Here is a bulk of what was said on Thursday Night.....................................
If Tomas Holy was to move on at the end of the season, Gillingham are looking to sign Luca Zidane as replacement - most likely on loan - I know, Real Madrid to Gillingham who would have thought it.
Tom Eaves is staying at Gillingham until the end of the season unless a huge offer were to come in during The January Transfer Window.
We have got a 15% to 20% sell on fee for Bradley Dack, So let's hope someone offer's thirty million for Dack sooner rather than later.
Season Ticket Books to be replaced with a electronic card system, this ticketing system is from Norway and this system is being tested constantly to make sure it works, The Chairman said that this is a one time implementation, if this gets messed up during installation, then the card system won't be implemented at all and supporters would reject it completely, other clubs were used as example's of already having ticketing card systems.
Some Sad News, Match-Day Programmes likely to go within the next 3-5 years, Production Costs and the money made from Programme's is minimal and match-day programme's could be available to buy online instead - just not the same though is it.
FOF - Fans Of The Future was mentioned a lot On Thursday Night (Fans Of The Future was perhaps spoken about most frequently on Thursday Night), The club want to get out there and try and think of ticketing schemes and incentives which entice young supporters away from The Premier League and Champions League - and that is difficult to do because when your friends support Liverpool and Manchester United - does a seven year old want to support Gillingham when there friends support Premier League Clubs, pear pressure and all that. I mentioned that young fans need to see the players and manager, maybe organise a meet and greet on the training ground, A Young boy or girl could show a photo of themselves with Tom Eaves and Steve Lovell and say that they got a photo with Gillingham's Top Goal-Scorer and Gillingham's First Team Manager, which could be something that turns that young fan into a life-long fan.
Bradford City Ticketing Model was mentioned by myself and others a lot, the one issue the chairman had with this is if we promised supporters £150 Season Ticket providing that Gillingham get 5,000 Season Ticket Holders and the club only gets 4,000 and you have to pay an extra £50 on top of what you have paid for your Season Ticket Already, then supporters would not be happy.
New Stadium is going to have a massive Data / Cloud storage system built underneath the pitch, safest place for it and there are some big companies willing to pay good money for data storage.
There will be a huge medical centre and storage units built which can be rented out which will be built with the stadium in mind, one way to generate additional revenue as Gillingham only use Priestfield Stadium for fifty hours for the entire year.
Stadium will be built with expansion in mind, Paul Scally spoke about the catchment area of Medway / Kent and how the catchment area can support Premier League Football. But what Gillingham want to achieve off the pitch may not run parallel with what Gillingham are doing on the pitch, Stadium Capacity could well be 30,000 with the option to expand later on down the line.
Our Current Playing Surface will last for ten year's, Burton Albion reported Gillingham's pitch to The Referee and our own players were not happy with the pitch either, after some serious testing, the pitch was to be found to be moving underneath the top layer and we had to pay close to £500,000 for the new pitch, This cost also includes a new drainage system.
Last Season was apparently the first time in our entire history that Gillingham's Away Form was better than our Home Form. Chairman spoke about the players do not always enjoy playing at Priestfield Stadium, Conor Wilkinson was mentioned as an example, Because Wilkinson struggled mentally with the criticism, and how do you say to the supporters you need to support the team more at home without getting a lot of stick in return, The Bradford City Ticket Model was mentioned again as one way to improve the atmosphere inside Priestfield Stadium, along with Safe Standing and giving supporters the choice to stand at the back of The Rainham End, Safe Standing isn't going to happen at Priestfield Stadium, but could be a possibility for the new stadium.
Player Wages Is £2,200,000, which is a lot, but nothing compared to other clubs, Burton Albion's was £12,000,000 last season, Sunderland's Is £50,000,000 Now, Championship Clubs have wage bills over £20,000,000 and these figures might need to be double checked for clarification, But The Championship will breakway from The Football League and be renamed as Premier League Two within the next ten years, More money will come into the second tier, and I think it is only a matter of time before this does happen unfortunately.
Premier League, Champions League, I Follow For Mid-Week Matches, The Money Spent By Football Clubs in-terms of transfer fee's and wags, English Football is reaching breaking point according to our Chairman, and supporter expectation is higher now then ever before.
Some Investors are only interested with funding the clubs off the field plans and not looking to put money into our on the field activities, other investors might not have the football experience and do not want to run the football club activities day to day and are happy with Paul Scally to continue in his current role.
FA Cup Match against Cardiff City is massive, especially if Gillingham win and get A Glamour FA Cup Fourth Round Tie, we missed out on TV Revenue for The Cardiff City Game though.
There was nine of us in the meeting, and the group we were in was apparently the largest turnout, But everyone at the meeting who had several questions that needed answering left the meeting at 8.50PM more positive then we were when we entered the ground at 6PM, So our Chairman spent three hours on A Thursday Night speaking with Gillingham Supporters about our concerns and answered any questions that we put forward to him, What is the crucial part of this though is the fact that we cannot be talking about the same-things in eighteen months to two years time and we need to see some of what was suggested actually implemented with eighteen months to two year.