£10m needed

Owen Money, in mentioning Merthyr Town's game in his Saturday BBC Wales programme, remarked how good it would be if someone put £10m into the club!!!
Slight hyperbole on £10m perhaps but the club have stated that now they are run by the supporters, they no longer want to return to the times when one man (the owner) held all the purse strings!
But, of course, it has to be realised that there are limits as to the club's raising of income. The small body running things (and there was an appeal yesterday for more match-day volunteers) continue to do a fine job.
But no-one is going to plough in their personal cash and if they did, it would negate the club's aims. And previous owners who bank-rolled the club were roundly condemned in the latter days of their regime.
We just must not be carried away by hopes of how far Merthyr Town can rise in the pyramid.
And as has been mentioned, it took a long time for Newport County to rise to where they are now. And now they are just above the BSP drop zone.
I am sure more will be done to keep Merthyr Town going but it must be a gradual and realistic climb and every fan has a part to play.

at every club there different tiers of level of support. years ago when i posted regular to one or 2 of the swans message boards i would sometimes get frustrated when some fans would seem to have a lot to say or have high expectations but didnt seem to spend much time watching their team, i would imagine the highly committed martyrs on this board at times feel the same. support in words dont mean a lot, a club either needs bodies at games or income streams.

i would imagine a lot of thought goes into new inititatives / ideas. around 2 or 3 years i sent an email to one of the listed names at the times on the martyrs site as it was then, i never received a reply. my idea was a 5 pound per month initiative. start paying in july / august ideally. in return the customer would receive an adult ticket entitling them to fetch one other person, once in the first half of the season, and once in the 2nd half of the season, ie, pre & post xmas. this is money that some people dont miss. i noticed around a year or so ago, the club tried to fetch in a 20 pound per month initiative encouraging supporters to group together. now i dont know how that worked out, but it can cause problems, ie, people having to give friends money, etc, if problems occur then the standing order could well be cancelled some time down the line. basically, i feel people notice 20 pound per month going out of their account, and are more likely to stop that if times become tight.

for the cardiff and the swans fans, attending the martyrs games becomes an additional commitment. for someone like myself, my wife understands my swans commitment but then either has tasks or wants to do things on the weekends the swans are not playing, ie, it can become a delicate balancing act. realistically i can attend 5-6 merthyr matches a year.

i have a standing order set up to the swansea trust until the middle of this year, it is my intention to switch that commitment over to the martyrs in readiness for next season. it may be as a monthly, or an overall commitment, eg, player sponsorship possibly?

every club has a core fan base. i've said in other threads that merthyr are currently offering an affordable, attractive product in the valleys that has little or no competition. the club will i feel get back into the southern league and stabilise in the near future. there are many fans like myself who feel an affinity to merthyr town. i'll be putting little things in place to enable regular money goes to the club from myself, irrespective of whether i attend matches. there are many other people like me out there, the club needs to (maybe they already do?) reach out to such people and get maybe a small, affordable, regular commitment from them, otherwise in many cases such support turns into not much more than good intentions.

An excellent posting and I am sure the club appreciate the aid of some folk who cannot attend matches regularly.
There are lots of fans who live outside the borough, coming from such places as Bristol and Carmarthen.
As regards the initiative of fans giving a regular sum, there are 13 fans who provide £5 every week towards the Save The Martyrs Campaign. Interested people can contact Allan Jones on 01685 388352 for more informatiion.
Obviously, some people have more disposable income than others but it is fair to say that it is the hard core of fans who are contributing to several different fund-raising initiatives.
A lot more, for example, could buy the match-day programme and that provides plenty of information thanks to the editor and other contributors.
The club have often said that gate receipts go only a small way to meeting the costs.

NP23 jack/Martyr - just a couple of suggestions for a small regular financial commitment to the club:

1. Sign up for Soccalot at £1 per week by standing order - contact: Martyrs to the Cause, 8 Salisbury Close, Heolgerrig, Merthyr Tydfil CF48 1SD. Or a form can currently be downloaded from the club website: http://www.merthyrtownfc.com/

2. Get the match programme sent to you by post on subscription - £2 per copy - so you'd have that for games you were unable to attend. Contact John Strand: strand@salisburyclose.fsnet.co.uk

cheers guys, there will be a commitment there next season along with watching a few games paying on the gate. programs, used to drive my missus mad! donated a load to the swans trust a few years back, havent bought any since for any game. think i'll look at the player sponsorship, possibly enquire if anybody in the squad is from ebbw vale or blaenau gwent.

