Attended:
Andrew Cullen, Rich Hughes, Mark Judges & Johnny Moore (PFC)
Barry Dewing (Pompey Independent Supporters’ Association), Chris Barrett (South West Supporters’ Club), Clare Martin (Pompey In The Community), Donald Vass (TGFC Secretary & Chichester Portsmouth Supporters’ Club), Gemma Raggett (London Supporters’ Club), Graham Price (Pompey 808), Ian Marshall (Chimes Lounge), John Cannings (Northern Blues), Kev Ryan (Central Branch Supporters’ Club), Leon Tricker (Social Media Groups), Mick Comben (125th Anniversary Committee), Mike Fulcher (TGFC Chair & Social Media Groups), Mike Whittle (Pompey History Society), Pam Wilkins (Pompey Disabled Supporters’ Association), Peter House (Pompey Independent Supporters’ Association), Roy Gregory (Central Branch Supporters’ Club), Simon Colebrook (Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust), Steve Tovey (Legends Lounge) & Tony Howe-Haysome (Armed Forces & Services Club).
1. Acknowledgements
MF: As a group, we were terribly sad to hear of the death of Pete Blackman. He was a great man, and Pompey through and through. On behalf of us all, we would like to send our heartfelt condolences to Pete’s family.
Separately, on behalf of all the supporter groups, we’d like to celebrate the tremendous effort that went into the Jimmy Dickinson statue. It’s been a huge success, and we’d like to thank the people involved who worked so hard on it. If you were sceptical but have now seen just how stunning it is, remember the Crowdfunding page is still open.
1. Pompey Women
Q: Pompey Women are due to play their games at the John Jenkins stadium in future. How is construction of the ground progressing?
CM: About two weeks ago, I sent a picture of the stadium to my staff – they asked if it was a computer-generated graphic or a photo! That told me we were on the right track. We obviously started building at an incredibly difficult time and we’ve had to contend with the Covid lockdowns, huge increases in the cost of building materials and labour. As a result, we’re now doing a phased finish.
Phase one is to complete both the pitches, a referees room, medical facilities, the gym, and a temporary café and bar for match days in what will later become the dance studio. We’re hopeful phase one will be complete later this month.
Phases two and three will happen when we have the funding. Phase two is to complete the classrooms. Finally, phase three is to have a dedicated café and bar so that the dance studio can be used.
It’s been a labour of love! We’re aiming for Pompey Women and Moneyfields to be able to start using the facilities as soon as we possibly can. Pompey Women’s first team are sorted at Havant and Waterlooville for this year – it doesn’t make sense to disrupt their start to the season by moving mid-campaign. We’ll be hosting their development team and training.
(Clare Martin left the meeting).
2. First Team
Q: We’ve had a fantastic start to the season, with the partnership of John Mousinho and Richard Hughes putting us on track for promotion. How do you reflect on the summer transfer window and the opening few months of the campaign?
RH: The opening part of the season has been great, but we’re all really clear that this is just a start. There’s a long way to go and we need to keep progressing and moving forward. We actually feel we’ve left a few points out there – there’s a frustration with that and we feel there’s improvements still to be had in the group. But it’s easy to talk about this in October – we know we need to keep pushing on. The support from fans has been outstanding this year. Stay with us.
In terms of recruitment, if we think back to January, there was a frustration around our over reliance on loans, and that we were so close to the maximum numbers in our squad list – that limited what we were able to do in that window. That gave us a template of what we needed to do differently this time around – we wanted more flexibility by decreasing our reliance on loans and having a younger, fresher squad this season.
We were able to recruit Conor Shaughnessy, Ben Stevenson and Jack Sparkes early, all players who could come in and improve the squad, while having the upside to get better, rather than recruiting loan players in their positions later in the window. That meant we then had Conor Shaughnessy, Ryley Towler and Sean Raggett in the building at the very start of the window, which gave us space to wait a bit longer for Regan Poole without worrying about not having enough centre-backs. Christian Saydee came in – he’s a young player with clear upside, who proved at Shrewsbury he can already affect games at this level. We’ve started to invest in players like Terry Devlin, who has already impacted the squad, had a call-up for Northern Ireland U21s and has put himself in contention for a first team start. Recruiting early gave us a big head start going into pre-season. We had most of the group in for Spain. The togetherness we’re seeing on the pitch now began on that pre-season trip. That helped the group to gel together as early as possible.
