Notes of the Leyton Orient Fans Forum
18 February 2016
Present:
Football Club:Alessandro Angelieri(CEO)
Vito Miceli(Operations Manager)
Andrea Pressenda(Head of Communications and
RelationshipsManager)
Steve Dixon (Head of Commercial)
Colin Munford (Media and Communications Mgr)
SLO:Keren Harrison
Fans’ Representatives:
James Cassidy (LOFT)
Mat Roper (Pandamonium Fanzine)
Tony Roome(LOSC)
Paul Levy (Orient Outlook podcast)
1.Contacts with the President
The CEO and Ops Manager are working with the President to identify a date for the fans’ meeting with Mr Becchetti. There has been some progress and it is hoped a date can be announced shortly.
The President is in the process of serving his stadia ban imposed by the FA and will return to watching Orient at the Crawley game.
2.Olympic Stadium
The supporters’ side confirmed that the result of the judicial review of the Information Commissioner’s decision that the tenancy agreement between West Ham Utd and the London Legacy Development Corporation should be published is due to be announced in mid-March.
The CEO confirmed that they were aware of the situation with regard to the current court activities and the work of the coalition of fans’ trusts. The club are also taking active steps to address the threat to the club of the WHU move. The President is consulting the club’s lawyers to try and identify a way of taking the case to Europe.
The club is working with the local council, with schools and others to try and maximise the attendance of young fans ahead of the WHU move. The supporters suggested that more work could perhaps be done in the M11 and A12/13 corridors to attract supporters form those areas. The CEO asked if there were any town or regional-based sections of LOSC who could work with the FC to publicise initiatives in their areas. LOSC responded that were no such sections at present, but that identification of key individual members by area may be possible and this would be raised with LOSC.
3.New staff appointments and roles
The CEO confirmed that Andrea Pressendaand Vito Micelihad worked together to appoint the new manager and the players that could be brought in in January. That phase of their work has now been completed and they have been appointed to their permanent posts. It was explained that Andrea had extensive journalistic experience (both in the UK with Sky and overseas) and that he has been given responsibility for maintaining and developing both media relations and club relationships in the UK and worldwide. Also on the media front, it was noted that a small TV studio will be built in the East Stand and regular, weekly interviews recorded with players and staff – probably to be broadcast on Orient Player and made available to TV in UK and Italy.
It was noted that Rob Gagliardi had rejoined the club, to work as part of GedSearson’s scouting team. It is likely that Ged will concentrate on scouting opponents, while Rob will focus on the identification of new talent.
The supporters sought confirmation of the way transfer policy now works and the various staff responsible for the process. The CEO confirmed that it was for the manager to determine who he wanted in his squad. Four people would be involved in agreeing to approach a player, the manager, the President, Vito Miceli and Rob Gagliardi. Once there was agreement that a player was to be approached, then the CEO and Vito would work on the detail of any move. Andrea attends all meetings of this nature to ensure media and club relationships are taken into account.
The change in player loan rules – to end ‘emergency loans’ - is not expected to have a major impact on the club. The preference is to bring players in during the transfer windows wherever possible.
4.Ticket pricing and structure
The club are working on the ticketing for next season – in effect preparing two plans to allow for either League 1 or 2.
The club welcomes any comments from supporters on ticketing structure, options for special offers on certain tickets or in general terms on the pricing of tickets. The club will continue to try and make the ticket offer attractive to young supporters – particularly in light of the effect of the WHU move to the OS, where they are expected to be offering some tickets at lower than our prices for premier league games.
The club were asked about the ‘Twenty’s Plenty’ campaign to reduce the costs of away tickets to a maximum of £20. The club again said they were open to considering this issue, but wondered how home east stand fans would feel if the away tickets were reduced to less than home fans were paying. The supporters view was that it had worked elsewhere - where home fans accepted that the additional costs of attending away matches meant a cheaper ticket offer was reasonable, and that, if the principle were accepted throughout the league, then they would benefit when they travelled to away matches.
