Leeann Dempster

Afternoon Folks, this has been an interesting topic so far and please continue to add your views. Someone recently (and before you speculate - it wasn't anyone at the club) said the following to me: "Don't bother spending time on your hard core supportes - they will stick with you whatever" It not only surprised me but importantly it got me thinking about what they had said. To me it smacked of a different era and an arrogance of certainty that no matter what clubs do, fans will pitch up. Well as evidence suggests otherwise and not only in our figures but in football and sports as a whole, it is just not true. I want us all at the club to engage our fans, importantly involve you in decisions that affect you and for us all, fans, employees and directors alike to be custodians Now onto how we involve you and I don't have a pre determined view on how we do that so hence the initial post. I don't want to just try and create another body / committee and I see the absolute value in the Trust and Supporters Association working in partnership. I have been researching and talking to other clubs to see what they do on this front and so far at least, Norwich City have what I think is the best example of where we might end up. Nothing hard and fast but I think this would be a great start. http://www.canaries.co.uk/page/SCG/ I await the incoming! Leeann

I thought I would open up a new topic for discussion. I have briefly summarised some thoughts below. Our relationship with fans, the MFC Trust and the Supporters Association and how important it is for all concerned. Most of you who visit this forum will likely be well versed by now on the direction in which I am trying to drive the club. For those of you who have not heard me repeat time and again, essentially our future lies in our own hands and that is the fans and the community at large. Our goal must be to aspire to become, amongst other things, the best supported club in Scotland, the best family club in Scotland, the best community club in Scotland etc. All of which we can only try to aspire to with your help. Fans are our club and they are the most important thing to the club. Point for discussion I would like us all to consider the opportunity for more direct fans involvement. This could take the shape of a Supporters Advisory Committee perhaps made up of representatives from the MFC Trust and the Supporters Association and importantly representatives of those who are not involved in either. Personally I think such a committee would be an excellent way to involve fans in the more challenging decisions faced by the club. I think it also shows commitment to be more inclusive, would / could forge a better relationship and give fans a firm understanding of some of the more painful decisions that on the face of it seem unpopular. Thoughts, alternative ideas, challenges please… Also I would be appreciative if someone would post this topic onto Fir Park Corner for me please Leeann

Morning Folks, For those interested (if there are any)...we have had a horrid time with the weather and the havoc it is causing with the stadium plumbing - this is nothing to do with the age of the pipes or the stadium itself -its just the weather. Now that the thaw is on we have bursts all over the stadium, in every stand flooding key areas. I won't bore you to tears with the detail but Flow is in mourning for his lovely press room...pretty wrecked this morning, Alan for the laundry and these are only a few of the problems we have to contend with. No different to others though, we just have to fix them get on with it and do a cleanup. LD

I hope this now makes life easier for all. Our apologies that the ticket office closed early on Saturday. I did say earlier that I would come back to you all and tell you why so I'll be honest and say that it should not have happened and that is was because of poor communication internally. I had said the office should open till 1pm but it was picked up differently - totally our fault. I have been contacted by a few people who had come over for tickets on Saturday so we are responding and apologising... On the game itself, I have spoken directly with ICT today and they have advised that the ground is ready, pitch is playable etc - it will now all be down to what the weather does in the next few days but at this stage the game is on. Earliest update we will have for you will be Thursday so please what the main website. Leeann

I can confirm that if the match is postponed for any reason then refunds are available. Ticket office opens again on Tuesday.

Dear all, I have been made aware in the last half hour or so that the ticket office closed early today after my instruction that it should be open till 1pm. I will find out why this has happened and post to advise. This is wholly unacceptable and my apologies first hand to all. I am really annoyed that this has happened, particularly after the recent issues surrounding the Rangers game and my reassurances to you all thereafter. For those who were inconvenienced, please contact me on leeann.dempster@motherwellfc.co.uk and I will personally make sure you have your ticket/s purchased and delivered in the manner that suits you. Leeann Dempster

Evening everyone, firstly can I say that I can accept the fact that my response to the original post was robust. I'll be open and honest with you all and say that the reason for such a response was the reference to F ing idiots. I just felt that the language was totally unnecessary and at the time it really upset me to think that because of essentially an oversight on our part that we were being branded as such. I should perhaps of waited to respond or indeed requested that this individual contact me directly but sometimes I do say what is on my mind - although in hindsight it did me no favours this time and I understand the comments made. Being honest, pretty direct and plain speaking is the way I have always worked and (in general) this has been and will continue to be of benefit to the club. I have said already in this forum that we want and welcome feedback - it is the only way to improve what we do at FP. We really are trying and I am striving to bring everyone along with me in my commitment to make Motherwell the best community, family and fan focused club in the country. I know I keep saying this to anyone who will listen but I really do mean it. A few points to note We have improved our communication to you all but I accept that we messed up this week in not advising of the ticket office closure on Thursday afternoon, an no doubt that inconvenience some folk and for that we are sorry. All concerned won't make that mistake again. Although on sale for the best part of three weeks - we should have opened the office this morning for last minute tickets and I'll talk to the team about that on Monday. Diane and myself were at the ground earlier today working on another project and for some fans who came to the office, we were able to locate the balance of the tickets and sell them a ticket. Not ideal I accept but we did try to help on the day. We have increased our investment into the staffing and technical elements of the ticketing system so hopefully you will see us improve more over the coming weeks. I truly believe we have a better offering now than we did say 6 months ago however I accept that it still needs to be slicker and more organised but we really are trying. I'll sign off now but as ever, talk to me, moan at us, perhaps even feedback the good comment but please just keep talking to us. Leeann

