OxVox Q&A Meeting with Kelvin Thomas - 24 September
Re:
Because one person can ruin it for everyone else whether we live in a democracy or not."OUFC4eva" wrote:Why would they want to throw him out ?
It's a democratic organisation and the last time I looked we lived in a democracy. He's entitled to his view even if it is more than a bit one-eyed.
Couldn't OxVox have a vote on whether to throw him out or not? That would be democratic wouldn't it?
Sometimes I and others may not have shared your Fans View piece in the Oxford Mail every Monday but neither I or the club (to the best of my knowledge) wanted you to cease penning your opinion.
The trust should be a broad church of opinions and views and last time I looked it had 500 odd members. Are you a member by any chance ?
If the fella in any way verbally abused the Chairman, then that is a different matter all together.
The trust should be a broad church of opinions and views and last time I looked it had 500 odd members. Are you a member by any chance ?
If the fella in any way verbally abused the Chairman, then that is a different matter all together.
Re:
Exactly (said in the accent of that the kid in the Accrington Stanley milk ad). Which is why he should have been told to shut the fuck up if the majority of the people in the room wanted him to. What’s really surprising is that he seems to have been allowed to continue."OUFC4eva" wrote:It's (OxVox) a democratic organisation.
I dunno, I feel really gutted now that I wasn’t there to witness this frivolity, especially as all that I was doing at the time was sipping a cold beer in Kensington. I really think we should have been told that this guy and his views was going to turn up rather than simply making a bland meeting announcement. Don't OV care about their meeting attendance figures? Tsk...
Last edited by Snake on Sun Sep 25, 2011 8:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Brahma Bull
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Minutes of OxVox Question and Answer Session with Mr Kelvin Thomas held in The Landmark Suite of The Quadrangle Conference Centre on Saturday 24th September, 2011
Attendees: A total of 34 members joined Club Chairman, Kelvin Thomas.
Mark Sennett, OxVox Chairman, opened the Members Meeting by both welcoming and thanking Kelvin for taking the time out of his matchday schedule to meet with the Trust and to answer members’ questions. Kelvin had suggested this meeting during a Trust Club meeting during the Summer.
Kelvin proceeded to provide a current overview of the clubs position and said he would invite all questions from the floor where he would answer them all as honestly as he could.
The Club Chairman stated he was pleased with the club’s current direction and that it continued to improve, with the continued aim of seeing year on year improvement. Kelvin informed the room that the club was embarking on exciting commercial opportunities, the community feel had developed with the club for example, supporting the Charlotte Nott appeal and that on the field, things were going well. Kelvin added, that it had been a group-effort with a good positive feeling around the club but he was aware of the testing times ahead economically and assured everyone that the club would plan, budget and drive forward during these difficult times.
The floor opened to questions.
Do the Football Club share income streams from concessions within the ground?
Kelvin explained that the club got a commission on conferencing but DID NOT share matchday concessions which included any refreshment sales.
With regard to advertising, the club get 50% of revenue. However, the club was hoping to conclude a deal which would see them receive 100% of advertising within the coming months.
The agreement does allow the club to receive 100% of the revenue for advertising on the ‘steps’. This had seen the club enter an agreement with Webber for advertising on the North Stand steps.
Kelvin went on to confirm that a deal had been done on TV’s something he had been fighting for since he became chairman. 10 new TV’s were due to be installed into the concourses in the coming weeks which would allow supporters to view Sky Sports. These have been sponsored. This had come straight after new TV’s had been installed into the Executive Boxes.
Kelvin concluded his discussion on revenue by saying one of his outstanding aims would be to get people back into the stadium to enjoy food and drink once the stadium deal is eventually done. The club was in a good stable position without stadium ownership but had been pleased to see more yellow injected into the ground and that he still wanted ‘yellow’ seats to become a feature.
Could you clarify the situation surrounding the current accounts and balance sheet?
The football club owed debt of £3.5m all of which is soft debt. The club has no overdraft and does not have any PAYE due. There was approximately £200,000 outstanding in other debts from an external loan of £400,000. The club was close to its player wage budget.
