Updates on:
- Northumberland Development Project: new stadium
- FA Cup match pricing
- Shadowing match day security
- Coach travel to Everton
- Surfer flag
- Charity cycle ride
Other:
1. Northumberland Development Project – new stadium
The most significant event of the month was Haringey Council approving plans for the new stadium, with representatives from the THST Board observing the meeting on 16 December at Wood Green Civic Centre. There’s still a way to go but we are now significantly closer to the project moving into its final stages. Plenty of work remains to be done and we’ll continue to try to secure the best possible solutions where we can. Our position is still one of full support for the stadium project and our primary reason for giving that support is that Spurs fans will benefit. We also believe that there will be greater wider benefits for the local area if the project goes ahead than if it doesn’t.
We continue to work closely with the Club to discuss everything relating to supporter experience at the new stadium, with an obvious priority area being pricing policy. Our finance working group is currently drawing up some detailed proposals and we will report back on progress soon.
We’ll also continue to work to secure a London ground for our year away, and to ensure issues around migrating fans from the current stadium to a temporary home and then to the new stadium are addressed in a manner acceptable to the majority of fans.
All of this means it is more vital than ever that we have a strong Trust, and so we’d urge all our members to try and sign up more fans to strengthen our collective voice. And those of you whose membership is up for or coming up for renewal, please do continue to support us in the vital year ahead.
2. FA Cup match pricing
Following the competitive pricing set for home cup fixtures over the past two seasons, we were pleased to see THFC continued in a similar vein by setting adult prices at £20 for members, £10 for seniors and £5 for juniors for our FA cup third round tie against Leicester City.
We also welcome the differential in pricing for members and non members, acknowledging those supporters who invest in a one Hotspur subscription each season.
We will continue to argue for and support lower pricing for both UEL and any further FA Cup games for the remainder of the campaign.
3. Shadowing match day security
Co–chair Martin Cloake shadowed the match day security operation at the home game against Newcastle, completing a round of four sessions undertaken by THST. This was Newcastle’s first visit since serious problems at the away entrances at last year’s COC quarter final, and so it was interesting to observe how the new away fan entry system worked after conversations between the respective Trusts, the Club and the FSF had led to the Club implementing changes. This was also the first shadow session since security was stepped up in the wake of the Paris attacks and we were able to observe at first hand how the Club is working to ensure the safety and security of fans while minimising the impact on fans’ enjoyment of the game in challenging circumstances.
These sessions have been extremely useful in improving communication between the Club and fans and in broadening understanding of issues faced. And they have helped as we continue to seek more formal input into the stewarding of match days.
We’ll be writing up the conclusions we have drawn from this for the FSF website, and we hope our experience can set the template for fans at other Clubs to strengthen their involvement with this important area of work.
We’d like to thank Sue Tilling and her team for taking the time to work with us and for putting in the effort to make sure everyone could take something practical from the experience. And we can certainly say that fans are in very safe and capable hands on match days. While some clubs appear to see supporters primarily as a potential problem, the Spurs match day team clearly takes the view that we are supporters, here to back our team and to enjoy our day, and we value that approach.
4. Coach travel to Everton
We’d been lobbying for the Club to do something to ease the pressure on fans travelling to our away game with Everton on the Sunday 3 January. Once again, our fans faced a late journey home on the day before the new working year started. It wasn’t possible for the Club to charter a train, but free coaches were laid on and funded through the Away Supporters’ Initiative.
We’re glad the Club did something to help travelling supporters, but we’ve made the point that the announcement of free or subsidised travel needs to be made much earlier if supporters are to benefit fully. We accept the very real issues there are in dealing with train companies that are unwilling to provide adequate rolling stock at a reasonable price, and that the Club – through the work of our Head of Supporter Services, Jonathan Waite – does make the effort to help travelling fans. We’ll continue to work with the Club to see if we can improve the lead times on these announcements.
5. Surfer flag
A large surfing flag has been ready to be used in the Park Lane lower for some time. In spite of several requests for assistance coordinating the surf, we've been unable to muster the bodies needed on previous occasions.
With a top of the table clash against Leicester City coming up on 13 January, we thought it worth another shot and are pleased by the reaction and support we’ve had from fans in the South lower offering their help.
Providing THFC give the green light, we'll finally be unveiling the flag immediately before kick-off at the league game v LCFC.
6. Charity cycle ride
THST Board member, Kevin Fitzgerald, is leading a team of Spurs riders from London to Amsterdam in June to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK. We’ve wanted to take on a charity project for some time and we’re delighted with the progress on this. We have eight riders signed up, and more in the pipeline, putting Spurs at the top of the table of Premier League teams taking part. The team consists of fans, representatives from the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, and Club staff.
There is still time to sign up for the ride. So, why not start the New Year by registering here.
For more information, contact Kevin on kevin.fitzgerald@thstofficial.com.
We’re grateful to the Club for helping to publicise the charity bike ride. We will be marketing the ride strongly over the coming months, and we urge all our members to give any financial support they can. The team’s Just Giving page is here.