We know there was some frustration around the style of play at the back end of last season. We were working on the nuances of the style of play we wanted, but with players who weren’t right for the system. Now, we’ve recruited for the style we want to play – we know John will play four at the back, for example. That continuity and alignment is the result of lot of hard work. It’s a shame Phil Boardman is leaving us, as he was a massive part of that in this summer’s recruitment.
Q: Have we started looking for a replacement for Phil Boardman?
RH: We’ve started the process. Even once he knew he’d be going to Everton, Phil hasn’t changed at all – he’s still been working really hard for us. He’s been here for six years, and this is a good progression for him. It also gives us a great opportunity to restructure and improve. Whenever we’ve had a change of staff, we’ve firstly looked at the structure – we need to make sure we’re well set not just for the next 3 months but for the next 3 years. We’re always wanting to get better and better, and looking at how we can bolster departments.
Q: Winning from behind has been a hallmark of the team this year. Have the players got a stronger mentality this season?
RH: I can’t speak about what’s gone on before in pitching to new signings, but now we’ve been brutally honest – ‘you’re going to have to come in and compete’. We bring players in with full disclosure – they know they’ll need to work hard to get into the starting eleven and to stay there.
There was a great piece in The News with Joe Rafferty this week, recognising the work that’s gone on to improve the training ground, the gym, the food and so on. All of these ‘1%s’ add up. We’re trying to minimise distractions and remove the noise for the players, so they can focus on their football and keep going out and getting results.
(Richard Hughes left the meeting).
3. Stadium Redevelopment / Network Rail / Transport
Q: The Milton End work appears to be coming along well. When is the planned completion date?
AC: Everything’s on target at the moment. We believe we’ll be able to have 2,000 Charlton fans in the Milton End on November 11th, which will act as a trial event before we can increase capacity again beyond that. The stand capacity will eventually get to just over 3,000. At the same time, we’re improving egress out of the North Stand by developing a new footpath which will link the rear North to the public footpath outside the Pompey Store. Extra toilets are being introduced in the north east corner which will help alleviate some of the North Stand queues. Both entrances will be in operation for that game, as will the new control room. We hope to have a small amount of home fans in for the Blackpool game on the November 25th, subject to SAG approval. The lift is on site, ready to be installed in early November. The lift will service both home and away fans. It’s important for the lift to be in that North corner so that disabled fans can get up to the necessary level in both the North Stand and the Milton End. In early December, we’ll have more toilet facilities put in, which should be ready for the Bolton game on the December 9th. The new toilet block will have more women’s toilets, as we don’t currently have great provision for these.
We should have everything finished in December, subject to some small components, and have the stand fully operational in January. The stadium’s total capacity should then be brought up to just under 21,000. We’re still working to identify where we might be able to create some extra seating areas, maximise space and put as much capacity in as possible. That means we’ll be able to increase the season ticket cap upto around 15,000. We don’t want to go too high, as we need to leave some seats available for people who can’t commit to come to every game. Once we’re able to sell season tickets to home supporters in the Milton End, priority will be given to existing season ticket holders who may wish to move into a safe standing area. That should free up some seats in the other three stands, with priority offered to fans currently at the top of the Fratton End who don’t wish to stand, and who can move into the spaces made available.
The Milton End will be able to be set into different configurations, meaning we can sell more individual tickets to Portsmouth supporters when there is a low away attendance. Fans buying season tickets in the Milton End would need to be aware that they may need relocate for cup games if away clubs took their full 15% application.
MJ: We’ll need to be transparent with supporters buying in this area that their seat will be guaranteed for league fixtures, but that their ticket for cup games is subject to the allocation to the away club.