A follow-up question from the floor asked if the potential James Constable (JC) transfer had been considered in relation to the clubs finances.
Kelvin wanted to clarify the exact events about the JC bid and how the club handled bids for players.
A formal offer had been received for James from AFC Bournemouth. The club then has two options when receiving an offer, being informing the player or not. Kelvin said that not informing a player about a bid was not the right thing to do in his view.
Upon receiving the bid for James, Kelvin called the player and his agent and informed them that whilst an offer had been forthcoming the club had not accepted it. The club were happy though for the player to talk to the club as it had been viewed as a good offer. James then called Kelvin back and said he would like to listen to the offer and talks opened between Bournemouth and the player.
Whilst the player was in talks, the two clubs continued to discuss the potential transfer and a deal was agreed in principle. Later in the afternoon, James called Kelvin and informed him that he couldn’t agree personal terms. The deal was off.
Two hours before the transfer deadline, AFC Bournemouth contacted the club and said they would improve and meet the wage demands. James Constable refused and wanted to stay at OUFC.
Kelvin went on to say at no time during these discussions did the club need to sell James. The club was in a financially strong position. The club aimed to build its assets and that in Kelvin’s view, at least six of the current squad would command six-figure sums.
The next part of the meeting Kelvin talked openly about the current squad situation. Kelvin stated that most of Chris Wilder’s long-term signings had been very good whereas some of the short-term ones had been questionable. The overall view was that each signing had made some contribution to the clubs successes in recent years. The Chairman joked about the number of signings made by the club quoting a figure approaching 70.
The ’70 signings’ then became a topic of conversation as that number would increase in the coming week as the club looked to bring in another defender (a centre-back). The reason for that, was Harry Worley had been ruled out for six weeks having been injured in training earlier in the week. The club had not released this information as it was felt that it was not beneficial informing Accrington Stanley who actually arrived at the stadium under the impression HW was replacing the suspended Jake Wright.
Kelvin accepted that this season/year had been tough in terms of injuries. The chairman reported that Adam Chapman had broken his foot in the opening minutes of the friendly against Bristol City, the same match that saw Jonathan Franks injured.
Aaron Woodley had been sent out on loan in order to allow the youngster to progress and develop. There was no other reason. Kelvin also refuted the perception that Chris Wilder fell out with players. KT said only a very few number of players had fallen out with the manager. Of the players who had departed, the management accepted that allowing Dannie Bulman to leave had been a hasty one!
Could the club explain the choice of kits at away games? (as the individual asking the question wanted the club to play in the Yellow whenever possible).
The aim during the coming season would be to play in Yellow as much as possible when playing away. The manager had wanted the team to play in ‘bright kits’ when playing under floodlights and that the manager actually wanted to play in Yellow in all the big games. The club was always going to play in the Home Strip for example when we visited the County Ground this season.
Could the club clarify the frequency of changing the kit?
Kelvin said the club would continue to look at changing the kit on a yearly cycle and that a high number of supporters looked forward and enjoyed the change.
Would the club consider introducing the playing of music after a goal was scored?
Kelvin said fans had brought up this issue with him in the past and found it to be a divisive issue with most being opposed to the idea. This feeling was shared by the vast majority of members in the room.
Whose decision was it to see the Executive Boxes increase in pricing?
It had been a club decision to increase the cost of a season Executive Box to £12,000||VAT. Kelvin explained the justification in the increase had been solely down to the club regaining its place in the league. He added he understood that pricing was a very sensitive issue at this time.
Could the chairman explain the recent BMW workers discounted pricing scheme?
Kelvin said that the discounted pricing structure was no different to the deals offered to others, including the Police Force and the Armed Forces. The club had been working with BMW on a number of areas and this was part of that relationship.
Could you talk about the alleged ‘Chris Wilder’ fan confrontation and what was the clubs view?
Kelvin said that Chris was due to speak to the supporter in question ahead of today’s game, probably at the same time as this Q&A was taking place.