That is a bit rich - the same idiots that have had the ticket office open 6 days a week recently, have been working their backside off to deliver a better more rounded service to all. The same idiots that have had the tickets on sale since the 28th November available by person, by post or for collectionat Ibrox so three ways that they could be bought. I could go on, yes we went for our Christmas lunch and if you must know - booked before the fixtures were announced but remind me next time and I'll consult my crystal ball. Yes we should have put it on our website that the office was closed but there has been a lot happening - the small matter of two old firm games back to back - and we simply forgot, Alan has already held his hands up – sorry won't happen again. A cardinal sin committed, we closed the ticket office early ONCE this year and all of a sudden we are all idiots. It must be great to be perfect, never have to learn by your mistakes. I'll finish now because you'll see from my words that I am disappointed to say the least. Charming - merry christmas to you too.

The club are looking for ways to make football more affordable and as ever I am keen to hear what everyone has got to say from ticket pricing to innovative ways to stretch payments. I will be coming to you all soon to get some feedback for next season with a view to looking at ways to offer easier payments, perhaps new longer terms direct debits schemes and workable ideas / other ways to encourage fans back into the ground. I will be in contact with the supporters association and the supporters trust to plan a meeting pre Christmas to kick off these discussions so you can either email me prior to that with your ideas or keep them till the meeting. To kick it all off we are going to test - a 3 month payment scheme for half season tickets. No catches, no interest, no admin fee - just 3 straight monthly payments whereby we will issue the season ticket after payment 2.....and essentially we are operating on trust that the 3rd payment will be honoured (and yes we will pursue it if not however I prefer to take the trust perspective.) Yes there is risk to the club but if we don't test these ideas then we will never know whether or not they might work. Norwich City instigated a similar scheme a few years back and it proved so popular and so successful that they were able to extend it for a longer period and roll it out across all season tickets. I want to see if it can work for us. Once completed I'll be transparent with the figures - how many folk have taken up the offer and the number of, IF ANY??, defaulters. Leeann

On a very personal note, I have had the privilege to have known and worked with Betty. In the time that I have been with Motherwell which has just gone a year I cannot say that any one person has helped me more, kept me straight with invaluable information and direction and generally been a great support than Betty was. I will sorely miss her. She was always positive about and very proud of this great place and I will always be grateful to her – she had a kind word for all, kept us strong in defeat and no-one enjoyed a win more than her. Lastly, not kind gesture was ever forgotten….Betty had a card for any occasion and loved to send her thanks, kindness and thoughts whenever appropriate. Much love to you BP.

I'd be interested in listening to what you have to say and as it happens I am already planning to take a proposal to the board around exactly your point - how to get more fans not only interested but importantly involved with the club - in all aspects - from all things matchday to ticket pricing. It would be radical however nothing is off the table in my view. We really do have a vision for this club, it might sound naff to some...a vision...but it is real and more over achievable. I have essentially started a process of repositioning the club to be once again a community focused, fully part of the fabric of the area, family club. It won't happen overnight but it will happen. Anyways this is not the forum for me to rattle on and to be honest I am not fully ready to do so either but I will be back to you all and soon. I was only on to post the numbers! Leeann

Many have asked about the home crowd on Saturday so I thought you might like to know some of the numbers. Be clear, I am not commenting one way or the other. What is posted below is a what we have logged coming through the turnstiles. Cooper normally has 799 season ticket holders - 651 came on the day. In addition to the 651 who came along a further 109 bought tickets East normally has 1,328 season ticket holders - 1,304 came on the day. In addition to the 1,304 who came along a further 411 bought tickets POD normally has 386 season ticket holders - 360 came on the day. In addition to the 360 who came along a further 182 bought tickets. The above excludes hospitality and member tickets in the POD and Cooper - these consist of areas such as the Millenium, Centenary and Cooper Boxes where we have approx 200 members total. If you took an average of the above then approx 8% or thereabouts of season ticket holders did not attend on the day, the vast majority of which sit in the Cooper.

