St Albans City Fans' Forum - John, Give Them Their Club Back

Mick the Mike
Saints Youth Team Player

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John, Give Them Their Club Back
« Thread Started on Apr 4, 2010, 6:40pm »

Prior to moving to Hertfordshire 26 years ago I lived down in Kent and when I couldn’t get to Highbury, I would go along to see a local club. Gravesend & Northfleet as they were called in those days, or Dartford.

It seemed only natural, when I moved here, to seek out a local club and living in Harpenden, St Albans City or Luton Town were the obvious geographic choices. On my one and only visit to Kenilworth Road, I disliked the people and the place so St Albans City it was. Miss Mick the Mike (it was to be some 25 years before she became Mrs Mick the Mike) and I had season tickets at Highbury but when the Gunners are not playing, we sometimes came to Clarence Park, perhaps 6 or 8 visits a season. It seemed a friendly enough club and on a few occasions, John Mitchell kindly invited us into the boardroom.

Then in 2005/2006 the Saints gained promotion to the Conference National. I had spent most of my life in marketing, the previous 15 years as European Director of Marketing for two American companies. I remember seeing the open top bus parading around the city in celebration of the promotion and listening to speeches by Colin Lippiatt and Malcolm McMillan. I distinctly remember commenting to Miss Mick the Mike that the city would shortly be seeing huge marketing campaigns staged by the club to generate publicity and income in readiness for a more expensive season to come.

I waited in vain.

I remember the first home match of the campaign, a dire 0 - 0 against Cambridge United. The announcer said that they were looking for somebody to take over from him. Miss Mick the Mike, who in previous years had been my secretary and had seen me give presentations to large groups of people, tapped me on the arm and said “You could do that with your eyes closed”. Quite why I would do it that way, she never explained. Anyway, I had done a little bit of radio, voice overs, that sort of thing, and was quite relaxed about the prospect so I left a message with the Saints’ secretary. Some three weeks later I was walking along Marylebone Road when the mobile rang. It was the Saints’ secretary who asked if I was still willing to give the job a go. He said that the announcer would call me and a few minutes later he did. We met one weekday at Clarence Park and he handed me a typewritten sheet of the do’s and don’ts. Don’t forget the raffle. Don’t forget the Golden Goal. “Fine” I said, “If I have any problems, you’ll be around”. “No I won’t” he replied “I’m going to Prague for the weekend. You’re on your own”.

Anyway, my debut went smoothly enough, and after the match finished, a man came down to the box to congratulate me on my performance. Gratefully I thanked him and then asked one of the scribblers who that man was. “Ian Ridley, one of the directors” came the reply. None of the other directors made themselves known for the remainder of that season but I’ll always remember Ian for his kindness.

Since then, I like to think that I have “raised the bar” and have been complemented on my presentation by visiting directors and announcers from other clubs. Indeed one director of a club recently said, tongue in cheek “If you want a job at our place…..”!

In my time as an announcer, I have taken a keener interest in the fortunes of the club and am sad to witness its demise. John Gibson and I have got on fairly well after the first year of his blanking me and we have had a few beers together during that time and what I am about to say, I would say to his face.

John, you don’t know how to manage. The club is ambitionless and it is rudderless.

I have been shown around away grounds by the directors of Bromley and Dartford amongst others. The guys at Bromley, looking out over the ground from their impressive clubhouse, said that the gate receipts do not support the activities on the pitch. They then proceeded to detail how many weddings, parties, business conferences had been staged over the past two months. The amount of advertising around the ground, the match sponsor, the match ball sponsor told me that their marketing department was busy. This was what was keeping the club afloat

The Saints do not have facilities to stage receptions and conferences which would lead me to think that if they are to play on a level financial playing field with other clubs, St. Albans should be working doubly hard in the marketing department. But what are you doing? Absolutely nothing. When was the last mascot? The last match ball sponsor. The last match sponsor. When did we last welcome a group to a match? When did a company last pay for perimeter advertising? There is room enough at the ground for product demonstrations? When has that space ever utilised?

Have you ever thought about the army of volunteers that make a match day possible? Let me name a few. Geoff. Peter. Peter again. Rex. Jim. Ian B. Ian R. Barry. Dave. Sarah. Bill. Alan. Ken. James, Elaine. Jill. Nick. Some of these tell me that you have never even spoken to them, let alone thanked them for their efforts or taken them out for Christmas lunch.

When did you last thank the Secretary for his efforts? He is fending off debt collectors most days of the week. Yesterday, he couldn’t print too many team sheets because he was almost out of paper. He can’t receive telephone calls because the bloody phone is cut off.

I am a long term admirer of Steve Castle. He keeps his head down and gets on with it. He never moans (unlike me). He has performed, in football speak, miracles over the past couple of seasons. When I hear of the screws being tightened further and further, my heart bleeds for him. I have said it on many occasions - if those nice people at Camelot were to write to me, I would love to see what Steve Castle could do with a budget.

And let me remind you of an event that took place about 9 months ago. The friendly match with Watford had juts been announced. I emailed you and said that we should meet as I had put together a promotional plan that would attract 2- 2500 people. I never received a reply and when we bumped into each other about 3 weeks later at Clarence Park you said “There is no need for advertising, it will attract 2,000 without that”. Note that you said advertising, I had said promotional. There is a big difference. You were talking to a marketing professional and you ignored a good opportunity. You did not even have the courtesy to enquire as to the content of my promotional plan. In the event, the match drew 400 as I recall.

I remember when I first got involved with St. Albans City and a couple of people suggested that I got involved with the marketing at Clarence Park. Miss Mick the Mike rightly commented at the time “They would be at each others throats within 5 minutes”.

Over the past few weeks, I have become more and more demotivated. Your refusal to deal with the two guys that Ian Ridley introduced is disgraceful. Your quibbling over £2,000 extra that you wanted from the Trust is pathetic. Think of the hundreds of £000’s that your neglectful management has lost the club forever. And the club is awash with rumours concerning the eventual destination of the Oaklands sponsorship money. Why not clarify the situation?

This past week’s events have been like a punch in the stomach to me. The loss of further players. The prospect of Steve Castle having to start all over again for the new season instead of having a nucleus of players to build upon. I said to Mrs Mick the Mike last week that I was tempted to “jack it in” but she encouraged me to stay on. I emailed Dadaelus privately and he replied in similar vein.

I was gutted at yesterday’s display. To think that Mrs MtM and I spend about 12 hours of our time on club affairs each match week. I listened to Steve as he gave his interview to the scribblers. Oh, how my heart went out to him.

Last evening, I told Ian Rogers that I had had enough. No more time flogging a cheval morte. And Mrs MtM is through with the boardroom as well.

On the way home she asked me what I was going to do. “Are you going to send your CV around to local clubs?” she asked. Well, at the moment, I think that the announcer’s job at the Emirates is not up for grabs. And I will not say that the door is slammed forever at Clarence Park. “Welcome to A F C St. Albans City” is a bit of mouthful but you never know.

But for the moment, the club has lost the best and (most modest) announcer in the league.

Move on John. Your tenure has been fun. But your time is up.

« Last Edit: Apr 5, 2010, 3:17pm by Mick the Mike »