Kelvin summarised that Chris had ‘hit out’ verbally to this individual after a serious of earlier incidents where other supporters had been verbally abusing him and his management. Chris had been left feeling very frustrated during the events of the Burton game and did not deserve any verbal abuse.
The members were left dumbfounded that fellow supporters had used such abusive language to Chris Wilder, his management team and players.
How can you be contacted and what’s the best email address?
Kelvin invited supporters to contact him and that he often had fans come into the club to talk to him. For any email correspondence please contact him via mpage@oufc.co.uk
What were the clubs plans surrounding the Slumdon Town home fixture?
Kelvin explained that the club would put tickets on sale early, probably before Christmas and potentially in a ticket-deal package as some other key home games followed that fixture. The early sales would allow the club to gauge the level of support for the fixture and enable him to make a decision on potentially a temporary fourth stand.
Could you explain how the loan system works in relation to players wages?
Kelvin simply said that it was a negotiation process between the two clubs. This related to both incoming loans and outgoing loans.
In specific response to the Jonathan Franks situation, Kelvin confirmed that Middlesborough had given the club a concession on the players wages and we had been very lucky with the stance of MFC.
Why was the Youth Team not producing any first team talent?
Kelvin said in all honestly, the youth team had not produced many players in the past ten years. The situation was going to take time to address but the appointment of Malcolm Crosby would see things change. Kelvin went on and said that during our time in the Conference, the club lost a number of players (at least 3 or 4) to other football clubs as our Youth System was not protected by the Football League and its rules.
Why was the Adam Chapman injury not communicated by the club?
Kelvin responded asking the individual raising the question if he felt the club was poor in its communication. The member of the audience said the clubs communication had been poor since Chris Williams had left.
Kelvin said that the club should not be expected to report on every detail happening at the club. He extended that to the Adam Chapman injury and the decision to keep Adam out of the public arena whenever possible eluding to the recent situation with that specific player.
Kelvin took time to re-affirm that he felt no one at the club was more motivated than the manager. He explained that Chris was motivated to succeed and had his family and career to think about.
Would the club consider or need to use the 12th Man Fund especially after earlier comments about the wage budget and a new defender possibly coming in?
Kelvin said he would consider contacting the 12th Man and may need to call upon it. He went on to say the club were skirting around budget and by the end of the year would be on budget.
Had the wage budget increased and what was the view on ‘attendances’?
Kelvin confirmed that it was common knowledge the player wage budget had increased over last season. With regard to the gates the revenue (matchday ticket revenue) was more important than the gate number itself. Kelvin acknowledged that the he had concerns about the current numbers. He would be looking to address this.
What was the current injury news?
Tony Calpadi has had back surgery and was expected to be out for a further 3 weeks. Ryan James had been injured in training on Monday 19th September and would be out of action for at least a fortnight.
The Q&A then finished and the audience thanked Kelvin for his answers and time.
Mark Sennett, the Trust Chairman, then brought the meeting up-to-date on some of the recent and forthcoming activities of the Committee:
a) The Committee would be sponsoring the Bristol Rovers match and Mark explained the reasons why this decision was taken. The initiative would see the Trust receive the matchball and two tickets. The committee felt it should donate the matchball and tickets to the Oxford Mail and in conjunction run a competition. Other ideas would be to auction the item or donate it to charity. The members were asked to offer ideas.
b) The committee was keen to get all members to contact Mark with any questions or issues especially on the back of a member contacting the Trust recently to ask us to get Flag Hooks re-fixed into the East Stand. This has been successfully done and thanks were given to Denton Builders who had carried out the work. Permission had been sought from both the club and stadium company.
c) Simon Bradbury informed those in attendance that the Trust had been active in recruiting new Corporate Partners. In the last 10 days, five brand new members had signed up and several existing were considering renewing. This would raise in excess of £1000.00 in sponsorship.
d) Michael North and his Programme Sales had also seen the Trust benefit financially in the last few weeks.
Following this, the meeting was closed.
