New Season / New Hope:
I don’t know about you, but after 54 years of following Argyle, I still get just as excited about the first game of a new season as when I was a little boy. Promotion as Champions, leaving us one step away from a return to the Championship seems a real possibility. OK there are seasons such as 1994-95, when we were trounced 5-1 in each of our two opening home fixtures, but there are also those magical glory years that end in promotion or contain great Cup runs. That’s why I still experience that tingle of anticipation at this time of year.
AFT Open Meeting for Fans:
The Argyle Fans’ Trust will be holding an open meeting for all members and other interested Greens to discuss the outcome of the close season survey and help determine the Trust’s future direction. This will take place immediately after the home game against Cambridge Utd at 5 pm on Saturday 10th September – venue tba. Please come along and share your views as, with over 1,000 members, we need to let the Club know what our aspirations for the future are.
Questions and Answers:
This season the AFT would like to broaden its dialogue with the Club. Rather than rely on monthly meetings with the CEO, we want to facilitate more direct interaction with fans. So we are inviting members to direct questions via our website, our article in the match day programme, the AFT fanzine ‘the Grass Is Greener’, our fortnightly Herald column or indeed direct to Martyn.Starnes@pafc.co.uk
African Youth Players:
We have received an appeal for help to enable 10 promising under-16 African footballers to benefit from working with Kevin Hodges’ Youth Academy and Marjons. Five are Kenyans from Martin Atenio's youth project in London and five are Ghanaians from Tokaradi /Secondo supported by Cate Taynton of the official Plymouth-Ghana Link.
Plymouth Citybus will provide free bus passes and Plymouth University have offered accommodation at £100 per player per week. Marjons’ fitness evaluation testing and Knight Scientific's testing will also help the boys.
If you would like to help sponsor one of these young footballers, it would be great for them and maybe, in the long term, Argyle.
Annual Survey of Fans:
The Argyle Fans’ Trust are delighted that this year’s Annual Survey has elicited a record response from 1,135 fans. While there is a similar response to previous years in most cases, there are nevertheless some interesting changes to note.
The AFT played a key role in the discussions on this season’s kit and it is pleasing to see that the new designs have been so favourably welcomed. We are similarly pleased that Derek Adams and the first team scored so highly, despite the playoff failure.
While there are some good improvements in several areas of the Club operation, such as marketing, communication, the shop and social media, our fans’ view of our stewards has seen a further decline. Refreshment provision has improved slightly, but from a very low base.
Views on the Argyle Fans’ Trust, the Green Taverners and other supporter groups remain consistently positive.
The most interesting result is perhaps on the freehold question, with 50% of respondents wanting the Board to take up its option to purchase the freehold of Home Park from Plymouth City Council. The AFT have consistently issued the statement:
“A sale to James Brent may not alarm most supporters, but once the stadium is out of public hands, there is no guarantee who may eventually become the owner, what their plans for the stadium may be, or how much they might charge the club for its use”.
Our aim is to ensure there will always be a football club for future Argyle fans to support. The AFT therefore remains committed to the current status of the land and buildings at Home Park as an Asset of Community Value.
Bob Foale (AFT Chairman)
I don’t know about you, but after 54 years of following Argyle, I still get just as excited about the first game of a new season as when I was a little boy. Promotion as Champions, leaving us one step away from a return to the Championship seems a real possibility. OK there are seasons such as 1994-95, when we were trounced 5-1 in each of our two opening home fixtures, but there are also those magical glory years that end in promotion or contain great Cup runs. That’s why I still experience that tingle of anticipation at this time of year.
AFT Open Meeting for Fans:
The Argyle Fans’ Trust will be holding an open meeting for all members and other interested Greens to discuss the outcome of the close season survey and help determine the Trust’s future direction. This will take place immediately after the home game against Cambridge Utd at 5 pm on Saturday 10th September – venue tba. Please come along and share your views as, with over 1,000 members, we need to let the Club know what our aspirations for the future are.
Questions and Answers:
This season the AFT would like to broaden its dialogue with the Club. Rather than rely on monthly meetings with the CEO, we want to facilitate more direct interaction with fans. So we are inviting members to direct questions via our website, our article in the match day programme, the AFT fanzine ‘the Grass Is Greener’, our fortnightly Herald column or indeed direct to Martyn.Starnes@pafc.co.uk
African Youth Players:
We have received an appeal for help to enable 10 promising under-16 African footballers to benefit from working with Kevin Hodges’ Youth Academy and Marjons. Five are Kenyans from Martin Atenio's youth project in London and five are Ghanaians from Tokaradi /Secondo supported by Cate Taynton of the official Plymouth-Ghana Link.
Plymouth Citybus will provide free bus passes and Plymouth University have offered accommodation at £100 per player per week. Marjons’ fitness evaluation testing and Knight Scientific's testing will also help the boys.
If you would like to help sponsor one of these young footballers, it would be great for them and maybe, in the long term, Argyle.
Annual Survey of Fans:
The Argyle Fans’ Trust are delighted that this year’s Annual Survey has elicited a record response from 1,135 fans. While there is a similar response to previous years in most cases, there are nevertheless some interesting changes to note.
The AFT played a key role in the discussions on this season’s kit and it is pleasing to see that the new designs have been so favourably welcomed. We are similarly pleased that Derek Adams and the first team scored so highly, despite the playoff failure.
While there are some good improvements in several areas of the Club operation, such as marketing, communication, the shop and social media, our fans’ view of our stewards has seen a further decline. Refreshment provision has improved slightly, but from a very low base.
Views on the Argyle Fans’ Trust, the Green Taverners and other supporter groups remain consistently positive.
The most interesting result is perhaps on the freehold question, with 50% of respondents wanting the Board to take up its option to purchase the freehold of Home Park from Plymouth City Council. The AFT have consistently issued the statement:
“A sale to James Brent may not alarm most supporters, but once the stadium is out of public hands, there is no guarantee who may eventually become the owner, what their plans for the stadium may be, or how much they might charge the club for its use”.
Our aim is to ensure there will always be a football club for future Argyle fans to support. The AFT therefore remains committed to the current status of the land and buildings at Home Park as an Asset of Community Value.
Bob Foale (AFT Chairman)