Other:
Premier League Enterprise Challenge
THST Board member, Kevin Fitzgerald, Chris Paouros from Proud Lilywhites and Richard Griffiths from the Spurs Marketing team formed the judging panel for this annual challenge, in which the Premier League invite schools local to each Club to compete. This year’s challenge was to outline a strategy to encourage more fans to spend more time in the stadium on match days.
Teams of six or so 13-15 year old school students from St Mary’s, Cheshunt, St Thomas More, Tottenham, the Foundation’s Tottenham UTC and St Andrew the Apostle, Barnet, presented their ideas at White Hart Lane. St Andrew the Apostle stood out with an excellent presentation and now go on to the regional finals at the Emirates in February. So, here’s for an away win!
The Board would like to thank Gareth Dace, the Schools Education and Enterprise Manager at the Tottenham Foundation, for the invitation to take part in this very enjoyable task.
Membership database
We have secured a new platform for our membership database and hope finally to rectify the outstanding problems with the system by the end of January. The new system will be significantly easier for us and for members to use. We’ll give a full update next month once the new system is live.
AGM
The Trust’s AGM is scheduled for Monday 22 February 2016. Organising this will take up a significant amount of time over the coming few weeks, so we’d urge members to be patient if it takes us a little longer than usual to reply to any questions or requests. Full members will receive the formal convening notice by email on Friday 15 January but please put the date in your diary for now.
THST Board Meetings
The next THST Board Meeting is scheduled for Monday 18 January with the next full meeting between the Boards of THFC and THST scheduled for Wednesday 10 February 2016.
FSF Awards 2015
THST Co-chairs, Katrina Law and Martin Cloake, were in attendance at the annual Football Supporters’ Federation Awards in London on Monday 7 December where Tottenham Hotspur’s Head of Supporter Services, Jonathan Waite, was shortlisted for Supporter Liaison Officer of the Year for the second year running. While the award eventually went to Chris Waters of Sunderland AFC, we were pleased that Jonathan had been recognised once again for the work he undertakes in this area.
Katrina was a guest of the FSF with Martin attending with fellow journalists from the Football Pink, at no financial cost to the Trust.
North London Derby policing meeting
We are still awaiting a suitable date for the debrief with the Metropolitan Police following the North London Derby at the Emirates in November and will update asap.
Media:
Co-chair Martin Cloake was interviewed by the Daily Mail about the new stadium, and co-chair Katrina Law was set up to be interviewed by Sky, but the story was bumped by something or other that happened at Chelsea.
We continue to deal with a number of enquiries from foreign language press too.
Finally, we’d like to thank all our members for your support over the past year, and to wish all our members, and all Spurs fans, a very happy and successful new year.
- Premier League Enterprise Challenge
- Membership database
- AGM
- THST Board Meetings
- FSF Awards 2015
- North London Derby Policing Meeting
1. Northumberland Development Project – new stadium
The most significant event of the month was Haringey Council approving plans for the new stadium, with representatives from the THST Board observing the meeting on 16 December at Wood Green Civic Centre. There’s still a way to go but we are now significantly closer to the project moving into its final stages. Plenty of work remains to be done and we’ll continue to try to secure the best possible solutions where we can. Our position is still one of full support for the stadium project and our primary reason for giving that support is that Spurs fans will benefit. We also believe that there will be greater wider benefits for the local area if the project goes ahead than if it doesn’t.
We continue to work closely with the Club to discuss everything relating to supporter experience at the new stadium, with an obvious priority area being pricing policy. Our finance working group is currently drawing up some detailed proposals and we will report back on progress soon.
We’ll also continue to work to secure a London ground for our year away, and to ensure issues around migrating fans from the current stadium to a temporary home and then to the new stadium are addressed in a manner acceptable to the majority of fans.
All of this means it is more vital than ever that we have a strong Trust, and so we’d urge all our members to try and sign up more fans to strengthen our collective voice. And those of you whose membership is up for or coming up for renewal, please do continue to support us in the vital year ahead.
2. FA Cup match pricing
Following the competitive pricing set for home cup fixtures over the past two seasons, we were pleased to see THFC continued in a similar vein by setting adult prices at £20 for members, £10 for seniors and £5 for juniors for our FA cup third round tie against Leicester City.
We also welcome the differential in pricing for members and non members, acknowledging those supporters who invest in a one Hotspur subscription each season.
We will continue to argue for and support lower pricing for both UEL and any further FA Cup games for the remainder of the campaign.
3. Shadowing match day security
Co–chair Martin Cloake shadowed the match day security operation at the home game against Newcastle, completing a round of four sessions undertaken by THST. This was Newcastle’s first visit since serious problems at the away entrances at last year’s COC quarter final, and so it was interesting to observe how the new away fan entry system worked after conversations between the respective Trusts, the Club and the FSF had led to the Club implementing changes. This was also the first shadow session since security was stepped up in the wake of the Paris attacks and we were able to observe at first hand how the Club is working to ensure the safety and security of fans while minimising the impact on fans’ enjoyment of the game in challenging circumstances.
These sessions have been extremely useful in improving communication between the Club and fans and in broadening understanding of issues faced. And they have helped as we continue to seek more formal input into the stewarding of match days.
