An Open Forum featuring Cobblers Cahirman David Cardoza and Executive Director Tony Clarke was held at Sixfields on Thursday 4th October and a summary of some of the Questions and Answers are shown below:
Tony Clarke began the meeting with a brief statement about the re-development consultation;
As a Football Club we are closer now than we have ever been to realising our plans. The re-development issue has gone on far too long but we are making progress. As a club, we have been totally professional in the last 12 months. We have not shouted the odds, made meaningless threats or thrown abuse despite the delays we have experienced but we have sat down and asked all political parties how we can work together to make things happen. The new Chief Exec at the council is interested in football and what we want to do. We say to supporters, please complete the questionnaire and then ask friends and family to do the same. This battle won't be won unless each and every supporter does their bit. We know it is tiring and an effort but it is an effort that has to be made.
Is Giles Coke making any progress?
DC: He is making excellent progress and we hope he will be back before Christmas. He has had a bad injury but he is a very fit lad and he is through the worst of things.
I asked Stuart Gray at the last meeting was a squad of 21 enough. He said he thought it was, but with the current run of injuries is that still true?
DC: We have a wage budget. The choice was to have a bigger squad with lesser players or a smaller squad with better players. We decided on the second option with the option of adding loan players to plug the gaps. We would like to have 30 quality players but finances dictate.
Is this current re-development consultation another false dawn?
TC: In the last few years we have not been able to do anything other than argue our case. That has now changed. The current consultation is now underway. It is not in the future, it is happening now and the process is now on. The Town Centre action plan is also on and started last week. The next part is the Sixfields Area action plan but we have been told that if we put our plans forward and they are in line with the results of the current consultation, our plans could be in for late spring 2008. The current process is on until the end of October. In November/December the results of the consultation will be assessed. The council will announce their preferred options in February and if it says that a re-developed Sixfields is one of those preferred options, we can go forward with our plans. This time last year we were so frustrated but we have moved on. Relationships and friendships have been built and I think the majority of councillors want us to succeed.
DC: We are also trying to build a hotel here and in discussions with the council over that. We think that the results of those discussions will be a good indicator as to what will happen in the future and we are hoping to bring those discussions to a conclusion – hopefully positive - in the next few weeks.
Dave Linnell: It is so very important to have the questionnaires filled in. The numbers game really matters on this case.
Thankfully things sound quite positive but is there a plan in place if the council say no?
TC: There is no plan B and that is the truth. If the re-development does not go ahead we will be standing back and watching the rest of the football world passing us by. Clubs like Milton Keynes Dons would go past us never to be seen again.
DC: We would have to cut our cloth accordingly and I would think we would be bottom of League 2 and maybe in and out of the Conference. Season ticket sales will be down, attendances will be down and performance on the pitch would not be as good. The playing budget would have to go down and that would be a problem. But, having said that, we are positive and we are sure that our ambitions for the club and the town can be realised with the help of a re-developed stadium.
Can people who live outside of Northampton have their say in this consultation?
TC; Yes they can. We have also been helping to distribute these leaflets and questionnaires elsewhere and 2 examples in the last week are that last week we met with the university and also the Chamber of Commerce to get their support and ask them to complete questionnaires.
TC: Nothing will please me more when we can put all this to bed, push the politics to one side and just cheer the team on. But like all clubs fighting for survival, we have to do what we can while we can. We have to make sure people realise that unless they spend 10 minutes filling this form out then they might not have a team to support – certainly not at this level - in 10 years time.
What is the financial situation with the youth team?
DC: The youth team has cost me and my family hundreds of thousands of pounds since we took the club on. It could not carry on in that way but now we have cut costs and raised an awful lot of money and now we have a very well run scheme that is producing players and doing what it is expected of it.
Is there any way supporters can smoke at half time at games given the smoking ban?
DC: The national smoking ban covers the environs of the stadium and that means the areas just outside the ground as well as inside the ground so it is not currently possible. We will ask the Safety Advisory Group if we can do that but they call the shots here and we have to adhere to their rules.
report
NTFC Supporters Ltd would like to thank Gareth Wilsher of NTFC for providing this summary.
