Come along and help paint town in positive light
Reduced ticket prices for FA Cup clash to strengthen ties between club and community
CHAIRMAN Simon Gauge believes tomorrow’s televsised FA Cup second round clash against Plymouth represents a great opportinity for the club to showcase all that is good about Rochdale.
Robbie Stockdale’s men take on the League One leaders at the Crown Oil Arena in a 12.15pm kick off to be screened to a national audience by ITV.
It’s six months since Gauge and the current board took charge of a club immersed in uncertainty.
The Morton House takeover bid led by Andrew Curran and Darrel Rose prompted widespread concern among the fanbase, and when their interest cooled amid the EFL’S investigation into their suitability as potential owners, former Charlton chairman Matthew Southall initially agreed to acquire the shares Morton House had accrued.
On top of all that, manager Brian BarryMurphy walked out three days into pre-season training, leaving the club looking vulnerable on and off the field.
However, having seen off the unwelcome attempts to purchase the club, the board has worked tirelessly to steady the ship off the field while the man they drafted in to replace BBM, Stockdale, has performed a similarly solid job on the playing side considering the short amount of time he had to gather a squad in preparation for the League Two campaign.
Regardless of tomorrow’s result, then, there’s plenty to celebrate as the board mark six months in charge with a welcome injection of cash via the televised game.
And the money being made has allowed them to offer vastly reduced ticket prices (see panel above) for the big game as they look to strengthen ties between club and community.
“It’s a massive week for the club, very important off the field for us, financially, and on the field in terms of trying to get through to that third round,” said Gauge.
“It’s coming up to six months since we came onto the board and we are now a true fan-owned club. We went to the EGM, had the share issue and we now have 550 shareholders plus. We have the Supporters Trust as one of the biggest shareholders, we’ve got the Community Trust, our charity arm, as a shareholder in the club and the shares are spread now.
“The next challenge is to take our responsibilities of being a community club and doing a lot of community stuff. As we saw at the recent Stevenage game, we had the veteran Jim Marland on the pitch receiving the war medals he’d had stolen, we had the guys who run the Rochdale AFC podcast on the pitch last Saturday receiving the award they got for being the best North West football club podcast – so we have lots of community responsibilities. Off the pitch we also have to commercially get ourselves better so that we can start making more money to put into the playing squad and improve on the football pitch as well as we go along.
“There is definitely scope for a greater connect between the club and the town, the wider community.
“That’s what annoys me a little bit when you see people trying to take over clubs and own it, people talk about community and we were really pleased to see MP Tracey Crouch’s report on football say what clubs represent in their community, that they are is recognised, and we take that responsibility as seriously as anything, that we have the reach to get out in the community. We have walking football, education programmes and the like, and they are equally as important as what goes on on the pitch.
“In terms of making money out of a football club, it is difficult at this level but it can be done and we see the way forward as the club being a hub at the centre of the community - we want to do more events at the stadium, we want people to get married here, we want Christenings here, birthday parties and we have one or two events for next summer that we’re looking at to put ourselves at the centre of the community.
“So Sunday is a great opportunity for us.
“We’re on TV, the costs are done so we’ve reduced all the ticket prices and that’s part of the challenge here, getting more people to realise what we are, what a great product it is. The food here is the best I’ve eaten at a club in this league, the atmosphere when you go outside makes you feel part of the action.
“So we’ve reduced all the ticket prices to try and get as many people to not watch it on telly but to come here and experience the atmosphere.
“With the TV cameras here we can show a national audience what we have to offer at Rochdale and put ourselves on the map, which is another duty of ours as a community club, helping to show the positives of Rochdale rather than the negatives that so often get reported.”