Our Open Supporters Meeting begins at 7.30pm this evening and will be taking place in the Bisley Suite at Rodney Parade.
Unfortunately, due to technical issues, we are unable to live stream this evening's Open Supporters Meeting. The full meeting will be available to watch on iFollow (free of charge for all supporters) tomorrow.
You can follow live updates from the meeting with our live blog below...
Summary
19:27
The NCAFC Trust AGM has now concluded and the door is now open. Our Open Supporters Meeting will begin in just a few minutes.
19:35
CEO Alex Tunbridge is beginning a Presentation about the Club. He will be covering:
19:37
We are beginning with the FA Cup ... just days before the Leeds United match, the physio knocked on the door and said "I think you need to come and look at Bar Amber".
There was a fire in the Training Ground, illness through the first team and admin staff, the game was selected for TV so it was a busy time for the Club.
19:37
"I think everyone did exceptionally well to get that game on" - Alex Tunbridge.
19:38
When it came to Leeds United, Alex Tunbridge says the aims were to Maximise Commercial Opportunities, Increase Brand Value & Awareness, Reward Club Support, and Develop New Relationships.
19:41
"We wanted to reward our Season Ticket Holders by offering them an early opportunity to purchase tickets, we wanted to ensure that tickets were going into the hands of Newport fans and not going up to Leeds or London ... this halted the opportunity to go online." - Alex Tunbridge.
19:43
"We still only have four windows in the ticket office. If you have 10,000 people queuing or 2,000 - it's still four windows. Our volunteers were fantastic, they gave up a month of their lives, everyone at the Club to make sure that we could meet the demand for that Cup run." - Alex Tunbridge.
19:45
The FA Cup put Newport County AFC on the map on a much larger scale. There were 120 media requests for our match against Spurs (our press bench only holds 40). This was followed by nightly coverage on local news and BT Sports coverage, national press, an appearance on Soccer AM and Football Focus.
19:48
The Emirates FA Cup match saw us host 800 people in hospitality, sold shirt sleeves, LED boards, the dugouts which was an excellent way of making the most of the FA Cup run.
19:49
Here is the break down of how the FA Cup benefited the team financially....
19:51
Alex is now discussing the retail for this season.
We have sold a total of 1,746 shirts this season. This is a 21% increase from last season.
19:53
The Club has done £134,538.44 in retail this season. A 96.21% increase on the previous year. It's great to see Supporters wearing our shirt around the City.
19:54
Introducing your Newport County AFC 2018/19 Supporters Choice Third Kit!
— Newport County AFC (@NewportCounty) March 15, 2018
📰 https://t.co/0qEKDSrtyD #OneClubOneCounty pic.twitter.com/ttpASu2eNs
At the last Open Supporters Meeting, we turned the fate of our Third Kit over to the supporters.
We can now reveal that Option 2 won the vote and will be worn by the team next season.
19:57
Onto match days...
Home League Match Average Attendance has increased 35% on last season. This Season's highest attendance was 9,836 and we've sold and incredible 1,635.
19:58
The number of Junior Fans has risen significantly from an average of 411 last Season to an average 785.
20:00
We also ran a successful Ticket Promotion at our match vs Morecambe offering supporters the chance to attend the match for £10 if they donated an item for the foodbank.
20:01
Our next promotion is "£5 Football" at Crewe Alexandra on the 24th March 2018.
"We need you to do your bit to help us promote this one. Tell your friends, encourage people to come along."
20:04
Onto the negatives ... The FA launched an investigation into incidents in the Hazell Stand which occured between December 2017 and February 2018.
The investigation involved the Club, The FA, The EFL, Rodney Parade & the Police. This used valuable Club resource, time, additional costs, loss of income.
20:05
"A points deduction can be the difference between promotion and not promotion, relegation and staying in the League." - Alex Tunbridge.
20:06
20:09
2018/19 Season Ticket Prices and Match Day Prices have now been revealed.
20:09
All of the 2018/19 Season Ticket information has just been released at the Supporters Meeting
— Newport County AFC (@NewportCounty) March 15, 2018
Read all of the details on the website now.
🎫 https://t.co/xuhfwqDERt
Click this link to follow the live blog of the Supporters Meeting
👉 https://t.co/kRnNjPj5zo #OneClubOneCounty pic.twitter.com/qUMjK8eU1P
You can get all the information about Loyalty Rewards, Renewal Dates, Finance Options, the new staggered sales process and more.
Details are now on the website....
20:11
The Academy. We've had some success with Lewis Collins, Modou Touray and Jay Foulston all recieving International Call-Ups at their respective age groups this Season.
Foulston and Touray have also recieved fantastic work experience at Brighton & Hove Albion and Leicester City respectively.
20:13
The County in the Community team are continuing to do fantastic work. They have a day of action coming up on the 24th March.
20:15
20:16
There are also new Commercial Opportunities such as the Newport County AFC Raceday which is taking place on the 21st March 2018.
20:19
Alex draws attention to the Summary of required improvements which were needed at the time of the last meeting in October 2017.
20:20
And the summary as of today...
20:21
We have now opened the floor to questions...
20:22
The First Question is about additional coverage for the Hazell Terrace.
It's something that will be put to the stadium owners the WRU. There are a number of stadium improvements that are being discussed. Disabled Facilities and additional coverage are some of them.