5.Communications
The supporters explained that there were concerns amongst the fans about the apparently slow release of information from the club – particularly in the face of widespread rumours in the press and online. The club explained that it was policy to only announce transfers once all aspects of the deal were complete – including finalisation of the agreement with any other clubs involved, medicals etc. This sometimes delayed an announcement. The supporters emphasised that they felt that the club needed to respond quickly to rumours (whether positive or negative) and accepted that earlier response may mean a partial statement (or holding response) until a full response could be made or a statement could be released.
The CEO said that the club were always open to suggestions as to how communications could be improved and asked for concrete examples: the supporters highlighted the club holding an AGM, and the President meeting the supporters.
6.Financial issues
The CEO explained that the club was running close to the budget agreed at the beginning of the season and thus financially, things were as well as could be expected. There had been a financial dispute with an HR company called Persona, who had taken to Twitter to attack the club. The CEO explained the background to the dispute and noted that the club and the company had now reached an agreement and outstanding monies had been paid. The disagreement had been over a small sum and the situation had been blown out of all proportion by Persona going on Twitter.
7.Ground issues
A query from a supporter regarding the fact that the west stand steps (which are steeper than those elsewhere in the ground) are slippery when wet was raised. It was noted that the step edging (yellow) had been painted with non-slip paint over the summer, and the condition of this edging would be reviewed during the closed season. The club will again investigate the possibility of additional safety equipment (rails, grab handles etc) to make moving up and down the steps easier – particularly for those with some restriction to their mobility.
The overcrowding in the West stand undercroft at the south end was reviewed. One of the TVs which was causing a blockage has been removed and has improved the flows in and out of the refreshment area. There are still problems though and the Stadium Safety Officer will be asked to look again at the situation. A ‘tea trolley’ arrangement was still under consideration with the catering manager but there are real logistic problems with this. The opening of the emergency doors at the rear of the disabled seating area was also discussed: this will cause further problems as there will then be a view on to the pitch from a bar selling alcohol and this is banned by stadium licensing rules.
The club were asked if they could find space for an Orient Museum in the stadium, to be accessible on matchdays. The club did not believe that this would be possible, not least because it would require an area which could be accessed from outside the ground. Staffing would also be a problem.
The supporters asked if the President had yet made a decision on the possible ground purchase in the summer. The CEO reiterated that no decision had yet been made and no recent discussions had taken place on the subject.
8.Future plans
The CEO re-emphasised the President’s determination to get Orient into the Championship at minimum. It is recognised that it is difficult to have a ‘5 year plan’ in football. The President has plenty of ambition!
There is focus at present on improving training facilities, with the aim of raising the Academy from Level 3 to Level 2.
There have been a number of meetings with Waltham Forest council (leaders and CEO) and the relationship between club and council is positive for the future.
With regard to the under-used areas of the East stand: application has been made for a grant to change the old players’ lounge into a community room; further conversions in the east stand are being considered but are proving more expensive than originally anticipated.
The supporters stressed again the opportunity to use volunteers to take part in work at the club. As an example, they explained that several supporters had volunteered to run Theo’s Club and make the experience of value. At present, members get very little for their membership and this needs to change. The club agreed to identify a point of contact for Theo’s within the club and they would then investigate the use of volunteers who had come forward.
8.Any other business
The Somme: the club expressed their intention to send a representative to the events in France in the summer; their willingness to discuss the possibility of a game with Hearts, though this would first need to be referred to the manager who would need to agree; the impracticality of the team playing in a Somme commemorative shirt next season as this would require a minimum 5000 order for the shirt.
There had been very positive feedback from the new banners at the back of the South stand.
9.Next meeting
It was left to the SLO to agree a date with members of the Forum for an end of season meeting. The CEO emphasised the need to bear in mind the playoff dates.