Representatives from the Trust met with the club on Friday evening following the recent changes at the club.
There had been a great deal of speculation amongst Dale supporters following the recent developments in the Boardroom that had seen Chris Dunphy step down as Chairman to be replaced by Andrew Kilpatrick. Trust members had been in contact with us with regard to this so we were keen to find out more so met with newly appointed Chief Executive David Bottomley on Friday down at the Crown Oil Arena.
Initial talk was about incoming Chairman Andrew Kilpatrick who will officially take over as Chairman on 1st January. He has had a long family connection with the club and is the biggest shareholder in the Football Club. Despite being based in London, he intends to be a very visible chairman. Last season, he attended 35 Dale games plus a pre-season game.
Incoming director Tony Pockney was described as being “brilliant in finance” and joins the Board after being a season ticket holder (along with his family) for many years.
We asked if we would see any change to what we described as being the “Rochdale mentality” in the way the club was run. We were told that the changes were part of the evolution of the Boardroom and the intentions were still to run the club within its means, with the intention to maximise all revenue streams to the benefit of the first team.
One thing that the club are keen to do is to push the club within the local community. It is a key principle of the Board that they want to develop closer links with the town as a whole and work has already started on that through the Dale Community Trust.
Dale supporters will get the chance to meet the new look Board early in the New Year. A forum is being arranged and we hope to bring you the date of that very soon.
It is the intention of the Board to be more open and develop closer ties with the fanbase, and as part of that, the Club have agreed to hold monthly meetings with the Trust (they were keen to hold weekly meetings!).