By Tiger_Rock
August 22 2002

You may have spotted the piece of A5 paper that came with the Middlesex Sevens literature from the club announcing that the LFC Association AGM was to be held last night. On the other hand you may have thrown it in the bin as another piece of marketing material!

What is the LFC Association?
So, first things first, what does the Association do? It was formed when the Club converted to a PLC in order to provide a conduit for supporters to the commercial and professional side of the operation, and to support the aims of the club in the way that the Members, as owners, used to be able to do. Initially the Committee of the Association comprised the old General Committee, but has widened its membership considerably and rapidly to include representatives of the Away Supporters Club and other “normal” (definitely in inverted commas!) supporters.

The current committee is A. Hazelelrigg, JT Thomas, Val Rhodes, J Griffiths, G King, R Needham, G Adey, AE Hopkins, R Rowell, K Andrews, BT Small and I Cockerill. John Allen is the Associations representative on the Board.

The Formal Business
The formal business of the AGM went smoothly, with a well received Secretary’s report from Tudor Thomas, who detailed the initiatives started by the Association that had been taken on by the commercial side of the club, including the members evenings and Road shows, and his hopes that the Board would continue to support the Association in order to continue the feeling of belonging which makes our club so unique. He was also pleased to note the excellent showing by Welford Rd in the recent poll of best sporting venues – a showing which owed a lot to the supporters.

The Interesting Bit!
After the formal business the committee opened the meeting to the floor for comment.

Playing the Game
Obviously people were very happy with the playing performance of the team, and wanted to formally minute their congratulations to Deano, the coaches and the squad. There was some disappointment expressed that it hasn’t been possible to have a proper civic reception or open day at Welford Rd.

Communication
The standard of the clubs official website was criticized by a number of people, particularly those who lived outside the “Leicester Mercury” zone, and this website was praised as a better alternative. The address was given out for those who hadn’t yet found it. Also there should be downloads for supporters and the message board on the official site is virtually unusable.

The point was made that the Association itself was poorly promoted, and it was unanimously agreed that the request should be made that, where appropriate, space should be made available in the match day programme for Association news and business.

One area where the decision to restrict information has been taken is on the subject of injuries. Dean, as a tactic, is not happy to give injury updates in any detail, so we will have to continue to speculate!

Sale of Tickets
It is near impossible to get through to the ticket office to buy a ticket, which makes it very difficult for distance supporters trying to buy tickets. The website does not seem to offer a reliable method of buying tickets either. I know someone who purchased their Season ticket on the web and never received it because the order had not been taken.

There is also the difficulty that the ticket office cannot cope with lots of people buying tickets before a game. The Bristol play-off match being a prime example, the queue for tickets stretched the length of the ground even though kick-off was near and the attendance was so low. This is something that needs to be looked at in the future.

The problems that seem to occur every year when Tigers get through to the knock-out stages of the cup also needs to be rectified with members getting their tickets well in advance of the game.

Whilst it was agreed that the staff in the ticket office do a good job and are very pleasant, it should be suggested that alternative arrangements and systems need to be considered.

Friday Night Games
The point was made that the fixture list has been announced and already Friday night fixtures have been set. Tigers have 12000 season tickets who buy their ticket because they know they can make the vast majority of games that happen on Saturday at 3pm. It is unfair to shift games to Fridays when it is not necessary, and international games being played the same day is not a valid excuse as in the past Tigers have simply changed the kick off time.

Friday games often mean people going home from work early or taking the day off, this is unacceptable. Tigers supporters are a devoted lot and travel miles to see their team play, to expect them to use all their annual leave on needless Friday night games is pushing their loyalty too far.

This was put to the vote at the meeting and it was unanimously agreed that the preferred time for the members was 3.00pm on Saturday.

Conclusion
These points will be passed to John Allen and the Board, and the Committee will be seeking responses and will feed them back to supporters.

I believe that with the support of Tigers fans, the Association can be a positive part of the club, and help to continue the “family” that is Leicester Football Club. To that end it needs your support. If you have any comments or queries you can write to the Hon Sec, Tudor Thomas, care of the club, or you can always email IanC at iancockerill1@aol.com.