Q: As the Milton End is fitted entirely with rail seating, what provision is being made for away supporters who can’t or don’t wish to stand?
MJ: When we liaise with away clubs, we advise them that front rows of A-J are reserved for those wishing to sit, and that rows J backwards are for safe standing. We encourage them to sell in that manner. Part of our provision and licence for safe standing is to still be able to provide the option of seating, even though there are rail seats.
AC: We’re looking at sight lines from the very top of the stand – there might be the potential to position a small number of additional seats on the platform for wheelchair supporters. If we have an elderly fan getting in the lift, this will avoid them having to walk all way down and all way back up again. We looked at this with the Supporter Matchday Experience working group at their meeting last week.
Q: The Fratton End rail seating has been a welcome addition to the ground. In an email before the last home game, the club stated they had installed it in rows NN to AA, but it appears to only go down as far as row DD. Is club intending to add extra rows, either now or in the future? Will the remaining seats in the Fratton End be replaced to match the uniform blue now seen in the rest of the ground?
AC: We’ve installed 1,500 safe standing seats going down to row DD. The current number satisfies the SGSA, who were very concerned about persistent standing in the Fratton End, and we are now in a position to progress with our licence application. To install the current set of rail seats in the Fratton End has cost £225,000. In time, if there’s demand, we could go lower down with rail seating, but for now we’ve satisfied the SGSA, nipped the problem of persistent standing in the bud and reduced the risk of future capacity cuts.
The seats in the Fratton End will eventually all be blue. The Fratton End used to look modern compared to the ground’s other stands – now it stands out as in need of a refresh! It’s something we will do over time.
An individual rail seat costs £150, a standard blue seat £35. To replacethe other 3,000 seats in the stand will cost just over £100,000. There are several other competing capital projects. many requiring big expenditure both at the stadium and the training ground so I have to work with the executive and the Board to plan these incrementally over the next few years, as would be the case in any business or football club.
Q: Please can the club confirm who has made a footbridge a specific requirement for redevelopment of Fratton Park, and when, how, and why this decision was made?
Q: Has any progress been made with Network Rail to achieve a safe and convenient footbridge route to Fratton Park?
AC: Portsmouth City Council have laid out the requirement for a footbridge as part of the Portsmouth Local Plan document. It’s laid out on p250 and again on page 252:
“Improvement of public transport links to and from the ground will be a key issue to address to support any expansion of the stadium and associated development. The development of a new direct pedestrian link from Fratton Station, would be required to significantly reduce the pedestrian use of Goldsmith Avenue”.
This is not just about Portsmouth Football Club – this is part of the city’s plan for the wider regeneration of Fratton. We had a lengthy discussion on strategy on this at the last Heritage and Advisory Board meeting – I can share some of what was discussed here. Has there been any progress with Network Rail? No. All other stakeholders remain totally committed to this and we continue to work with them. Stephen Morgan MP has been hugely supportive and has set up quarterly forums with Network Rail and all stakeholders including the club, PCC and South Western Railways. We’ve now had four meetings – the fifth one is coming up at the end of this month. One of the outcomes from these is that there is a commitment from some of the parties to equally share in the cost of the feasibility study. We wanted Network Rail to contribute – so far, they’ve declined to do so.
In March, we conducted a travel survey of our supporters. 3,890 supporters responded, with 25% living 30 or more miles from Fratton Park. This is a really strong sample size. 18% of all survey respondents travel by train currently, but 65% of respondents said they’d use the train if they had safer access to the station. If even a smaller proportion of supporters changed their method of transport to train, then carbon emissions would be way down and the train operators would receive extra fare revenue. Network Rail have very complex terms as part of their constitution. Our focus should be to continue to expound that the footbridge would meet the terms set out in their Strategic Business Plan(SBP) –In their plan for England, they promise to “target improvements at stations that will improve passenger safety” or “will contribute to economic growth, levelling up and environmental sustainability”. Other key priorities laid out in the SBP are accessibility and inclusion. While there is step-free access at the north exit of Fratton station, there isn’t to the south – that’s another area to focus on.
