[0:00]Can you hear me at the back? Oh shit, you can. Yeah, I didn't expect to be that loud. Sorry. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us at this latest live uh event. Um thanks to everybody who's here, who's paid in advance, who's paid on the door. Um a little thanks shout out to everybody who's traveled, particularly Portland, Oregon, Washington D.C. San Francisco, you can clap, it's fine. Tasmania.
[0:34]And a certain Eric Allen who's flown in from Colorado and he is literally on fumes that man. What about new broughton? What about new broughton? Why are we going to Give him some coffee. Rossland, New Broughton, Rossland, Somerville. Oh, you know, the the 10 minutes just as important as the 10 hours, thank you. Um so yeah, we got a great lineup, you know who's here. I'm not going to rattle on and prattle on. The bar is shut in between the the panels. Um but when they're open, cheers your glasses, grab one, grab two, get the food, etc, etc. Anyway, let's crack on. Liam, over to you. Good evening. Um so, for our first guest, well, let's just say promotions are an easy thing to do, aren't they? Um but it's talking about phosphates with Rexm Council that's the really, really hard part. Um so that's why we need a professional, someone who knows the language of International football but also speaks fluent Rexm planning meeting on a Wednesday afternoon. Um so this man has brought us a high profile business words like hydrate, but he's also made good on his promises where shiny and rather huge cop currently rising from the ashes of old. Uh just three more stands to go now. Um so ladies and gentlemen, please join in giving me a warm Rex and welcome to the man who holds the key to club operations, the architect of our off field strategy, and the only man in the building who knows exactly where the Rocking Robin suit is hidden. It's Rexm CEO, Michael Williamson.
[2:10]I hope that works. Testing one two. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Now you need to do some beatboxing. bring my own beer up because I thought they'd at least have a bottle of beer up here for me but We're not that professional myself. Simon, you heard the man. But that's okay. Michael DC in the house, where is DC? DC in the house. There you go. Sorry. Shout out. Uh Michael, I'm going to hit you with a toughy to start the night off. I really hope you don't mind this, but can you actually tell us where the Rocking Robin suit is and have you tried it on? So, there is a search out for the Rocking Robin suit. If anyone has any information, there might be a reward available. Um, it will need to be dry cleaned once we get it, I think. Um, Now it's interesting, Robin and then one of my other clubs, you know, DC DC United was was an eagle, so I'd I'd definitely if we can find it, we can have a little bit of a of a match up showdown and mascots there. I think that'd be kind of interesting. But no, the the Rocking Robin suit is missing. Um if anyone knows where that might be. Um I don't know if we really want to dig it out. I actually know where it is. You do? Yeah, yeah. Talk to Jenuly. Yeah, we'll talk after. So what I said what I said about a reward that was not true. He's just going to make more. Everything I just said about a reward is off case. Um You really do? I do. We'll talk. We'll talk later. Right, let's get down to the uhtty-gritty. Um two words which I'm sure you you love. Uh loyalty system. Um, thanks for coming, Mike. No, no. Last time I was here it was fan zone. You know what, you guys really, I'm going to stop coming at some point. We we like buzz words, so uh today we're going for loyalty system. Um someone's sent us in a question asking basically why doesn't the club have one and they say we are the only club in the championship not to, which I Yeah, I think I saw something also said that that was one of Sean Harvey's regrets, uh which I I think they might be mistaken. I think it was Humphrey that said it because I'm not sure Sean Harvey actually regrets anything. Oh, kidding. Sorry. Uh and he's not even here to defend himself. That's not fair. Um no, no, listen, I I let's go to the root of the actual problem, which is we have um, a capacity issue, right? That that's at home, like and we can talk about the away side of it for in a in a minute, but I think the the biggest underlying issue is you know, we have 10,500 seats and we have a lot more people that want to come and watch us play here in Rexm. Um and you know, that's why the the cop was such an important uh project as soon as I arrived to say, we need to get this underway. We need to get this, you know, started, we need to get this built. Um because one of the biggest um services we can do for the community when we talk about being a community club, one of the biggest services we can do is make sure we have seats available for people that want to come watch us. Um and 18,000 might not be enough, but it's definitely a lot better than 10,500. So we have to solve that problem first, right? Because then you know, what we want to make sure we don't aren't doing is necessarily creating a closed system. Uh we want to make sure that we can be open um and and allow everyone to to come that wants to come. Uh it doesn't mean we won't be implementing a loyalty system, but to do so and to do so well, we need to have the capacity to be able to set it up properly. Um as far as away matches, I mean, I think that's this season. I think there was um and our away support's been absolutely fantastic by the way, but being in the championship, we have a lot more um seats available in the venues we're going to in the stadiums we're going to.