Booking a seat on the charter - if you have tried to contact us over the weekend by email then please be aware that as luck would have it!!!! - our emails appear to be down and won't be working again till at the earliest tomorrow morning. So, in the meantime Diane can be contacted on : 07773 532198 if you have any questions ore want to confirm your place. You can PM me any questions if you prefer and if it is hotel related then I am trying to sort that today. All the info has been sent to our office emails so trying to get resent to personal ones in order to get the hotel info out to those that need it.

Guys you'll appreciate that it has been quite a task pulling this together so we are still working through the detail. Diane and Wilma were getting through the calls etc as quickly as they could today. Diane is working tomorrow to try and tie up some of the loose ends - hopefully we'll have the hotel options finalised tomorrow also. Don't worry, if Diane or Wilma spoke to you today then you'll be on the list. Mail me tomorrow if any issues. leeann.dempster@motherwellfc.co.uk Please bear with us as the devil is in the detail. Remember the package on offer is for flights, match ticket and transfers by coach, we will recommed a couple of hotels with MFC rates however it is up to you to sort your own accomodation. I know you are aware of this but just to reiterate that point. Leeann

We have met with Flamurtari club officials this morning and have important and updated ticket collection information. Tickets should be purchased before the match via the official ticket office at Fir Park only. This can be done over the phone also. We will receive an updated list of those travelling. Tickets can be collected today wednesday from the team hotel which is the Sheraton in Tirana. Tomorrow the same up until 12 noon and thereafter club officials will be at the Hotel Vlora International from 12noon till 4pm which is approx 300 meters from the stadium. Supporters should collect tickets before the match at either venue and MUST NOT travel to the stadium without a match ticket. I must stress this point. Thereafter we are asking that all fans will travel to the stadium as a group from the Vlora International. Club officials will be there to organise this. If you are travelling or know anyone who is and has left I would ask you to refer to the above information and to pass it on where possible. If there is any doubt use the mobile numbers and information you received when tickets were / are bought. Again the meeting point will be the Vlora International Hotel next to the stadium and do not travel to the stadium without a ticket being collected.

Evening everyone, I know that Flow has posted the basic ticket info onto the club website however for those travelling and therefore collecting tickets over in Albania you'll be given information at the time of purchase as to how to pick them up. Just a note however for everyones reference just in case you need to contact the club while you are over in Albania - the team are staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Tirana and Flow, Leeann Montgomery and myself will be there from early on Wednesday morning. When you purchase your tickets you'll get a sheet with full contact details and times that we'll be there or at the stadium however for those who might need it I felt a note on where we are staying would be useful. Jade and Karen in the ticket office will be in contact with us from the UK also by email so we can get message that way also. A reminder, my email address is leeann.dempster@motherwellfc.co.uk but please only use this as necessary and remember to include a contact telephone number. This will hopefully make sure no-one is left without a ticket. Leeann and myself will be at the stadium on Thursday if all else fails although I'd urge you all to pick tickets up as soon as possible. Flow will post similar info on the official web also for those who don't read this site... Leeann

Apologies for the delay in adding my comment but as you'll understand we only returned back to the club late afternoon yesterday and it's been hectic ever since. An update - the club do know who these individuals are as both myself, Leeann Montgomery and Alan Marshall (the club football safety officers) were on scene on Thursday evening to attend to Mr Miller and liaise on his care and to make sure he got home. We will not name and shame as that is not appropriate however I will say this to you all - both individuals involved will be banned from attending matches at Fir Park. A thoroughly disappointing end to what was a very enjoyable day however I will add that 99.99 % of all fans behaved impeccably and that is indeed a credit to the club. I must add a note of thanks to Diane Harvey who yesterday went to see the Mr Miller to make sure he was ok.

Guys, just to help get the right message from the club, we are not trying to stop anyone from travelling to the match and of course it is your choice to do so. All we want to do and indeed tried to do in both our website updates earlier it to say that there are genuine concerns and to be aware of them. We are not running a club charter this time - the team are going on scheduled flights so for those independent travellers we want you to be aware of all available information before you book. We possibly went out a bit to quick last night with our statement ?? but we wanted to make sure that before flights were booked etc that everyone had the info. Some fair comments and as I have said before we won't hide. To wrap up, there will be more information coming out from the club for those who do decide to go and we'll make this live as soon as we get it. Alan will keep the site updated and as ever, you have my details if you want to rant in person.