Fratton is the most used train station in Portsmouth, with 1.54m entries and entrances recorded each year – more than the 1.45m at Portsmouth Harbour and 1.42m at Portsmouth and Southsea. I think it is fair to say that given these statistics the footbridge is only a small component of the improvements needed at Fratton station and it is not just a football club issue. We have the support of Stephen Morgan MP, who understands the broader economic impact and wrote a column in the Portsmouth News in August in which he said:
“We have reached an important milestone in our efforts by working in partnership. Initial options for a bridge have been explored. Understanding road use has been understood. The travel survey is complete. Work is now well underway to secure funding for a feasibility study, with the council and club committing to part funding, and hope that the developers will be on board soon. It is disappointing Network Rail won’t stump up their share of the cash for this initial work, and I will keep lobbying them to do so and to keep them on board to help guide our effort. I have long been making the case that this project is more than simply a nice upgrade and does not exclusively benefit football fans. It is key to ambitions to regenerate Fratton Park and the surrounding area. By increasing connectivity and access between parts of our city, it will unlock opportunity and stimulate the local economy, bringing economic benefits, beyond the club, to us all. I will continue to play my part – and lead when appropriate – to urge all those able to deliver the footbridge to get together and make this project a reality. This is vital not only for our fans, but for the future prosperity of Portsmouth.
We’ve read on social media that some people feel that there are no issues at Fratton station, and that Goldsmith Avenue isn’t overly congested. That’s not the case post-match. I received several emails from different supporters recently, some of whom were happy for me to share their safety concerns with MPs, Portsmouth City Council and other supporters. I am pleased to read two examples where I have permission to do so.
“After the game yesterday we made our way down the usual packed Goldsmith Ave, cars swerving to avoid fans walking in the road etc… When we got back to the station the gates had been closed off for platforms 2 & 3 as the platform was apparently full. The lads on the gates were doing their best but could only keep saying that they couldn’t open the gates until instructed to do so otherwise.
The queue to these gates ended up spilling out on to Goldsmith Ave and caused a very dangerous overcrowding on the road, with kids getting crushed.
Ultimately, I don’t see it as the clubs responsibility to ensure the railway station is safe for fans to use, though I do understand the club would feel concerned about their fans safety. Access to and from without the need to walk down Goldsmith Ave and cause the danger to both pedestrians and vehicle users, has to be a priority for Network Rail.”
I spoke with Hampshire Constabulary to verify this supporter’s report.They confirmed it, and also that the situation that afternoon was not good.
“As a family we decided to purchase season tickets with the plan to travel to Fratton Park by train. This decision was taken after years of traveling by car and finding this more and more difficult to find parking.
We arranged for three separate parts of the family to meet at my son’s home on Saturday mornings and walk to Portchester station and catch a direct train to Fratton. Apart from the trains being exceptionally busy and a risk of not actually getting on, we have managed to get there.
However the experience of leaving Fratton Park and trying to get home particularly with young fans with us is proving as far as I am concerned not worth the risk. We have found ourselves on the Goldstone avenue pavement jammed against a wall, climbing steps to the bridges where anyone losing their footing in the congestion may well result in a headline catching incident. You then have the overcrowding on the platforms with the mad rush to get on the train.
With this in mind we are seriously considering not taking this risk and forfeiting our season tickets. Let’s hope something comes from your request for information with regards to the unpleasant experience of visiting Fratton Park by train”.
We therefore must focus particularly on safety and a bridge with access to Fratton Park and the Pompey Centre away from Goldsmith Avenue as well as the wider economic regeneration of the area, alongside other projects at the Pompey Centre and Fratton High Street. At the moment, we’re doing as much as we can and will work towards lobbying other bodies responsible for the railways. I would urge supporter groups to come together with the club on this matter. We will need everyone’s support to get this done. I am determined to keep it alive. It is essential to deliver so we can look forward to increased capacity at Fratton Park,but it won’t be easy without the broad support of supporters and other stakeholders in the city, all of whom who have an interest in the regeneration of the whole Fratton area and Portsmouth.