Attendees: A total of 34 members joined Club Chairman, Kelvin Thomas.
Mark Sennett, OxVox Chairman, opened the Members Meeting by both welcoming and thanking Kelvin for taking the time out of his matchday schedule to meet with the Trust and to answer members’ questions. Kelvin had suggested this meeting during a Trust Club meeting during the Summer.
Kelvin proceeded to provide a current overview of the clubs position and said he would invite all questions from the floor where he would answer them all as honestly as he could.
The Club Chairman stated he was pleased with the club’s current direction and that it continued to improve, with the continued aim of seeing year on year improvement. Kelvin informed the room that the club was embarking on exciting commercial opportunities, the community feel had developed with the club for example, supporting the Charlotte Nott appeal and that on the field, things were going well. Kelvin added, that it had been a group-effort with a good positive feeling around the club but he was aware of the testing times ahead economically and assured everyone that the club would plan, budget and drive forward during these difficult times.
The floor opened to questions.
Do the Football Club share income streams from concessions within the ground?
Kelvin explained that the club got a commission on conferencing but DID NOT share matchday concessions which included any refreshment sales.
With regard to advertising, the club get 50% of revenue. However, the club was hoping to conclude a deal which would see them receive 100% of advertising within the coming months.
The agreement does allow the club to receive 100% of the revenue for advertising on the ‘steps’. This had seen the club enter an agreement with Webber for advertising on the North Stand steps.
Kelvin went on to confirm that a deal had been done on TV’s something he had been fighting for since he became chairman. 10 new TV’s were due to be installed into the concourses in the coming weeks which would allow supporters to view Sky Sports. These have been sponsored. This had come straight after new TV’s had been installed into the Executive Boxes.
Kelvin concluded his discussion on revenue by saying one of his outstanding aims would be to get people back into the stadium to enjoy food and drink once the stadium deal is eventually done. The club was in a good stable position without stadium ownership but had been pleased to see more yellow injected into the ground and that he still wanted ‘yellow’ seats to become a feature.
Could you clarify the situation surrounding the current accounts and balance sheet?
The football club owed debt of £3.5m all of which is soft debt. The club has no overdraft and does not have any PAYE due. There was approximately £200,000 outstanding in other debts from an external loan of £400,000. The club was close to its player wage budget.
A follow-up question from the floor asked if the potential James Constable (JC) transfer had been considered in relation to the clubs finances.
Kelvin wanted to clarify the exact events about the JC bid and how the club handled bids for players.
A formal offer had been received for James from AFC Bournemouth. The club then has two options when receiving an offer, being informing the player or not. Kelvin said that not informing a player about a bid was not the right thing to do in his view.
Upon receiving the bid for James, Kelvin called the player and his agent and informed them that whilst an offer had been forthcoming the club had not accepted it. The club were happy though for the player to talk to the club as it had been viewed as a good offer. James then called Kelvin back and said he would like to listen to the offer and talks opened between Bournemouth and the player.
Whilst the player was in talks, the two clubs continued to discuss the potential transfer and a deal was agreed in principle. Later in the afternoon, James called Kelvin and informed him that he couldn’t agree personal terms. The deal was off.
Two hours before the transfer deadline, AFC Bournemouth contacted the club and said they would improve and meet the wage demands. James Constable refused and wanted to stay at OUFC.
Kelvin went on to say at no time during these discussions did the club need to sell James. The club was in a financially strong position. The club aimed to build its assets and that in Kelvin’s view, at least six of the current squad would command six-figure sums.
The next part of the meeting Kelvin talked openly about the current squad situation. Kelvin stated that most of Chris Wilder’s long-term signings had been very good whereas some of the short-term ones had been questionable. The overall view was that each signing had made some contribution to the clubs successes in recent years. The Chairman joked about the number of signings made by the club quoting a figure approaching 70.
The ’70 signings’ then became a topic of conversation as that number would increase in the coming week as the club looked to bring in another defender (a centre-back). The reason for that, was Harry Worley had been ruled out for six weeks having been injured in training earlier in the week. The club had not released this information as it was felt that it was not beneficial informing Accrington Stanley who actually arrived at the stadium under the impression HW was replacing the suspended Jake Wright.