20:24
I'd like to see more engagement with younger supporters...
The stats don't lie, the numbers are up this year but the best way to engage with young supporters is through our relationship with County in the Community. They are an excellent marketing tool, going into schools and creating exciting football sessions wearing our badge.
20:26
What's the relationship like with the Rugby now...
I think we've got some really good relationships with them now. If you look at the FA Cup, we wanted to put on a show and they wanted to put on a show. We worked really well together to put on two fantastic events.
20:28
What is the definition of the "Senior" when it comes to ticketing...
Next Season a Senior will be 60+ across the board.
20:32
Why isn't the manager here?
Because of what tonight's meeting was covering, it wasn't felt that the manager was needed at this evening's meeting. The manager will attend the one in the summer when the CEO and Trust will have less to talk about whilst Michael Flynn will be able to give an insight into his targets for the next season.
20:34
Just on the Lee Evans sale, do we get anything if he gets a full cap or anything for the sell on fee?
It was warmly recieved. Everything in that deal will be confidential but there will have been something for the Club.
20:36
Why aren't the Season Ticket Seats marked up? Sometimes people sit on your seats and it can be quite difficult to ask people to move.
It's something we can certainly ask about. We'd have to discuss that with the Dragons as they will have their own Season Ticket Holders as well but it's certainly something we can raise with them if supporters feel that this will be of benefit to them.
20:38
Why can't we put a cover on the North Terrace? Rodney Parade is one of the few grounds where home fans are unable to sit behind the goals.
It would make sense for the Club to pay into something for a ground we don't own but it's part of our ongoing talks with Rodney Parade.
20:42
Shaun Johnson has begun his presentation on the Trust.
20:43
20:45
We've mentioned recently that we've been so tied up trying to get a Football Club up and running that the Trust side may not have had the attention it needed.
With the Club in a much better place, we are now able to focus on the Trust and look to increase the 40K income for the trust closer to the 100k that Exeter City bring in.
20:46
The three main focuses for the trust going forward are to improve Membership, Fundraising, and Rewards and Benefits.
20:46
The floor is now open for questions to the Trust.
20:53
A question to Colin Faulkner - will you be able to continue your role in the DSA and continue as a director?
It's something I'm considering. In terms of being a director, that is all very new and we're still trying to work out the roles we'll be taking on and where our skills lie. I will be speaking to the DSA Commitee to see if that's a role I can continue with but it's in the balance at the moment.
20:56
During the cup run, it was very difficult to get hold of anyone on the phone to purchase tickets.
It comes down to resource. There are five members of staff and they're not always sat at their desks. If they're at the desk when the phones ring then they will answer then. In terms of ticketing, if you've got 3,000 people in a queue at the Ticket Office and only four windows with four terminals you have to deal with that queue before you can get to the phones.
An additional staff member will help with a lot of these problems.
20:58
Do the board have thoughts about the end of season presentations?
Yes we do, Alex and Rebecca are working on that at the moment and we're certainly hoping to run a presentation.
21:01
A question for Kevin Ward, you have a lot of experience in media and I'd like to know what you think going forward.
I didn't little bit of work with Hayley, Hayley did the majority of it obviously, but I said to everyone on the board and the Club that the most important thing with that cup run was that everyone left thinking "what a great club Newport is" and I think, to a man or to a woman, that was the case.
I also think we need to do some more work with the Council and the City which we did a little around the FA Cup but you have to remember that the FA Cup wasn't just great for the Club it was also great for local businesses in Newport ... not just in Friars Walk but also throughout the City centre.
21:03
Shaun, you said that you think Newport will be an up and coming city in five years time. With only four years left on the lease, have you got plans and thoughts as a board of what we can do? A plan B if you like?
As a city centre venue this is ideal, the location is fantastic you can have a drink and a meal and then walk to the game. Or, as an away fan, you can come in the train station and walk to the station.
21:05
Second part to the question, what about the future and colateral?
If things don't progress here, then we would have to go back to Spytty and we'd look for assistance for the council. I don't think anyone wants to go back to Spytty in it's current form but that would be Plan B. I can't really be very certain on this as there are too many variables with the Club, Rodney Parade, and WRU.
Following the Cup games, I don't think anyone can argue that this Club isn't good for this city. It's really about how we progress from here.
21:08
Has the board put aside any of the money from the FA Cup Run?
We are setting up a separate bank account and the money is going into that separate bank account. We are trying to avoid what we've done in the past, especially last year, which is spend the money to stay in the league.
In the grand scheme of things, whilst the £700,000 is a lot of money, it's not actually enough to build a new stadium and we're never going to save up the money to do that. There are a lot of considerations in funding costs.
21:12
Alex mentioned earlier that the old Bar Amber building is no longer suitable for the players so what are the intentions there?
Shaun: It's a big priority. It's a priority to ensure that the manager and the first team aren't too disrupted. We are looking into a few different options, discussions with Newport Live and options of potential pod-like buildings.
Kevin: I think it's important to separate two issues. Bar Amber is where the players eat together, talk together and hang out away from training. In terms of the gym facilities, swimming pools and training facilities there is no problem with that. In fact, our team probably have access to some of the best for a Club of our size but don't underestimate the importance of getting that socialising room back as that's incredible important for player and first team morale.
21:14
That concludes the Open Supporters Meeting for this evening.