The All Stars Match - How it came about...

After that meeting of City Fans United members on that infamous Thursday night, I decided that I'd have to do something to help. It turns out that I'd return to the board to try and do something, just days later.

But before that, I asked myself what could I do to help to bring funds in. Various ideas went through my head and then I decided to call our Chester FC friend, Colin Murray, to see what we could come up to try and pull something out of the bag to raise money.

We had a chat on the Sunday morning whilst Sunday Brunch played on in the background, and whilst typically Alfie and Harry were at their loudest and I struggled to really hear myself think let alone what Colin was saying.

Anyway, we had a good chat, bounced some ideas between us, and then decided to catch up 24 hours later when Colin then informed me we were going to go for the All-stars game at the Deva. So then, the task began to get the game on in just 17 days!!

He told me Michael Owen was keen to help and would be playing, along with a number of ex pro's, amongst them was Chris Iwelumo. I did actually wonder if he would turn up for it given last season!!

Then it was about who they would face, so I thought the perfect team in opposition would be one managed by Neil Young, given what he achieved as our manager in the early years, and of course the first team would be in action just 2 days later so wouldn't have dreamed of asking Marcus Bignot to have this to deal with at the same time!.

What it did do of course was to allow fans the chance to say a final thanks to those players that excited us in our early years as I was sure Youngy would bring many of them.

What I did not realise was everything else needed to get the game on in such a short space of time. I have major big thanks to offer to Steve Povey, who spoke quickly to the police and council, to get us a green light to stage the game at the Deva.

Then next once that was sorted, was printing of tickets and before that of course is the designing of the tickets, and for that I've had tremendous help from Martin Huxley. I'm sure you know Martin well, he designed the club badge back in 2010, and how we all loved that badge when we saw it.

The printing of tickets was something I had no idea of how long the process would take but we really wanted to be able to sell them and so we made a decision to get them online to buy.

We didn't really have a clue how things would go, but we saw a steady start with about 50 tickets per day being sold to start with, then when we had them delivered to the club it changed to about 100 per day.

Colin always called each day to see how many had been sold, One day he thought he'd give my phone a break at ringing the club instead but guess what..I was at the club when he rang!!

We spent about a week trying to confirm more and more players, and most were coming back with a Yes, well the ex Chester lads were. I know Colin had asked the likes of Robbie Savage and Jimmy Bullard amongst many others but were unavailable for one reason or another.

Then, it was a case of arranging radio interviews as the big day got closer, and many late night conversations with Colin to see where we were up to and what we could do to take things to the next level.

Another major thing to take place in amongst all this was a call from Chester Racecourse who wanted to be involved in the game which was just fantastic. MBNA also wanted to get involved too, and the best thing was they wanted to work with each other as well as Chester FC, so it was good news all round.

So, thoughts turned to kits and how we could arrange something, and both Chester Racecourse and MBNA wanted to help on this, and a few days later we had kits for both sides. Big thanks to Jim Green of the Chester FC Community Trust for helping manage that side of things whilst I was stuck in work!

Every day leading up to the match I'd be on the phone to Jackie Olorenshaw at Chester FC who was looking after hospitality and I was delighted when 3 sponsors came forward to get involved too. Just brilliant. Things were falling into place.

Next up, officials for the match and big thanks to Calvin Hughes for his help with this.

I did receive a blow however that Neil Young wouldn't be able to make it for the full game due to the situation at Halifax and so we needed a plan b. I needn't have worried...

Reason being, on one of my many phone calls with Colin, this one took place as soon as I'd walked through the door at home just in from work when he called, and said we, meaning Chester Select, had got a new manager in Kevin Ratcliffe!

Almost in the same breath, he told me that Ian Rush had confirmed, and that Kev had decided he couldn't manage a team with Rush and Owen in, so decided he wanted to be part of the Chester management set up instead!

Colin was going to do a piece on radio Merseyside about the game and would reveal the news about Rush on there too, so a bit of twitter work needed to build it all up!!

I then sent over a press release to the TV media about the inclusion of Rush and it's amazing to see how much pull he still has after all these years!

BBC, Granada, and Sky Sports all wanted to come down on the night of the game on the back of that press release, and with the help of Michelle Owen from Sky Sports - who would go on to play in the all stars match, helped with this too!

So, the night before the game, I spent many hours making sure everything was covered for the Big night. Think it was 2.30am when the pc was shut down, lots to sort. .

I'll leave it there for now, and will talk about matchday on the next blog!

What a difference a week makes!