Kelvin accepted that this season/year had been tough in terms of injuries. The chairman reported that Adam Chapman had broken his foot in the opening minutes of the friendly against Bristol City, the same match that saw Jonathan Franks injured.
Aaron Woodley had been sent out on loan in order to allow the youngster to progress and develop. There was no other reason. Kelvin also refuted the perception that Chris Wilder fell out with players. KT said only a very few number of players had fallen out with the manager. Of the players who had departed, the management accepted that allowing Dannie Bulman to leave had been a hasty one!
Could the club explain the choice of kits at away games? (as the individual asking the question wanted the club to play in the Yellow whenever possible).
The aim during the coming season would be to play in Yellow as much as possible when playing away. The manager had wanted the team to play in ‘bright kits’ when playing under floodlights and that the manager actually wanted to play in Yellow in all the big games. The club was always going to play in the Home Strip for example when we visited the County Ground this season.
Could the club clarify the frequency of changing the kit?
Kelvin said the club would continue to look at changing the kit on a yearly cycle and that a high number of supporters looked forward and enjoyed the change.
Would the club consider introducing the playing of music after a goal was scored?
Kelvin said fans had brought up this issue with him in the past and found it to be a divisive issue with most being opposed to the idea. This feeling was shared by the vast majority of members in the room.
Whose decision was it to see the Executive Boxes increase in pricing?
It had been a club decision to increase the cost of a season Executive Box to £12,000||VAT. Kelvin explained the justification in the increase had been solely down to the club regaining its place in the league. He added he understood that pricing was a very sensitive issue at this time.
Could the chairman explain the recent BMW workers discounted pricing scheme?
Kelvin said that the discounted pricing structure was no different to the deals offered to others, including the Police Force and the Armed Forces. The club had been working with BMW on a number of areas and this was part of that relationship.
Could you talk about the alleged ‘Chris Wilder’ fan confrontation and what was the clubs view?
Kelvin said that Chris was due to speak to the supporter in question ahead of today’s game, probably at the same time as this Q&A was taking place.
Kelvin summarised that Chris had ‘hit out’ verbally to this individual after a serious of earlier incidents where other supporters had been verbally abusing him and his management. Chris had been left feeling very frustrated during the events of the Burton game and did not deserve any verbal abuse.
The members were left dumbfounded that fellow supporters had used such abusive language to Chris Wilder, his management team and players.
How can you be contacted and what’s the best email address?
Kelvin invited supporters to contact him and that he often had fans come into the club to talk to him. For any email correspondence please contact him via mpage@oufc.co.uk
What were the clubs plans surrounding the Slumdon Town home fixture?
Kelvin explained that the club would put tickets on sale early, probably before Christmas and potentially in a ticket-deal package as some other key home games followed that fixture. The early sales would allow the club to gauge the level of support for the fixture and enable him to make a decision on potentially a temporary fourth stand.
Could you explain how the loan system works in relation to players wages?
Kelvin simply said that it was a negotiation process between the two clubs. This related to both incoming loans and outgoing loans.
In specific response to the Jonathan Franks situation, Kelvin confirmed that Middlesborough had given the club a concession on the players wages and we had been very lucky with the stance of MFC.
Why was the Youth Team not producing any first team talent?
Kelvin said in all honestly, the youth team had not produced many players in the past ten years. The situation was going to take time to address but the appointment of Malcolm Crosby would see things change. Kelvin went on and said that during our time in the Conference, the club lost a number of players (at least 3 or 4) to other football clubs as our Youth System was not protected by the Football League and its rules.
Why was the Adam Chapman injury not communicated by the club?
Kelvin responded asking the individual raising the question if he felt the club was poor in its communication. The member of the audience said the clubs communication had been poor since Chris Williams had left.
Kelvin said that the club should not be expected to report on every detail happening at the club. He extended that to the Adam Chapman injury and the decision to keep Adam out of the public arena whenever possible eluding to the recent situation with that specific player.