[6:04]And so that has become a little bit of less of an issue. Uh there's still a few matches, you know, three or four matches every season where um, you know, they sell out and and it's, you know, there there that's where you look at it and say, okay, if there was a loyalty scheme in place for the away matches, maybe, um, you know, we could we could prioritize how those tickets are distributed. Uh it's obviously in League one, League two. It's a different story. That'd be a lot more challenging, but being in the championship that definitely helps to be able to allow for more more seats for the away matches. So it's a long-winded way of saying that, you know, it is something that we want to do. Um if we did it two years ago, we would probably look at it and say, okay, we're regretting how we set it up and we'd be changing it over the last two seasons. So the most important thing is that we now have a fan advisory board. Um and and I'll probably talk on that a little bit more and I'd be happy to talk about it more, but the fan advisory board has been set up um not by the club, but working with the FSA. The FSA is the fan supporters association. That's an independent body, right? So they've come in and we said, listen, we want to set up best in class, what you're recommending, you know, you guys help us establish the charter. You guys help us establish how it operates, how it works. Um and the fan advisory board is now set up with with, you know, in a proper way with a great group of individuals. And this is exactly the type of thing that we as a club should and want to go to them with. And sit down and say, okay, here's all the options that we could look at. Here's all the different ways we could do it. Um help us, help advise us. What is important? How should we structure? How can we be fair for everyone? Not everyone's going to be happy, we know that, but at least with the feedback from the Fan Advisory Board, we'll be able to set up something better. But the key is solving the underlying issue, which is let's get more seats. The faster the cop is built, the sooner we are able to set up something that that's proper.
[8:01]Sorry. I don't know if I actually answered the question, but sorry. It's a good crowd.
[8:08]They're all season ticket holders. Yeah, yeah. They're already in the house. Yeah, they're fine. Um if there's one thing which the club prices pretty fairly, I think it's, you know, away ticket pricing, but it has been observed that other teams perhaps. Coventry. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. You know, 45 pound um for an adult ticket. Do you think that's because of them, you know, the possibility that they're going to close the season out and get, you know, kind of get there or do you think it's just because of Rex and Dad? I honestly I don't know. I mean, I don't actually know. I'm just curious what your opinions are honestly. Yeah, it's I mean, Coventry aren't you know, it's not the only time we've been cut or whatever this season. So if you think about a Rexm fan coming from North Wales going to going to quite a few away games. Oh, 45, right? Yeah, yeah, it's an extra 10 or 15 quid each time, and that just adds up throughout the season, and that's where it really bites. Plus a coach or or you know, so welcome Gaz. Yeah.
[9:15]Stay tuned. Um so yeah, I mean, I know the club probably has limited influence in terms of what it can do about that, but does the club have a view on on things like that? Yeah, listen, I think we saw it in League Two, we've seen it in League One, we're seeing it now in the championship. You know, it's frustrating because we have you know, let's call it what it is, a Rexm tax. And the reason why it's frustrating is because it goes back to the fact that we only have 10,500 seats, you know, 13,500 last season.
[9:53]And there's a lot of people who aren't able to watch us at home. And so people are, you know, being penalized for coming to watch us at away matches, and that's frustrating. Absolutely frustrating. Um, you know, one of the other is where it's challenging because at the end of the day, it's the home clubs that get to make these decisions, unless we can set up a club to club, uh, you know, kind of reciprocal agreement, which, you know, there are some clubs where you can have those conversations with, or unless there's a league wide kind of mandate. I I my opinion on this is two wrongs don't make it right. Um and you know, we have an affordable ticket for our our fans, um, who are fortunate enough to be able to to be to watch us here at home. And you know, we're affordable for for away visitors as well, and I don't believe that two wrongs make it right and and and so I'm not going to do something just because they did it to us. Um that's my position on it.