I am on the boards today to make an informal appeal to you all. In and around the ground I am working hard to revitalise areas and this includes our bars, hospitality rooms and all other public areas. Part of this process is to begin to catalogue all the memorabilia we have so the shirts, programmes, awards etc ensuring that we properly conserve every item for the years to come. As important to me is making these items available for display so we can share them with everyone when they visit Fir Park. To that end we have much to do but I'd also be interested in talking to anyone who has memorabilia including photography that they would be willing to share or allow the club to copy for display purposes within the stadium. I don't have any hard and fast ideas as to what will be displayed and where so your ideas welcome. It could be as simple as sharing an iconic photograph that you have whilst capturing a magical moment….who knows. We also have plans to investigate the possibility of creating a heritage trail in and around FP (this was suggested to me by a season ticket holder and I think an excellent idea) and all of the above would likely be used at some point if we proceed with the idea. If nothing else I hope this post will start the debate as to what you all have as regards memorabilia and bring to life some of the memories. I can't PM as I don't post enough so you could reach me on leeann.dempster@motherwellfc.co.uk or indeed talk to Flow. Leeann Ps – It has been on my mind for the past few months to make this appeal however a fellow fan donated 4 posters to the club today that we will reproduce so this donation prompted me to post.

The pitch is being levelled however that does not mean that the slope is going. Levelling means that the playing surface will be level relative to other parts of the pitch - with various works done over the years the surface is actually on 3 or 4 levels (albeit it small variations but there all the same). If you could imagine replacing parts of your lawn over the years you never get it all exactly level unless it is all ripped up. That is what we have the opportunity to do now. Estimates vary on the slope, I have been told that it is as much as 7 feet, others say 4 and a half and I won't know for sure until the work is completed where it finally sits but don't expect to see it gone, the work and cost to do so is just so prohibitive.

I thought it useful to update everyone on the plans for the pitch over the coming weeks. Works starts here on Sunday 24th with strip off of all the top material. That will take about 2 days to remove, we then have to further expose the main heating pipes by digging down and removing additional materials around the pipes. By the middle of next week we will be turning our attention to the drainage system by re-grafting all existing 9 drains on the pitch (essentially digging them out, overhauling and modernising them) thereafter we are installing a further 10 drains and additional drainage measures which will more than double what we have at the moment That work should be finished on or around the 3rd June. Then for me the really interesting elements of the project start to happen, the park will take delivery of the new sub materials that build the pitch base and that will take between 4 and 5 days to install and grade. The undersoil heating pipes then get replaced, these are installed after the park is laid out, channels are dug out and the pipes are drawn through and guided by laser so we know exactly where they are. The system is then tested and commissioned and the channels back filled to cover the pipes. We are installing new linesmans runs with artificial grass for longevity and then, on or around the 13th June, the pitch is seeded and fertilised. We have invested in new germination covers to use throughout the coming seasons and these will be used straight away once seeded to bring the grass through stronger and quicker. All contractors should be off site by the 15th / 16th June. There is obviously more involved and the above is just a summary. Suffice to say we all have quite a busy summer ahead of us but rest assured we are working hard to give our team and supporters the very best playing surface we possibly can. Alan B will keep you all posted on the official site. Leeann

This option (and the school adult) is indeed the scheme we have run now for a few seasons whereby season tickets can be purchased by local schools in blocks for the pupils and supervising adults. Ratio between kids and adults is normaly around 6:1. The option should not really be showing onscreen as these purchases have to be made by a school representative in person at the ticket office as there is quite a bit of paper work that follows. Our apologies for the confusion. I'll have this option removed and get the ticket office review to see if it has been used by others in error and contact them to resolve. Leeann

Hi there, thanks for the question and it is one that no doubt will arise for others. New students don't receive their matric card until the new terms starts so I believe the best way forward is to bring in her offer letter from the college or uni involved. If this is a problem then please let me know. Regards Leeann

Apologies for the delay in responding. The books themselves are in the final stages of being printed and will be with us towards the end of next week - we'll let everyone know when they are in. Provisional delivery date is the 22nd, they need to be checked and counted etc so likely ready for pick up / delivery to start on the 25th. As regards our database, folks getting multiple renewals, non delivery etc etc. I have to admit it and say publically what I have been saying from day one and that is the data is not good enough or strong enough. That is why this season we have asked all fans to please fill in the forms and give us as much info as possible. We are effectively archiving the old database and starting afresh with all the new info. Alan posted a note on the web to this effect and we are talking to people when they come in to say the same. Lastly, we've been toiling somewhat with the ticketing system. It was new at the start of last season, all bells and whistles but unfortunately, for reasons that I won't go into here, I have had to have a rethink of the system and order quite a lot of reprogramming work to get it nearer what we require for now and the future. Much of that has been completed and hopefully the proof is in the fact that season tickets can be bought online. There is more to come in terms of functionality so bear with us. Renewals to date have been strong for this time of the year so we are hopeful of a continued positive response in the weeks to come.

Just a quick note to help clear up the delivery scenario. The only tickets that are required be collected in person are the concessions so students and those aged 60 or over. The reason for this is that proof of eligibility is required and that needs to be done in person. All others can be posted. If you have any questions or queries then Jade or Karen in the ticket office will be happy to help 01698 33 33 33. Hope this helps. Leeann