Kelvin took time to re-affirm that he felt no one at the club was more motivated than the manager. He explained that Chris was motivated to succeed and had his family and career to think about.
Would the club consider or need to use the 12th Man Fund especially after earlier comments about the wage budget and a new defender possibly coming in?
Kelvin said he would consider contacting the 12th Man and may need to call upon it. He went on to say the club were skirting around budget and by the end of the year would be on budget.
Had the wage budget increased and what was the view on ‘attendances’?
Kelvin confirmed that it was common knowledge the player wage budget had increased over last season. With regard to the gates the revenue (matchday ticket revenue) was more important than the gate number itself. Kelvin acknowledged that the he had concerns about the current numbers. He would be looking to address this.
What was the current injury news?
Tony Calpadi has had back surgery and was expected to be out for a further 3 weeks. Ryan James had been injured in training on Monday 19th September and would be out of action for at least a fortnight.
The Q&A then finished and the audience thanked Kelvin for his answers and time.
Mark Sennett, the Trust Chairman, then brought the meeting up-to-date on some of the recent and forthcoming activities of the Committee:
a) The Committee would be sponsoring the Bristol Rovers match and Mark explained the reasons why this decision was taken. The initiative would see the Trust receive the matchball and two tickets. The committee felt it should donate the matchball and tickets to the Oxford Mail and in conjunction run a competition. Other ideas would be to auction the item or donate it to charity. The members were asked to offer ideas.
b) The committee was keen to get all members to contact Mark with any questions or issues especially on the back of a member contacting the Trust recently to ask us to get Flag Hooks re-fixed into the East Stand. This has been successfully done and thanks were given to Denton Builders who had carried out the work. Permission had been sought from both the club and stadium company.
c) Simon Bradbury informed those in attendance that the Trust had been active in recruiting new Corporate Partners. In the last 10 days, five brand new members had signed up and several existing were considering renewing. This would raise in excess of £1000.00 in sponsorship.
d) Michael North and his Programme Sales had also seen the Trust benefit financially in the last few weeks.
Following this, the meeting was closed.
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Brahma Bull
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OK it would appear that the full set of meeting notes will not post in full.
The notes are quite long, so please read them here (if you're interested).
http://www.oxvox.org.uk/news.aspx?id=298
The notes are quite long, so please read them here (if you're interested).
http://www.oxvox.org.uk/news.aspx?id=298
-
Brahma Bull
- Puberty
- Posts: 354
- Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:15 am
- Location: Slumdon
Re:
[quote="Snake"]Thanks for that, Simon - very comprehensive, prompt and well written. Just a tiny observation though. Surely this Ken bloke or someone else in the room must have said something along the lines of “Hey, how’s it going with buying the Stadium from Kassam?
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pottersrightboot
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Re:
[quote="Snake"]Thanks for that, Simon - very comprehensive, prompt and well written. Just a tiny observation though. Surely this Ken bloke or someone else in the room must have said something along the lines of “Hey, how’s it going with buying the Stadium from Kassam?
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Brahma Bull
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- Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:15 am
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Nothing to report on the shareholder investment discussion that was had with Mr Lenagan at the turn of the year, PRB.
However, what I didn't say in those notes was that the committee will be asking Mr Lenagan to come to our next Q&A members session. I bet we see more people than at the weekend or one of the enjoyable AGM's.
Whether that will be before or after a future Fans Forum is yet to be seen.
However, what I didn't say in those notes was that the committee will be asking Mr Lenagan to come to our next Q&A members session. I bet we see more people than at the weekend or one of the enjoyable AGM's.
Whether that will be before or after a future Fans Forum is yet to be seen.
Re:
[quote="Brahma Bull"][quote="Snake"]Thanks for that, Simon - very comprehensive, prompt and well written. Just a tiny observation though. Surely this Ken bloke or someone else in the room must have said something along the lines of “Hey, how’s it going with buying the Stadium from Kassam?
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GodalmingYellow
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