Q: In the short term, trains are proving an extremely unreliable method of transportation to the game. Is there anything more the club can do to help supporters get to and from matches, particularly on strike days and after evening games?
AC: Yes – in our travel survey, completed by 4,000 supporters, only 3% said they currently travelled to games on the bus. However, 41% said they would be interested in a dedicated park and ride service. Since then, we’ve held some exploratory talks with the city’s park and ride services, who would also be interested in exploring a dedicated route to the stadium from the new planned Transport Hub at Tipner. We have agreed to work together to assess the potential economic viability. We will shortly be sending out a new travel survey to fans to further understand the business case or otherwise for such a service.
MJ: Building on this, the club does have a formal corporate arrangement with First Bus Portsmouth. Routes number 1, 12 and 13 stop directly outside the stadium.
Q: Issues getting away from the game have been exacerbated by the increase in added time at the end of matches we have seen this season, meaning games are finishing later. Have the club considered bringing kick-off times forward to help supporters?
AC: We looked at trialling an earlier kick-off time for the EFL Trophy games, but that then creates a staffing problem – it’s very hard to get stewards in early enough. They need to be at the ground for the pre-match briefing 2 hours early. Some clubs are now moving evening kick-offs later to 8pm for this reason.
4. 125th Anniversary
Q: Please could the club communicate the events planned, from now until the end of the season, to commemorate the 125thanniversary season? A calendar of events would help supporters know what is planned and when, so they can make arrangements to attend.
MC: The 125th anniversary is important to everyone at the club. We’re aware the committee’s communication about what’s coming could be improved, and also what’s already been done, but it’s a good list! The Jimmy Dickinson statue is now up, while the 125th anniversary book has gone down well – for example the club shop has already sold out. On the club website now is a list of everything that’s been delivered so far and a calendar or events showing what’s to come. We plan to add to this next week to give even more description to each of these things to help fans make plans for forthcoming events. If there’s anything supporters think we’re missing and should be doing, please do get in touch.
Q: Are there still plans for a club museum as part of any future stadium redevelopment?
MC: We hope so. I’m often asked about a club museum and discussions continue. With things like the Jimmy Dickinson Statue, the Championship corridor display and the ‘Pompey Pals’ war memorial display on Carisbrooke Road, lots of our history is already displayed around the stadium and is already part of our ‘museum’. We may need to do more to promote these things and make sure fans know where they are. Not everything needs to be physically displayed either – we’re currently planning to scan into our PHS website the various fan collections, every matchday programme and every annual statement of accounts, all of which will eventually be available online. Other things, such as Peter Harris’s First Division title winning medals, we do want on display somewhere. We’ve also got a Portsmouth FC exhibition space in the Portsmouth city museum now which is fantastic – it’s something we’d like to make more use of and we’ll continue to work with the club on a future physical museum of our own.
AC: Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson is currently campaigning to put a blue plaque on the Pompey Pals display, something which we are delighted to support.
Q: One forthcoming event is the relaunched hall of fame dinner – will it be affordable for fans?
MJ: Yes, but do be mindful that costs of things have gone up significantly since the events were last held, so it’s unlikely to be as cheap as it once was.
AC: The 125th anniversary committee are keen to do quiz nights at an even more affordable price point to make an event accessible to all supporters, whatever their budget.
(Mick Comben left the meeting).
5. Ticketing
Q: The club introduced a new away ticketing policy this season [1 point for every home game and 2 points for every away game]. Has this worked as intended? Do any changes need to be made?
MJ: Broadly speaking, we feel it has worked well. Due to the sheer demand for tickets versus what we’re able to provide, it’s hard to develop a perfect system. The current system rewards people who travel up and down the country and support us regularly at away games, but also gives opportunities for fans who attend home games regularly as well. For the Leyton Orient game in August, we probably set the threshold too low, as we didn’t get out of priority window one. We spoke to fans, got more feedback, and the priority windows are now set with a higher threshold. We’re always keen for further feedback to carry on improving the system.
