canvey, the attendance was allegedly 4,100, not a car parking space for miles around, and it took me 45 mins to get away from the road opposite Barney Sands.

Together with the added congestion the new Ebbsfleet station is likely to bring, this may be one of the persuaders to move to a new ground.

[NYFLEETFANNo1]

Get London Transport, London Country or what ever it is called now to run Football specials again...........now there's a blast from the past. That would take care of congestion.....and make them run the 480 every 10 mins. as it used to run.

[kmj]

If it is too much trouble for you to park your car for free and then have to walk a little further to the ground why not (a) help the club by parking in the car park; ( travelling to matches by public transport. There are 3 or 4 different buses that stop immediately outside the ground; © Re the Connex remark, although there are engineering works some weekends, there are actually 2 trains running each way every hour on Saturdays that stop at Northfleet station.

[Hempstead Gaz]

From Walderslade to Northfleet by bus would take 2 - 3 hours each way, and take 3 buses in each direction - not an option. Connex is even worse , Sorry Daz, but the Higham tunnel is closing for a year wef 17th Jan 2004, and involve a bus from Strood to Higham. The journey would be even worse for me - bus to Chatham, Rail to Strood (Engineering work permitting), Bus Strood to Higham, rail Higham to Gravesend, then Change for the slow connection to Northfleet, then home again. Almost quicker going to Morcambe !!!

The car park is now 40 % smaller than it used to be with coaches and buses, and takes forever to get out, and is usually a paddy field after October.

[chris blanc]

How much is the club parking at the ground by the way?

[Hempstead Gaz]

50p

[Hempstead Gaz]

Just had a fund raising idea. Get the car washing blokes into the car park during home games, Fleet to get 50p per car commission. Every car gets filthy in the car park. lots of cars get washed. plenty of commission for the Fleet. 4 less unemployed in Northfleet.

Simple really.

God, I should be Richard Branson.

[David Holden]

Quote:

50p

Actually it's £1 (Click Here)

[David Holden]

For those outside the Reporter Area, he is the full text of the Press Release:

 

[color:"red"] The club is delighted to have attained its’ minimum objective for season 2002/03 by staying in the Nationwide Conference League. However, to achieve this it has had to fund a deficit of £60,000. As a separate project the refurbishment of the social club has also had to be funded, though this will be paid over time through the increased revenue being generated following the improvements.

 

The club is now looking to establish itself as a Conference club with ambitions of a play-off place and to do this we need to strengthen our playing squad. However, the cost of doing this, as well as running a deficit such as the one we have done this season, is not sustainable. The existing directors will continue to put in time and money but we need even more than this if the club is going to keep moving forward.

 

There are a number of areas where this can be achieved that the club will be working on through the summer, but the one we are really focusing on at this stage is the support of the fans.

 

The increase in support both in terms of numbers attending and their vocal support has been a feature of the season just gone. The average has been around the 1,250 mark and the players especially value this greatly. However, history has shown that often a club loses support in its second season in a new division as for some of the fans the novelty wears off. We would like to budget for a minimum average of 1,250 again but if that was to fall to 1,000 it would mean around £40,000 less income available for the players’ budget.

 

We realise, of course, that support will always depend on how successful the team is on the pitch, but we do need the fans to commit themselves to support us again no matter what the new season might bring. Furthermore, to give us a chance of attracting new players and look at promotion, we hope they can do even more that that. The fans can make a contribution by buying season tickets, helping the club promote itself more around the town and by encouraging new support to come along.

 

We are also talking with supporters about establishing a Supporters Trust that will hopefully have representation on the board of Directors as well as shares in the club. This is in the preliminary stages of being set up, but we would envisage them raising money each season through membership and fund-raising initiatives. The amounts that could be raised need to be discussed but as an example, if 250 members joined the trust and were willing to pay £4 a week towards the club then that would generate £52,000 of extra income a year.

 

The Players’ Pledge fund has shown what can be achieved. It is the fans’ club and if the Trust can get properly off the ground they can have a positive impact in the running and the future of the club. If the above initiatives are successful and can be built upon we are not too far away from having credible ambitions of a play-off place.

 

BRIAN KILCULLEN

CHAIRMAN

6 MAY 2003

[/color]

[FleetFanatic]

Quote:

5) Trains. Has anyone actually made an approach to Chronic Southeast to aske them to publicise at Gravesend Station and also if there is a slight chance of them running a train service between Gravesend and Dartford on match day weekends.

The publicity bit WAS produced by myself (twice) yet somehow the stations in question seemed ignorant to the call - I will attempt to address that for the coming season, however a couple of people are aware that I have more serious problems in my private life to deal with right now.....still August is some way off!

As for the lack of train service at weekends lately - you have all those johnny foreigners to want to get to London via the Channel rail link to thank for that.

[mikef]

I notice that the Kingstonians Trust has surpassed all expectations and raised well over £5000 in their first week of activity through merchandise sales and donations as well as through membership of the trust. Over 120 people have already signed up - easily beating the target of 100 which was set for the first week.

Their Trust seems to be heading for success lets hope we can do the same.

 

Regards

Mike F