Morning All,
Regarding the sponsors night. The truth of the matter is that we have tried but we can't get a date and a venue that can work before the end of the season. Essentially last year the team had additional match strips to use and rotate throughout the season therefore it was relatively straightforward for the team here at FP to secure authentic strips/merchandise to present before the end of the season.
The issue that has arisen around the sponsors presentation is that the team need all their kit right up until the 23rd May (because of the Canterbury change over we have not been replacing Bukta kit for the first team) for the Killie game and thereafter they quite literally all leave for their summer breaks. This leaves us no scope to have the presentation on the 24th May which was our tentative date. After discussion I took the decision that in order to have a proper presentation and a decent night that we should do it early into the new season. We are not trying to ‘rip’ anyone off, nor deliver on our promises, this year for all of the reasons I have mentioned above we just can’t get a date that works.
It has been compounded somewhat also as ideally we would have wanted to have an end of season dinner also. We had to wait on the split fixtures being issued so we could plan a date whereby the players were available. By the time we were in a position to secure a venue and date for this we were unable to pull it together in a way that would have delivered a quality of night and real value for money. Again, my thoughts were that we'd have this event early into the new season and / or merge the two.
I had written to everyone personally to explain the situation and asked for their personal views on whether they wanted the strips now or were content to wait. I have had a response from 3 people to date, all of whom understand and are would prefer to wait.
No smoke and mirrors on our part as there will be a presentation only slightly later.
Happy to talk to anyone that wants to on the above.
Leeann