Ahead of another Bank Holiday weekend we have been busy at Chesham United HQ getting together our plans for the 2023/24 season when, once again, the brief to the management will be to get us up there pushing for promotion to Conference South. That remains our goal, it is ambitious and we know that it means generating more income to the club, developing a stronger community-based support and getting closer to the Ladies and Youth sections of the club; but I honestly believe we have never been in a better position to achieve that goal.
Financially we are working on selling our sponsorship packages and I have to say the response from local businesses has been tremendous. We have also negotiated what I think to be one of the most incredible shirt sponsorship arrangements the club has ever had, details of which we should be in a position to announce early next week. Selling shirt sponsorship is always a challenge and in the past the club has had great success with the Corporate Patron Scheme effectively generating a high-priced raffle ticket to win the sponsorship, and many of us of a certain age will remember the days when national DIY chain MFI were our main sponsors, but this is something different. For those of you that were not keen on the recent switch to more of a white kit, believe me, that was nothing compared to the dramatic change of our home colours to the MFI purple and orange in the mid-1990’s!
Talking of kit, as well as announcing our new sponsors next week, we will also be revealing the new kit for next season which I think will go down well with the traditionalists, and we also have a smart away kit that will also be available to purchase. Exciting times, watch this space.
We are currently working on a good programme of pre-season friendlies, there will only be one home game as we give the pitch the longest possible break before starting the new season, when once again we will be sharing the facilities with Aylesbury United for their home games along with our Ladies playing their matches at The Meadow on Sunday’s and I hope there will be opportunities for some of our younger teams to experience playing on the surface from time to time during the drier months of the season. Pre-season details will be announced later this afternoon.
If you have not yet purchased your season tickets for next season, please be aware that the Early Bird offer comes to an end on Wednesday 31st May at 23.59pm, so in order not to miss out please visit the club’s ticketing website here.
A reminder that on Saturday morning we will be having a work party at the club, helping to get the ground in shape for the new season, if you can spare a couple of hours of your time it would be much appreciated. Bring along your brushes, buckets, shovels and tools and we will make a start on clearing, terrace sweeping and painting; it will also be a great opportunity to catch up with fellow supporters that you have not seen for a few weeks. I know it is very easy to just assume that someone else will do it, but it does not work like that. What is it they say? Many hands make light work, this is certainly a case of that – it would be great to see you there.
Away from the football, we have made arrangements to allow the Chesham All Girls Bands to use the club facilities for rehearsals for a few weeks over the summer months, I hope this becomes part of a closer community tie that will see them down at The Meadow again during the season to provide some pre-match and half-time entertainment and we can help them to raise funds via bucket collection.
Have a great weekend,
Peter Brown, Chairman