13 people to the 20 pound initiative is great, valuable income, but they are already fully committed supporters. this doesnt reach out to the ones on the fringes. whether it is possible to run a smaller and the larger one side by side i dont know, i suppose soccalot is a good way of doing that anyway. the swans and cardiff fans are used to paying 300 pound a year and upwards supporting their team , if merthyr could find a successful way of gleaning 50 - 100 a year out of such fans (and other people who may have strong ties to merthyr the town itself), it could provide an additional source of valuable revenue.

thats money that some people dont miss, as merthyr hopefully rise up the leagues, by making and developing such relationships with these people, could turn them into more regular supporters as a higher level of football is achieved. supporting a premiership / championship club is becoming (is already) an expensive commitment, and the relationship between club and fan becomes less personal the higher the level. many such people miss the intimacy that existed at the vetch / nin park and the fact that they'd get some change out of 50 quid for a day out watching merthyr

best of luck

For player sponsorship contact Phil Mack: suemack9@googlemail.com

Cost £75 per shirt which includes
• Acknowledgement of sponsorship in matchday programme and on the club website
• Presentation of sponsored player's shirt at the end of season award and a photo with the player presenting you with the shirt

There are only Joe Leahy's away shirt, Jack Howe's away shirt and Mike Ley's home shirt available as Phil has done a good job getting sponsors. I don't know if he plans to add Jamie Adams to the list - I'm sure he might if someone wanted to sponsor his shirt(s)!

(All this, and lots of other information is in the match programme! Sure you won't buy? you could always give your copy away once read, or even (gulp!) recycle it).

Yes. I was an avid Bluebirds fan, season ticket holder and a regular away traveler: but financial commitments price rises and some personal issues with some City fans, drew me to The Martyrs. It was the best move I ever made. I have a season ticket, always buy a 50/50 ticket and programme. The people are friendly, the football played is good to watch and the beer is cold. So to quote the late Leslie Crowther "Come On Down!"

CrazyNick wrote:the football played is good to watch and the beer is cold.

And the tea is hot!

oh right you twisted my arm i'll buy a programme next game i'm there (hopefully 4/2), it'll give me a better feel, and contact names & number etc, i've never owned a merthyr program.

crazy nicks experience is something i feel that could be repeated quite a bit over the next few years. its normally in someones makeup to be a regular attending fan. the long standing cardiff and swansea fans have this, and as supporting their team becomes more expensive and less personal its more likely that some of them will look to the likes of merthyr town where one of the key things its all about and can get lost at the highest levels, is giving the town and the community something to be proud of, and youngsters within that community getting the chance to live the dream and be one of the lucky few that have the privilege of wearing the shirt and playing for their local team.

After relegation from the Conference and losing the battle with Forest Green in 1998 to secure a return to the top flight of the Non-League pyramid, sadly many fans transferred the allegiance to Cardiff and Swansea.

One important lesson that the Trust must learn now is not to take the current level of support for granted. It's really important that we retain our current supporters and build on any successful periods in the future by retaining and then increasing the support base.

If Cardiff gain promotion to the Premiership it will become very expensive to watch our two 'big' city clubs in South Wales. Although we may find supporters drifting back to a cheaper alternative we must ensure that the 'end product' is the best that we can possibly provide within the financial constraints that the club operate.

We are starting to see more match day sponsors this season and the Candac Suite is gaining a good reputation with the local public as a good venue to go on the weekend.

Probably the most important piece of business by the Trust Board was securing the ERDF grant that will allow the club to employ the Business Development Officer. Steve's task will be made much easier if the team continue to produce the results but we just can't afford to be complacent.

Mind you if someone wants to give the club £10 million and not want control of it, that would be fantastic!

CrazyNick wrote:beer is cold...

If the meat is stale, and in the LA night the sirens wail we could be lost in Hollywood!

Merthyr Imp wrote:NP23 jack/Martyr - just a couple of suggestions for a small regular financial commitment to the club:

1. Sign up for Soccalot at £1 per week by standing order - contact: Martyrs to the Cause, 8 Salisbury Close, Heolgerrig, Merthyr Tydfil CF48 1SD. Or a form can currently be downloaded from the club website: http://www.merthyrtownfc.com/

2. Get the match programme sent to you by post on subscription - £2 per copy - so you'd have that for games you were unable to attend. Contact John Strand: strand@salisburyclose.fsnet.co.uk

Yes it is an excellent post from NP23jack/Martyr, I know what you mean! I have a ST at Cardiff and pay £5 a month to their trust, I want to do my bit in supporting my home town team, so I do 2 lines per week on the Soccalot and subscribe to have progs delivered to my home. I have also sponsored a shirt, I wish I could do more TBH, but finances won't allow it.