Well that was certainly an interesting week in the life of a Chester fan wasn't it?!?

The City Fans United meeting at the club a week ago Thursday was surely one of the most uncomfortable to sit through and listen to where we were right now.

An immediate target of £50k was set to help the club stay afloat as under current projections the club would run out of cash by March, which was of course the month back in 2010 that the former club went into liquidation in the High Court.

The alarm bells were certainly ringing louder than ever. The first half of that meeting was all about what had happened, and how it had happened. The inquest.

The second half of that meeting was how things could be put right, and that was the most important part of the meeting as if we couldn't identify that, then there would be club in the very near future.

The feeling inside the Blues Bar come the end of the night was a feeling of shock at what had come out in that meeting, but also of the will to come together and fight as one for our club to survive.

3 nights later and a meeting at the ground with the existing board members, and by the end of it I had rejoined the board. Reason being I couldn't stand back and let my club go through the most critical phase of its last 8 years, without trying to do my bit for it again.

Biggest challenge for me is to ensure my family life do not suffer from my rejoining of the board. Football has to come second sometimes!! I stepped down from the board 4 years ago as the first of my two boys were born, now I have two 3 and 2 year old boys who demand all the time in the world from both me and especially my wife. Every family will know the demands kids of young ages possess and we're no different.

So, with that in mind, the first few weeks are going to be very hard, but this time the club now has a great media team that we set up previously where as 8 years ago everything needed doing on that side of the club!

Since rejoining last Monday night, we've tried to have a positive impact as possible out there and we're certainly seeing everyone pulling together. The youth match was something special, where else would you have seen this happen!? The Chester family came together and raised nearly double the money that would've come through from the first two home now league games of the season. Amazing.

The challenge of course now is to keep that intensity up and not just raise the £50k required immediately, but also to look at building the reserve of £100k up again whilst the club looks after itself. It feels very different this time, the will is out there to ensure that we do not end up in this situation again.

Last time we knew what we were up against, it was one family hurting us, but we battled that and delivered a club we could all be proud of. Along the way we've lost what that club was all about, but we've been given a chance to restore all that we believed in, so we WILL turn this around.

We just need everyone to be with us every step of the way, and I thank everyone now for their help that they have shown so far but also in advance as your help and support, and involvement is needed right from the off.

Thanks, Jeff

We need ideas. This is an old one of mine. The 250 Club

Okay.

It's been a long day. Chester have blown what looks like a chance to at least give themselves a fighting chance of staying up this season so it looks like a case of preparing for next season in the National League North unless something dramatic happens in the next 3 months.

So, after a night of thinking about all of this and being in the main depressed about the whole thing, we need to think about how we can help our club. So my challenge to all Chester fans is think of an idea that can benefit our club for next season and beyond.

Here's mine. Now this is something that I put together in a few minutes. I've always believed in getting families back in to our club. The task 8 years ago was to see more fans in Chester shirts than the usual Man Utd and Liverpool shirts that you'd tend to see around town. Now we need those families back so that we get new Chester fans of the future. Where am I going with this? Read on...

Many businesses can help...

250 Club (this was suggested about 18 months ago to the club)

Plan.

To create a business club with a minimum 250 businesses that commit to a figure of £250 that gives them corporate CFU membership for 5 years, raising £62,500 for CFU.

Aim.

250 businesses sign up to help promote the fact that Chester FC is a fan owned club for the community of Chester and the surrounding areas to become involved in.

Benefits.

Each business that signs up by paying £250 to CFU corporate will each receive 4 family tickets (value £168). If they then refer another 5 businesses they'll receive a further 2 family tickets (value £84).

Social media mentions for all taking part

Each month, a CFU Corporate members draw would take place, to include:

• Directors Row tickets
• Signed ball or shirt
• Directors Experience
• Attend training session with pictures with players and manager
• £25 voucher to spend in club shop
• Website article
• Match programme article
• Stadium tour
• 1 free hire of the Legends Lounge for business meeting
• Business of the month title

Sums.

250 x £250 = £62500 for CFU

Options from here.

£12,500 could be set aside for one match in the season to be £1 entry for all, based on fans picking up 10 tokens from games in the first half of the season. Season Ticket holders to have this included as their free matches allocation.

The club could then take a minimum £3000 based on a 4000 attendance (taking into consideration 1000 season ticket holders).

Objective being to reward those who pay on the day fans who have watched the club in the first half of the season, with a Match for a Quid in the second half of the season.

What if the 250 Club exceeds 250 members?

