Chairman's Message - January 2007

chairman's message (16/01/08)
2007 has been an eventfull year at Links Park both on and off the field, changes in the board room, a new management team, new playing surface and the creation of a community club within Montrose Football Club.
A board room reshuffle early in the year helped create an environment for a new direction and vision for the club, it was clear to the new board that being open for business once a fortnight was not a sustainable model if we aspired to compete and progress up through the leagues. 
Jim Weir and his new management team joined in April and soon got to grips with the challenge ahead.
New players have been introduced and results have been encouraging, a five nil home win in the new year derby against Arbroath kicked off the new year with a bang, presently our away record in the league is the best in Scotland only losing 6 goals in total away from home.
Agreement was reached to partner with GlaxoSmithKline on the community project, this was an opportunity not to be missed. Unfortunately we were unable to secure  funding from Sports Scotland despite spending a huge amount of time and effort in building a business case. The funding short fall was met by a board secured loan. The project kicked off in early May and was completed on time to meet the demands of preseason training in early July.
As you will have read in the press the perimeter fence will be extended to help contain balls within the facility and reduce disruption to the local neighbours
Wood brothers Billy and John supported by Malcolm Rae are three individuals who deserve a special mention, the support and commitment they have given  to the Links Park upgrade project over the last year is difficult to put into words.
With the new surface installed the community programme was soon under way, numbers increased rapidly, exceeding expectations to 300 plus participants. Two full time community coaches are in place and equally divide their time between school based programmes and Links Park initiatives.
Youth development under the guidance of Director of Football Kenny Black continues to flourish with u17 and u19 competing in the SFL, top three finish is achievable for both teams even though we are competing in most cases with full time players
AGM was held and a share issue was approved, this gave individuals the opportunity to convert existing loans into shares and create additional shares for new investors, an area that will be critical if we want to full fill our objective of climbing up through the leagues. Operating turnover has doubled due mainly  to maximising utilisation of the facility and encouragingly an increase in home crowds. Demand for Advertisement Boards and Hospitality are continuing to grow, both generate considerable revenue for the club, continued support from companies in this area is essential.
Soccer First have taken over the shop within the ground and introduced the new Nike sports wear this has proved very popular with the supporters and  youths participating in the Community programme.
Throughout  this year I have actively pursued  new sponsorship, deals were concluded with Keltic, Attitude and Merpro.  Presently we are negotiating major sponsorship deals for the Youth Development and Community Programme, I am confident they will be finalised early in the new year.

Happy new year to all

Brian Winton
Chairman