Q: Lots of fans are interested in attending games at the moment and it’s becoming difficult to secure tickets. Are we likely to get a bigger allocation for the Reading away game?
AC: I did call their Operations Director to ask for more. ~The response was that we had already been given more than they are obliged to under EFL regulations (2,000), and that their SAG would not allow any more due to the stadium layout. We have though managed to secure a small number of additional hospitality tickets adjacent to the away end.
MJ: We’ve got around 80 of these hospitality tickets, which we’re in the process of getting onto the system and working out a fair way to offer these out to fans. They will be priced at a premium.
Post Meeting Note: Several supporters contacted Reading directly on Monday after the TGFC and Reading have themselves directly sold most of these dedicated Pompey hospitality places to Portsmouth supporters. All remaining hospitality places can be booked by calling Reading on 0118 968 1313.
We have to be honest – there will be disappointed fans this season, with demand so high. Bristol Rovers is likely to be the most challenging game of the year for us from a ticketing point of view.
AC: Bristol Rovers are only able to provide around 500 tickets currently due to the reconstruction of their away stand. There’s a possibility we may get 200 more, but it’s certainly likely to be a very low allocation and there will be very high demand for this Boxing Day fixture.
Q: This week, tickets for away games at Reading and Cambridge both went on sale at the same time. Please could the club explain why they’ve opted to do this? It makes it harder for supporters to organise and purchase.
MJ: It would be good to glean more understanding from fans about what the challenges are. When we group matches together in this way it’s designed to actually to make it easier for supporters to buy, coupled with the club being able to maximise our resources in terms of staffing.
JC: It’s hard for fans to fork out for two games at once, and difficult for supporters’ groups to organise the ticketing requests for two games alongside each other.
MJ: Thank you – we’ll take this away and look at it again.
Q: Are we able to put disabled tickets for cup games for sale online? Currently, disabled supporters have to contact the ticket office directly to purchase.
MJ: We want to improve the customer experience for our supporters. We’re working with our ticketing provider to make this easier – we need to identify the fans this applies to and apply special permissions on their account. The risk if you put them online for everyone is that able-bodied supporters may then buy these tickets for high-demand games, and you actually make the experience worse for disabled fans. We’re hoping to get this improvement online at some point this season.
Q: Why is car parking not put on sale at the same time as match tickets?
MJ: We need to allow for outside broadcasters to potentially use some of the car park for their broadcasting trucks, and we don’t always know if a game will be selected by broadcasters when tickets go on sale. We now put the car parking spaces online regularly at the same time each week, so supporters who want them know when to log in to buy them. We can take this on board in future though – it may be that we could put a portion on sale in advance and hold enough back for potential broadcaster use once the Milton End construction works are completed and we regain some of the car park being used as a compound currently.
Q: Where tickets are purchased by a supporter group and then an individual cannot make the game, currently we are not able to obtain a refund or sell this ticket on to another member. Is there any way this could be changed?
MJ: Prior to the payment stage, it’s easy for us to reduce or amend your order. Once we’ve sent the order to the away club, it becomes harder. Tickets sold are for the home club – we just hold the money. As Match tickets are non-refundable, in theory they can refuse to offer refunds. Its down to individual home clubs to decide on their refund policy. If supporter groups ask us no later than 3 working days prior to the fixture, before we send list to home club, and want to reassign a ticket, we will help.
Q: Is it necessary for all away tickets to be individually allocated to a client ID number? For home games, fans can purchase multiple tickets with a single client ID number. We’ve found it difficult to organise tickets for supporters who can’t often attend home matches but do wish to get tickets to Northern away games.
MJ: It’s a policing and health and safety requirement. We have to produce a list of each individual supporter. Even if fans do turn up on the day and can buy a ticket ‘on the gate’, home club should be taking full details to process their ticket. We had lengthy queues within the Ticket Office for the Bristol Rovers game earlier in the season, where there were lots of away supporter walk ups and we needed to take details from each of them.
Q: There appears to be a drop in attendance in the Legends Lounge this season. Can we have a report on how matchday hospitality is going this season?
