The K's In Point
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Tonight's Q&A
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Firstly, thank you to the management team and the directors for making the time to share. Thank you to Jamie for compering. And, to echo those who had the presence of mind to say thank you to the directors for bankrolling the Club for so long, thank you.
Having said which... other observations:
My criticism of the Club's dreadful communications was not a criticism of Robert Wooldridge. I have no complaints about the matchday programme, the stadium announcements or the way that some bits of news reach the Club's website. My criticism was solely about the Club's failure to include and update the supporters about the future ground situation. It was great to hear the directors commit themselves to more regular communication in the future (quarterly?) and I look forward to confirmation of the date for the session.
Tonight's session was poorly planned, poorly delivered and poorly managed. Jamie was not to blame; he did the best he could in impossible circumstances. A statement from the directors ahead of the meeting would have resulted in a more useful encounter. The room's acoustics are abysmal, no microphones were provided, people where allowed to talk over each other and strategically important discussions got bogged down in the minutiae of specific details. (Javelin, shot put, etc.)
One of the directors answered questions that he didn't like with aggression. Not a good look, not a good tactic.
None of the directors gave a satisfactory answer to the questions about how AFCW's £1.2m has reduced to £750k.
And Mark Anderson's assertion that none of the directors had ruled out Kingsmeadow Athletics stadium as a possible future home conflicted strangely from my memory of earlier statements
- although my memory is notoriously awful, so maybe other people can help with the details.
Edit: not pretending I have the only opinion on tonight's meeting, nor that I have perfect recall. Just tryna start a conversation.
Edited by reximus at 22:33:39 on 29th August 2022
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Re: Tonight's Q&A
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Interestingly the 200,000 backhander comes to light as 1-2 mill instead of 1'mill is exposed by a question that clearly made the directors uncomfortable. Well done the supporter concerned.
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Re: Tonight's Q&A
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I agree with lots of this Rex.
I just found it as cathartic as it was messy. I'm up for 3 monthly meeting.
Great to be at a club where so many folk care.
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Re: Tonight's Q&A
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any comments on this Forum are always welcome. I may not agree with many comments, you take the rough with the smooth keep them coming K's.
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Re: Tonight's Q&A
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May I echo many of your comments regards last night and offer
my thanks and gratitude to firstly, the management team for
assembling a squad at such short notice that is already proving
that it can compete at this level?. I think Lee and Spencer took away some of the anxieties surrounding the aquisition of personnel in their answers and I look forward to their continued stewardship of the playing side of this club, long may they reign. I lodged my questions for last nights meeting with the supporters club, even though I attended the meeting.
You were right about the organisation of the meeting.
I think the board agreed to 'quarterly' meetings.
Although Jamie did well to conduct the meeting and Q & As,
we need a 'Chair' to keep order and direct questions and answers accordingly and yes, a microphone would be handy to
help with 'acoustics'.
Secondly, I too am grateful to the board for their continued running of the club and for their obvious financial input to keep the club going. I did however get the impression that the directors seemed a little tired of the questions being asked of them and were reluctant to offer any viable update regarding
approaches to new sites or ideas. Its my firm belief that there is no 'parcel' of land within the borough that the local authority (of any political persuasion) is remotely interested in providing for us to build another football ground. The club should put its resources and funds into finding another sporting facility in the borough in which to develop a partnership and a 'small stadium'. Mr Anderson said this avenue is being pursued, but he is reluctant to even hint as to where?.
Mr Anderson also blamed the 'supporters' for putting paid to any pemanent partnership with Corinthian casuals and joint development of KGF. Which supporters?, Ours or theirs?
He made no reference to any meetings or negotiations with their board/committee to this end. I personally think the afore-mentioned partnership with Cor-Cas would have been the best option for both clubs, if it was negotiated at all?.
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Re: Tonight's Q&A
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As far as I am aware it was Casuals' supporters who did not want 'Take over'. At the local derby matches a lot of their fans became very hostile towards us regarding this.
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Re: Tonight's Q&A
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I visited the ground soon after the share started and was talking in the bar to a couple of elderly Casuals supporters who made it quite clear they didn't want us there. They were open to me as I was going home soon and probably stir anything up.
Anyways, water under the bridge, I'm sure Imperial Fields will be a reasonable fit once people get used to it.
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Re: Tonight's Q&A
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Echo the thanks to the board for doing this and to those who helped organise it, a much needed session. Microphones would be helpful in future, they were usually there at SC quiz nights so maybe that system could be used next time?
The debate has been going on for years now so it’s hard to remember the exact who said what on the track. But I’m glad the directors aren’t ruling it out, it does feel like there’s been a change of tone on it. Reading between the lines, I suspect for most of the last seven years they’ve felt better options were available (golf course, Casuals, Goals, Lovelace) but as each has been exhausted that may no longer be the case.
It’s interesting that an officer not a councillor told the club it’s unavailable. Not clear whether or not the officer gave the directors a reason, though Cllr Sweeney commented in Feb that, “The most pressing [reason] is that the green part is not long enough for whatever Kingstonian's football requirement is." As has been discussed here at length, if this is a problem at all it’s certainly fixable. At the very least, we should be pushing the Council harder on this.
Mark seemed to think we’d easily be able to afford the necessary alterations, which is encouraging. Although we’d have to be aware there’d be a big difference between doing the bare minimum to make ground grading, and actually making it into something good. That’s of course true for any ground but we can move in with the bare minimum and improve over time.
If not already, we ought to reach out to clubs that share with athletics to understand how they make it work. We have Hornchurch and Enfield in our league but probably the best template is Chelmsford. Like Enfield they have terracing behind both goals, but unlike Enfield they also host high level athletics competitions including the National Athletics League (the same level as Kingston & Poly) and county championships (which SCAA often host at KM). The football club also have their own clubhouse there which they hire out.
It clearly can be done, as it works in many other places. We have money ourselves and the Council acknowledges the site needs improving so may be happy to spend some themselves, especially with a school opening and a huge regeneration project happening round the corner. More a question though of whether there’s the will, from both Ks and the Council,, to make it happen.
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