Fans forum, 26 April 2007

Fans have waited for a forum for just over a year, but when it came on Thursday evening the wait proved to be well worthwhile, as Ian Lenagan was introduced by Nick Merry and proceeded to give an authoritative, memorable and impressively detailed account of developments at the club and plans for the future. The 400 or so fans who attended gave the presentation a very positive reception and the openness and relaxed and informal presentational style was generally appreciated. Many of the questions which have been posed by fans on forums were answered in the process, and the Q&A session which followed was fairly brief.

OxVox committee members who attended were impressed by what they heard. Almost every aspect of the club's activity was mentioned in some detail, plans for development and growth were described, and some exciting initiatives were outlined for the future. At the same time there was good evidence of sound financial planning should the club fail to achieve a quick promotion back into the Football league. Most importantly, it was good to hear many commonly asked questions being tackled head on and answered frankly, and supporters came away with a feeling that the forum had been a valuable and constructive evening.

Here is a summary of the main points, drawing on memory and limited notes. No doubt there will be points missed in what follows, but it is a quick attempt to summarise what was a very full and detailed account :

• There was clarification that Woodstock Partners Ltd is 50% owned by Nick Merry, 50% by Ian Lenagan, that Ian Lenagan's holding is in a family trust (50% IL, 25% Simon Lenagan, 25% Adrian Lenagan), and that they have put £3m into the club so far. Lenagan and Merry will stay for the foreseeable future.

• WPL have a 20 year first option to buy stadium, intend to buy it, hope to do so within 2 years, and will aim to bring in a business partner / joint investor to raise the £13m price. Interest payments would be unrealistic if it were solely funded by WPL from their own resources. There was a detailed discussion of the valuation of the stadium business, which so far as your reporter could understand concluded that the reported £13m price was justifiable.

• The club made a loss of 640k last year (a figure as high as £720k had been anticipated), losses at that level were unsustainable, and they were budgeting for a 250k loss in future years.

• IL reminded everyone that the first year aims had been to achieve promotion, to strengthen youth development and Football in the Community, to increase crowds, and to recover the club's pride.

• In future years the aims were: to acquire stadium and conference centre, to develop a youth-based playing strategy, to hope for/expect promotion (but plan conservatively for the possibility of staying in the Conference), and to make major community and partnership efforts

• It was confirmed that Kelvin Thomas is leaving at the end of the season to return with his family to Florida. Kelvin has spent an impressive year taking the club forward, and OxVox have enjoyed working with him. He will be sorely missed, and a plan is in place for Nick Merry and IL's sons to take on Kelvin's duties. One element of this plan is for Simon Lenagan to become the Youth and Community General Manager.

• Next season, if in the Conference the club will be required to work to a 900k salary budget (down 300k) due to the wage cap and loss of exemption for previous higher-priced League player contracts. For comparison, Dagenham's salary budget this year was said to be 600k. Currently 10 players were contracted for next season and there would be some juggling necessary to build a squad. The plan was to offer two and three year player contracts rather than single years, and to develop youth players who would play for the club for an appreciable time before being sold on if they were very good.

• Jim Smith will stay as manager until a time of his choosing.

• A new youth team coach will be appointed very soon (hopefully during the next two weeks) and scouting will be broadened to cover a wider area.

• There were several factors involved in the decision to end membership of the reserve league: there was too much travelling, there were uncompetitive games with Championship reserve sides, the experience was not helpful to youth development; instead the club will organise 10-15 friendlies during the season.

• The Academy scheme at Peers School, which starts with its first intake this autumn, was described. Some substantial numbers were mentioned, including £25m of external funding for the academy and associated developments, which would lead to development of a training ground and gym which would be used by club. In addition Government funding per student would lead to additional large sums potentially being generated over the years (£1000 per student with up to 900 participating over several years was mentioned).

• Future forums were discussed. Ones of this kind would be held twice a year, Jim Smith would hold a football forum later in year (pre-season or early season was the implication), and the club will continue to meet with OxVox.

We're sure we've missed some items from this brief account, and certainly there was much more detail given on the night, but this gives a flavour of the main points.

Beyond the detail, however, this was a heartening evening for everyone present and there was a rediscovered sense of club and fans working together for success.