Trust review of 2012-13

Dale Supporters Trust Chairman, David Gartside, who was joined by Rochdale AFC Assistant Manager Chris Beech, presented the CFT with a cheque

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The Trust started work before the season had even started. They surveyed supporters as to their concerns regarding Studds Bar at the club, and with help from supporters and the club, transformed the club bar into an establishment worthy of its name. By the time of the first league game, the walls were decked out in Dale shirts from the past thirty years and a tribute wall dedicated to outgoing captain Gary Jones with pictures from each of his seasons with the club.

As the traditional season curtain raiser, the Trust welcomed John Coleman to Spotland and gave him his first taste of a Fans Forum at the club. The event was well attended with a top table consisting of both management and directors with hopes high for the season ahead.

The Trust held its AGM in which it covered the previous twelve months, detailed its plans for the coming season, and members had opportunities to ask questions. The Trust committee were re-elected as the members backed its work over the previous year. Amongst the plans was a re-launch of Junior Dale in time for the 2013-14 season.

In October, the Trust entered the world of gaming by hosting a Fifa Night in the Ratcliffe Suite. Around thirty fans descended on the venue with the aim of becoming the Dale Trust Fifa Champion. Players Rhys Bennett, Joe Rafferty and Ray Putterill were warmly welcomed to the event, with Rhys making it all the way to the final before a narrow defeat. He’d have won had the tournament been played on Xbox apparently.

Supporters were given the option in November to choose the kit they wanted to see Dale run out in for the 2013-14 season. The Trust had pushed hard for supporters to be given this choice, and was delighted to see so many supporters take part in this vote. Their aim is for this to become an annual tradition.

In December, the Trust hosted a Mad Friday event in the Ratcliffe Suite. With the Dale game switched to the Friday evening, they hosted something of a Christmas party, with mince pies, Christmas quizzes, Dale videos on the big screen, drinks discounts and a free Dale scarf given to all those in attendance. Dale hammered promotion chasing Cheltenham on the night and that made it much more enjoyable to welcome the team and management into the bar after the game with smiles on everyone’s faces.

Just before Christmas, following much work by the Trust, the club took on trial some pitch covers that it was hoped would alleviate some of the problems that have hampered the Spotland pitch in recent years. Unfortunately, the trial of these covers proved to be unsuccessful, but not one single penny was wasted during this trial.

In a meeting with the club directors in January - mere minutes after the dismissal of John Coleman had been made public fan's concerns were raised by the Trust on junior ticket pricing at Spotland, catering at home games, possible online ticketing, player discipline at the club, the financial health of the club, the lack of a “Team Rochdale” feeling, and obviously the managerial situation at the club.

The Trust has over 100 exiled supporters amongst its membership, and they were invited to the Trust match sponsorship of the Aldershot home game in March. Around 30 exiles managed to attend this fixture on Good Friday and were pleased to see Dale escape with a hard fought point.

April was a busy month for the Trust, in which they were able to place an order for the pitch covers. It seemed a lifetime ago since fans set out to try and raise £30,000 for the Bowlee Project which ultimately became the Pitch Cover project. The new covers cost £5,250 and will help protect parts of the pitch from frost that previously the club were unable to do.

The season finished with two events with the Trust hosting the club’s End of Season Awards Evening in the Ratcliffe Suite in which over 300 people attended to witness Jason Kennedy being awarded the Supporters’ Player of the Year for the second year in succession. With Keith Hill having recently extended his stay at Spotland and turned around the fortunes of the first team, the night was dripping with the feelgood factor that was so evident in his first spell of the club. The night raised close to £700 for Cystic Fibrosis through ticket sales and the raffle.

Two days after, the Trust joined forces with Dale kitman Jack Northover and held a Kit Auction and Quiz Night at the club. It’s become an annual event now for Jack to auction off the club’s first team kit and training gear and this year was no exception.

The Trust has increased the links with the Supporters Team by purchasing a kit for them to play in next season. They will be representing the club next year wearing the Celtic style kit that was originally organised for Barnet away last season should the referee have deemed the kits as clashing.

Much work has taken place behind the scenes as well. This season, the Trust relaunched their online presence with a brand new website, new feeds for both Twitter and Facebook and a weekly emailed members newsletter with a hope of improving interaction between the Trust and its members.

The Friends of the Trust has been extended to bring benefits to supporters, and the Trust has worked with the club on a number of matters with the intentions of improving things for both supporters and the club.

The Trust has run the Player of the Month award for a number of years now but this year they took things a stage further with one Trust member drawn at random from the voters to recieve that player’s shirt in recognition of the award.

So all in all, a busy season for the Trust, but one they hope to beat for the 2013-4 season.