[11:27]You mentioned the uh the FSA earlier, is that something that they maybe alongside the Rex and supporters could could look at as a as like an action plan? I mean, what what's the club's relationship with the WST now? Yeah, so the WST is is is great. I mean, I talked to to Barry on on a fairly regular basis. Um I think WST along with the FAB, um, man, I love all these like acronyms, right? They're a okay. Yeah.
[11:56]Um, so so yeah, I think, again, once the cop is is built, we'll have more tickets available.
[12:47]We are looking to to say, okay, how do we allocate a part of the overall 7,500 tickets to international supporters, right? How do we make sure that we have those available so that they know at least within that block of tickets that they're going to be able to have access, so they can plan their trips, so they can plan their flights, so they can plan their their their accommodations and know that there's tickets available. The challenge is the league schedules and in the fact that, you know, on a very short notice, we get our games moved. And and that's not, you know, that that's listen, it's only going to get worse if if we're in the Premier League. Um but that's something that's always going to be a challenge. So at the beginning of the season, yes, however, it's always going to be subject to um but not subject to something that's necessarily in our control. Right, I'm going to completely change tack then. Uh let's talk about the cop. No more. No, no. Yeah, yeah.
[17:55]I mean, I've become a bit of an engineering expert over the last last couple of months. I've been watching a lot of drone footage. I know about piling, I know about struts. Um so where are we with sometimes watching to get caught up to speed with. Oh my gosh, I'm like, where where? Where are we with that? I was talking to the contractor Mclaren and and and they're like, well, yeah, it's amazing like, I don't know where how this information is is gathered here. It's very technical on that. No, I mean, it's great, it's a great it's a lovely history of how the cop will will be built. Yeah. Um so where are we with the cop? Is it on time? Is it on and I'm going to put this in bracket revised budget and and will it open in stages? On time uh on budget, on time so far, yes, yes. Um and I say so far because obviously, you know, we still have another, you know, 12, 14 months of of work to go and anything can happen in that period of time. But things are moving along very well. McLaren's been a great, um, partner, a great contractor. Uh, it is a design build, so so what that essentially means is we turn over the site, we turn over the keys. They build the entire thing, they give the keys back to us, right? So so that they're responsible for the delivery of being on time and they're responsible for the um budget. And so from that perspective, we have as a club, um minimal risk. Um, it is on them to to deliver that, which is which is the the advantages of design build. So so far everything's been moving along very well. They've they've thrown more resources at it when they need to just to make sure they give them a buffer, so that if there is anything that that kind of goes sideways, they're able to have extra time in that. Um stages. Oh, that was I was like what's your other question? Yeah, no, yeah, well open basically. Can you open it part open? Yeah, so so that's something we're exploring uh and and the reason being is that full completion, you know, final touches, everything in place, all the furnishings, you know, we're looking at that kind of early um, you know, spring 2027. Which really means that from a a season ticket plan standpoint, you're you're looking you're looking at that 27 28 season. But that doesn't mean that we can't get people in before that. And that's what we're looking at. You look at that's why, you know, 12 months ago, I went and visited Fulham, right? Because I knew that that was something that we wanted to explore and Fulham's doing it now where for different reasons, they've been under construction for that stand for like five years or four years or something. But they've been opening it up during match days, right? And that to understand how that works from a safety standpoint, from the ability whether it's it's 500 seats, a thousand seats, if we can do it safely, and if we can do it where it doesn't impact the overall timeline or budget, um then then that's what we're going to look to to try to implement. So hopefully, you know, we'll be able to have seats available. It doesn't mean that it'll be the seats of what the cop looks like, but it'll be seats that will be available for sale as soon as possible. That's our that's our goal. Uh but it won't be the full 7,500 at that stage. Um if all goes well with the plan you've doubtlessly gotten your head, where will we be in five years in a sort of ground and and team sort of capacity?
