I’ve unfortunately been unable to update the site as often as had been wished over the last few months and this is mainly due to the fact that I have been helping out with the Swindon Wildcats Ice Hockey Club here in Swindon.
Like many, I have become increasingly disillusioned with the “entertainment” aspect of watching The Shots especially given the 1½ hour each-way shift I was having to put in either side of the game and so decided to look closer to home for my “sport fix” and I can honestly say I haven’t been disappointed.
That said, I have been keeping an eye on Shots Talk and have watched as more and more supporters have begun to feel the same way as I did so it is obviously not just me becoming grumpy as I approach my 40th birthday!
The two things that used to make coming to watch The Shots better than anything else, was that the team would ALWAYS look as if they were giving 110% and the supporters did the same. Sadly in the last few seasons, we lost that and for whatever reason(s), it became dull.
We can all read the arguments for and against for continuing to “support” the club through thick and thin, but in my opinion, “we” as supporters have been gradually separated from the closeness that we used to have with “our” club and I believe that for the most part, that has led many to become less enthusiastic to continue.
Never has this been so apparent as over the last few weeks more and more supporters have been voicing their opinions while at the same time, attendances at the EBB Stadium have been falling.
In my opinion, it’s times like these that our Trust is going to get “found out” for being what it really is – a Supporters Club in all but name.
While I, and at least three other previous Board members tried to instigate some longer term projects which will give supporters more involvement and a sense of feeling closer to the club, those aspirations were never discussed by other board members, available Supporters Direct courses were never attended, information on constitution rule changes never read or progressed and the Trust continues on from where the Supporters Club left off.
I have posted my views on Shots Talk numerous times on how, with hindsight, I wish as a member of the Trust Steering Committee, we had opted to run the Trust as a separate body to the Supporters Club as I now believe that we could have better demonstrated how the Trust should have been run and today it would have been in a far stronger position – but all that is history now and we have what we have. It hasn’t shown what it is capable of as those on the Board have not properly embraced it and as such, members are left wondering why the change was ever pushed through.
Indeed, having given time to being a Board member, I became disillusioned with the whole process so opted to leave, but after a break – and having reached the end of the line reading the current “moans” on Shots Talk about what is happening on the pitch – I think it’s time “we” do “something”!
We can all sit around bitching and moaning, but life is too short. If “we” don’t try to change things we may as well all pack up now and everything from 1992 has been a waste of time.
I realise we’re not going to have an instant impact, indeed we may not make an impact at all, but heck, at least let us try!
Thanks for reading – please keep an eye on the site and if you would like to get involved, please get in touch. Our “Shots Forever” is designed to keep things simple, there will be no long boring meetings to attend, no red-tape to cut through and we want to do more than just keep the club happy – we’re doing this for the supporters.
Mike