Simple. It's still the 250 Club. The more the better and it can grow organically. For every additional 100 businesses that join the club, the original 250 get an additional family ticket.

The idea is for businesses to receive the family tickets to then pass on to encourage new people down to the match, maybe via an in house competition, or for them simply to reward excellence at work. With it being a family ticket, they could then bring children to the game too, which would potentially increase the number of young children attending the games.

I really believe that there are businesses out there who are run by fans like you and me and are happy enough to put £250 in to the club and help where they can.

The benefits are not set in stone, they are just ideas, but ideas that don't cost anything.

Thoughts?

What would be your idea and could it help raise instant funds for the club as that's what it will need.

Now, the club under the stewardship of Mark Maguire has said a 100 club was ready to be launched with an initial target to hit to see a budget being hit. I believe we can do even better with a more affordable option for small and medium businesses out there. 

Question is, as a business, would you pledge to pay £250 based on the above?

Thanks Jeff 

Our Club Needs You!

Our club is in trouble. It needs you.

This is not the same rallying call as the one 8 years ago, when the club was dying, when the club was being ripped apart at the seams by a chairman that just had one aim for the club at the time. Death.

No, this is different.

Chester FC is owned by the fans, and when it's in trouble it needs it's fans to help it. The same way the fans looked after it just 8 years ago when it was guided through the choppiest waters imaginable. The waters that would see us lose our club as we knew it. But the waters would also see a new beginning. A beginning that saw the fans fight for their club. Even the FA tried and failed to relegate us to a lower level than we deserved

We fought that battle...and won.

Now we have a new battle. A battle to keep ourselves in the National League. Sure we've had this kind of battle before over the last few seasons, but this time it's different. We seem to have lost our way. But we need to work together to give us the best possible chance to win this battle.

If we get relegated, then so be it. But let's not give in. Remember it won't be the end of our club if we go down. It will feel like it though I'm sure.

There are still points to play for. Many points. Yes it's up to the management and players to deliver points but it's also the fans responsibility to deliver what we can to help the club in its hour of need.

We all want the best for Chester FC no matter what your viewpoint. We have experienced a good few years of that in the last decade but now when the chips are down the club needs us not to turn our backs on it but to rally around it.

The meetings in the Guild Hall proved that the fans loved their club and would do anything to get it back off it's knees when the worst happened, and now those same fans, and new fans can play a part too…

Some may be disenchanted with our position right now. But we have a club worth fighting for, there is no doubt about that. So let's do something about it.

So ask yourself, what can I do to help my club?

Can you bring someone new to the ground to home games to help swell the attendances and bring much needed revenue into the club?

Can you help by volunteering for the club you love?

What was that song lyric? When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

It's easy to moan. We all do that. It's easy to do it too.

But think to yourself, what good am I doing by moaning? Is it helping the club? No.

One thing you can do that's absolutely free to do is to spread the word about our upcoming matches. It's simple, just do it. And the other thing? Back the lads from the first whistle to the last. You'd be amazed at how much of a difference this can make.

We've had bad times on the pitch before, and no doubt we'll have them again, but let's just try this time to make a difference yeah?

Relegation. What does it mean for Chester FC?

Well for a start, we're probably likely to have a playing budget in the bottom half of the National League North. That's fact.

There are 8 full time clubs in the National League North. For those who think “Well we'll be okay, we can just win the league and come back stronger’ need a reality check. Have a look at the teams, and the well financed clubs in that league right now. Hands on heart, where do you think we'd come in that league?

Our club needs it's fans most right now. If we can stay up then some may say it is just a stay of execution. I personally believe it gives us a chance to do things better next year.

We have proved our worth to the national league over the last few years. We've done things the right way. Paid our bills when some others haven't, and despite what some may think we've made massive strides off the pitch on the community side of the club. Some things really need to be celebrated at our club but some choose to side on the negative instead.

There is a lot of work to be done that's for sure, but only we can help. There is no sugar daddy to make things right with the click of a finger. They'd have shown their hands by now wouldn't they? It didn't exactly work out well last time either did it???

What we need right now is a concerted effort by every fan who loves Chester FC to really think about what they want for our club. Do they want to fight for the cause or accept defeat? I know where I sit.

So, I ask all Chester fans to really rally now and give everything they've got for our club. Nobody else is going to do it for us so it's up to us.

Fight until it's mathematically impossible to stay up. And even if that does end up being the case then think what can I do to help next season to put things right.

Whatever happens at the end of April will not see the end of our club. It will be a setback if it happens, of course it will.

But we will fight on.

Thanks for reading.

Chester Forever

Banksy