›› Millwall ST Chairman's Notes

By the time you get to read this, your Supporters Trust will hopefully have held a meeting with Jeff Mostyn & Steve Sly, and begun to understand what the future might hold for AFC Bournemouth (and the Trust)  should their bid receive creditors approval at the meeting on April 7th.

Throughout this process the role of the Trust has been one of maintaining a balance between respecting the confidentiality entrusted to our elected Directors, and to be able to ask the questions that provide some satisfaction that our club is being ‘cared for’. Inevitably that creates tensions.

The history of AFC Bournemouth tends to show that in difficult times it is communication that is the first to suffer. The relationship of trust breaks down. It becomes easy for both sides to engage in finger-pointing and to communicate via third parties.

Eventually though, if supporters interests are to be represented, every effort has to be made to ensure that we all start talking to each other again! The Trust was therefore delighted that we now have an opportunity to resume discussion of issues which will be of benefit to supporters of AFC Bournemouth.

A key issue concerns the excellent “£150 season ticket” campaign, which has been initiated by one of the AFCB websites (www.courtoffside.com ), and which is supported by your Trust. The campaign is asking the club to consider copying last seasons experiment by Bradford City, where, as a direct result of pledges to purchase season tickets, the club were able to fix season ticket prices at just over £130. Bradford City sold 12,000 season tickets

The price of watching professional football has rocketed, driven mostly by the Premiership, and the desire of clubs to compete at the top. What were once similarly priced leisure activities, such as a trip to the cinema, now seem positively cheap by comparison. The £150 season ticket campaign aims to restore that balance and firmly puts the interests of supporters at its heart.

Encouragingly, during one of the Trusts previous sessions with Jeff and Steve, they indicated that they would be willing to consider such a proposal. Lets hope that with issues around ownership of the club hopefully soon resolved, the Board of AFC Bournemouth can take this forward.

Rob Trent

AFC Bournemouth Supporters Trust