MJ: I’m surprised by the question as hospitality sales have been very positive – we’ve seen a 10% increase since last season (80% occupancy vs 70% last year). Seasonal hospitality has grown 15%, of which Legends Lounge has seen the largest increase of 41%. We do still want to do more to make people aware of the ‘add-on’ element of Legends Lounge – not everyone knows you can use your usual season ticket seat but get lounge access for the day. We want to promote this as an experience for season ticket holders celebrating birthdays and other events.
6. Matchday Experience
Q: The change from electronic advertisement hoardings to printed boards in front of the Milton End was really noticeable from the Fratton End on Tuesday and made viewing the game at night much easier – thank you for taking on board this feedback. The PA system seemed to be overly loud however, and we appear to have stopped announcing the opposition’s starting XI before games. Can this be looked at?
MJ: It is planned to have LED boards back in the North Stand, andpotentially the full TV arc. However, any new system bought in would have variable lux levels. If anything else goes in, it will be a far better experience than the previous system. Lux levels can be altered differently for day and night games for example.
AC: A lot of work has gone into the PA system – it’s undergone lots of changes recently, transforming from an analogue to a digital output. This means we can now manage the PA individually by stand. On Tuesday, against Wycombe, we experienced a significant issue –at 6:20pm, our entertainment sound system failed. It’s one thing to lose the entertainment PA system, it’s another for the crowd emergency system to go down – which would have put the game in doubt. Fortunately, the separate crowd emergency control system was fine and we were able to get safety and other essential messages out in that pre match period. We then managed to get everything back at 7:30pm, but did not have sufficient time to reset the sound levels, hence the poor experience on Tuesday. Apologies from us – it was not the usual experience for fans before 7:30pm. It should be better today – we’ve got people in all 3 stands to check the sound levels are right and will continue to work to achieve the right sound balance stand by stand.
Q: There was a PA announcement during match action against Peterborough when the team was on the attack – can this be avoided in future?
AC: I also recognised that at the time This was due to the temporary location of our media team in the new building in the south east corner -they’ve got a small blind spot near the Fratton End and believed the ball had gone out of play. We’ve discussed this after the game and will work to try to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Q: Do we really need a big screen message about children under 14 needing to stay with their adults?
AC: We recently had two separate incidents of two 8 and 9-year-olds going to the toilet on their own, who then get lost and distressed on the concourse when they could not relocate their guardians. This was identified as a serious safeguarding incident. We are obliged to report these two events to the authorities and then outline plans to help prevent this from reoccurring. It is therefore important we encourage supporters to keep children within arms length. In this case, we’ve put messaging on the big screen.
Q: Are the club aware of any complaints or issues regarding security and stewarding at Fratton Park recently? We’re aware of some supporters who are unhappy with how they’ve been spoken to.
AC: It is disappointing to hear this, as at last week’s supporter matchday experience working group, we received spontaneous positive comments about stewarding this year. I attend every post-match debrief to get a feel for supporter and stewarding issues on the day. We’re hearing from our senior stewards at these debriefs that overall, the quality of agency stewards this year is much improved. We do ensure good stewards are asked back and ones who aren’t as impressive don’t return. I would encourage anyone with specific concerns to contact Marie Stedman so we can discuss further as safety is paramount to everything we do.
MJ: If supporters do encounter issues or have feedback to make on stewards, please note down their ID number shown on their uniform to let us know.
AC: I’m aware of an incident in the North Lower at the Lincoln game. I am unable to comment on individual personal cases, but we are aware of the circumstances and have followed this up. We do use 200 radios and 20 body cameras for stewards around the ground to help us deal with issues quickly. We do have an immediate text helpline which we encourage supporters to use on the day if they see any problems – you can text 07500 778844 on a matchday.
7. AOB
MJ: I’ve been asked about the government’s ban on polluting single use plastics, and whether this will affect our ability to sell pints or give out cutlery for food. Expanded polystyrene hot cups are banned, but we’re not using these – ours are biodegradable. Our operations will be unaffected.
– Minutes by Donald Vass
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