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January 6, 2016 may end up being a definitive date in the recent history of Bolton Wanderers Football Club.
Tonight we will find out whether a Supporters’ Trust gets the thumbs up from a packed out Premier Suite at the Macron Stadium.
The next step? Well that could be where it gets exciting.
Though the idea of a trust at Wanderers has been bandied about for some time the current financial crisis has galvanised all fragmented fans’ groups and led to some remarkably swift progress in its current incarnation.
Less than a month ago a Supporters’ Trust was the stuff of online conversation. As things stand now, more than 450 fans will be admitted into tonight’s meeting at 7pm with thousands of others set to follow The Bolton News’ live blog, waiting to learn how a trust can help the club’s plight.
A degree of scepticism remains among some, particularly those who query what form the trust will take, and the motives of those involved in its creation.
Those questions and more will be answered by the steering group that has organised the meeting, along with representatives of Supporters’ Direct, the organisation that has helped set up more than 180 similar types of operations up and down the country since 2000.
It can be reasonably assumed, however, by the presence of the Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust that the BWFCST has loftier ambitions than simply being a pressure group.
Iain McInnes and Mike Dye, two of the people who were instrumental in helping fans assume a majority shareholding in the League Two club in April 2013, will be giving advice on how they achieved their goal.
The steering group for the BWFCST have also examined other models, including some of the less successful examples, and advice has also been sought from Stockport County whose trust experienced problems after taking on a 98 per cent stake in their club in 2005, with administration following four years later.
Should a mandate to proceed be given tonight the steering group will be asking fans to volunteer their time and specific skills to the trust, which will then be assembled with the help of Supporters’ Direct.
The meeting – which will be specifically geared towards the trust and not about general club affairs – was moved yesterday to the Premier Suite to accommodate the extra demand for tickets. A maximum 450 seats were available in the previous venue of the Platinum Suite, but the number of confirmed tickets had exceeded that number by 1pm yesterday.
Source
Tonight we will find out whether a Supporters’ Trust gets the thumbs up from a packed out Premier Suite at the Macron Stadium.
The next step? Well that could be where it gets exciting.
Though the idea of a trust at Wanderers has been bandied about for some time the current financial crisis has galvanised all fragmented fans’ groups and led to some remarkably swift progress in its current incarnation.
Less than a month ago a Supporters’ Trust was the stuff of online conversation. As things stand now, more than 450 fans will be admitted into tonight’s meeting at 7pm with thousands of others set to follow The Bolton News’ live blog, waiting to learn how a trust can help the club’s plight.
A degree of scepticism remains among some, particularly those who query what form the trust will take, and the motives of those involved in its creation.
Those questions and more will be answered by the steering group that has organised the meeting, along with representatives of Supporters’ Direct, the organisation that has helped set up more than 180 similar types of operations up and down the country since 2000.
It can be reasonably assumed, however, by the presence of the Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust that the BWFCST has loftier ambitions than simply being a pressure group.
Iain McInnes and Mike Dye, two of the people who were instrumental in helping fans assume a majority shareholding in the League Two club in April 2013, will be giving advice on how they achieved their goal.
The steering group for the BWFCST have also examined other models, including some of the less successful examples, and advice has also been sought from Stockport County whose trust experienced problems after taking on a 98 per cent stake in their club in 2005, with administration following four years later.
Should a mandate to proceed be given tonight the steering group will be asking fans to volunteer their time and specific skills to the trust, which will then be assembled with the help of Supporters’ Direct.
The meeting – which will be specifically geared towards the trust and not about general club affairs – was moved yesterday to the Premier Suite to accommodate the extra demand for tickets. A maximum 450 seats were available in the previous venue of the Platinum Suite, but the number of confirmed tickets had exceeded that number by 1pm yesterday.
Source
