Post-Purchase Fans' Forum
On 31 July 2002, JC and RC held an open forum for approximately 1750 fans at Brunton Park. The fans were sat in the East Stand overlooking an immaculate pitch. Many things were said, 99% of which met favour with the crowd. A quick summary of the main points is:
- The East Stand will be open for the new season, and season tickets for it will be available from Monday.
- A suggestion was made to rename the East Stand as the Chris Balderstone Stand. JC said he was in discussions with a company over a sponsorship of the stand which would then carry that company's name. If this fell through he would consider other options.
- The Warwick Road End will be for home supporters.
- Within the next couple of years, the pitch will move and the Waterworks end will be redeveloped to comprise of a stand, gym and 5-a-side pitches.
- Ground development will come second to team strengthening.
- RC has at least 4 new players lined up.
- There will be no reserve team in a league, but there will be reserve "friendlies" organised regularly
- Billy Barr and other existing staff will have discussions shortly about their futures at BP
- The youth system will be looked at and overhauled.
- Steve Soley turned down the move back to Carlisle down for family reasons. He had agreed a three year deal with United, but his wife wasn't keen on the move.
- JC stated that ex-players would always be welcome at BP on match days.
- The possibility of a testimonial for Jimmy Glass was mentioned. He will be presented with life membership of the club before the Monkey Hangers game on August 10.
- CUFC will play in new home and away kits from September
- The new kits will be available from mid-September in a revamped club shop (stocking varied merchandise). These were modelled on the night by Richie Foran, Will McDonagh, Peter Murphy and Mark Birch. JC had apparently had the kits made up earlier in the year when he was sure he was taking over imminently.
- CCUIST will have a place on the board
- CCUIST may become the new supporters' club
- RC was adamant that we will be in a promotion place in May 2003.
- Mark Knighton and Andrea Whittaker will continue to be at BP until near the end of August. This is merely a hand-over period until JC has in place the people he needs to effectively run the club.
- JC has great admiration for Al Woodcock's website and was less impressed with the current official site. He suggested that there may be some moves to have Al's website become the official one.
- CUFC would probably have been ejected from the Football League if it had gone into liquidation.
- The creditors will be paid off in no more than 8 months
- So far, seats on the board have been offered to (but not yet accepted by) the following:
- John Bourke - JC's Accountant and close associate
- Lord Clarke - an invaluable help in getting the club for JC
- Mike Corry - another huge helper
- Andrew Jenkins - a man who does invaluable work for the club and seeks no glory
- CCUIST - a post to be nominated/voted for by CCUIST members
And tongue in cheek:
- Guinness may become available in the bars :-)
- There will be a third club strip of green, white and gold :-)