We’ll be writing up the conclusions we have drawn from this for the FSF website, and we hope our experience can set the template for fans at other Clubs to strengthen their involvement with this important area of work.
We’d like to thank Sue Tilling and her team for taking the time to work with us and for putting in the effort to make sure everyone could take something practical from the experience. And we can certainly say that fans are in very safe and capable hands on match days. While some clubs appear to see supporters primarily as a potential problem, the Spurs match day team clearly takes the view that we are supporters, here to back our team and to enjoy our day, and we value that approach.
4. Coach travel to Everton
We’d been lobbying for the Club to do something to ease the pressure on fans travelling to our away game with Everton on the Sunday 3 January. Once again, our fans faced a late journey home on the day before the new working year started. It wasn’t possible for the Club to charter a train, but free coaches were laid on and funded through the Away Supporters’ Initiative.
We’re glad the Club did something to help travelling supporters, but we’ve made the point that the announcement of free or subsidised travel needs to be made much earlier if supporters are to benefit fully. We accept the very real issues there are in dealing with train companies that are unwilling to provide adequate rolling stock at a reasonable price, and that the Club – through the work of our Head of Supporter Services, Jonathan Waite – does make the effort to help travelling fans. We’ll continue to work with the Club to see if we can improve the lead times on these announcements.
5. Surfer flag
A large surfing flag has been ready to be used in the Park Lane lower for some time. In spite of several requests for assistance coordinating the surf, we've been unable to muster the bodies needed on previous occasions.
With a top of the table clash against Leicester City coming up on 13 January, we thought it worth another shot and are pleased by the reaction and support we’ve had from fans in the South lower offering their help.
Providing THFC give the green light, we'll finally be unveiling the flag immediately before kick-off at the league game v LCFC.
6. Charity cycle ride
THST Board member, Kevin Fitzgerald, is leading a team of Spurs riders from London to Amsterdam in June to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK. We’ve wanted to take on a charity project for some time and we’re delighted with the progress on this. We have eight riders signed up, and more in the pipeline, putting Spurs at the top of the table of Premier League teams taking part. The team consists of fans, representatives from the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, and Club staff.
There is still time to sign up for the ride. So, why not start the New Year by registering here.
For more information, contact Kevin on kevin.fitzgerald@thstofficial.com.
We’re grateful to the Club for helping to publicise the charity bike ride. We will be marketing the ride strongly over the coming months, and we urge all our members to give any financial support they can. The team’s Just Giving page is here.
Other:
Premier League Enterprise Challenge
THST Board member, Kevin Fitzgerald, Chris Paouros from Proud Lilywhites and Richard Griffiths from the Spurs Marketing team formed the judging panel for this annual challenge, in which the Premier League invite schools local to each Club to compete. This year’s challenge was to outline a strategy to encourage more fans to spend more time in the stadium on match days.
Teams of six or so 13-15 year old school students from St Mary’s, Cheshunt, St Thomas More, Tottenham, the Foundation’s Tottenham UTC and St Andrew the Apostle, Barnet, presented their ideas at White Hart Lane. St Andrew the Apostle stood out with an excellent presentation and now go on to the regional finals at the Emirates in February. So, here’s for an away win!
The Board would like to thank Gareth Dace, the Schools Education and Enterprise Manager at the Tottenham Foundation, for the invitation to take part in this very enjoyable task.
Membership database
We have secured a new platform for our membership database and hope finally to rectify the outstanding problems with the system by the end of January. The new system will be significantly easier for us and for members to use. We’ll give a full update next month once the new system is live.
AGM
The Trust’s AGM is scheduled for Monday 22 February 2016. Organising this will take up a significant amount of time over the coming few weeks, so we’d urge members to be patient if it takes us a little longer than usual to reply to any questions or requests. Full members will receive the formal convening notice by email on Friday 15 January but please put the date in your diary for now.
THST Board Meetings
The next THST Board Meeting is scheduled for Monday 18 January with the next full meeting between the Boards of THFC and THST scheduled for Wednesday 10 February 2016.
FSF Awards 2015
THST Co-chairs, Katrina Law and Martin Cloake, were in attendance at the annual Football Supporters’ Federation Awards in London on Monday 7 December where Tottenham Hotspur’s Head of Supporter Services, Jonathan Waite, was shortlisted for Supporter Liaison Officer of the Year for the second year running. While the award eventually went to Chris Waters of Sunderland AFC, we were pleased that Jonathan had been recognised once again for the work he undertakes in this area.
Katrina was a guest of the FSF with Martin attending with fellow journalists from the Football Pink, at no financial cost to the Trust.
North London Derby policing meeting
We are still awaiting a suitable date for the debrief with the Metropolitan Police following the North London Derby at the Emirates in November and will update asap.
Media:
Co-chair Martin Cloake was interviewed by the Daily Mail about the new stadium, and co-chair Katrina Law was set up to be interviewed by Sky, but the story was bumped by something or other that happened at Chelsea.
We continue to deal with a number of enquiries from foreign language press too.
Finally, we’d like to thank all our members for your support over the past year, and to wish all our members, and all Spurs fans, a very happy and successful new year.