CEO JAMES LEARY – PRE-SEASON UPDATE

With just two weeks to go until our first home game I am pleased to say we have just reached the 500 mark of season tickets sold. It is an incredible milestone. Last season we hit 580 and so our target this year is 600+. I would like to thank all supporters for making this happen. Numbers like that are rare at our level and if we keep pushing on it will allow us to keep growing as a club.  

Season tickets can be purchased from the following link: https://marinefc.ktckts.com/package/mne2223hst/season-ticket-202223. Collection of season tickets is available on the following dates from the 1894 Bar & Bistro: Fri 5th Aug 7-9pm, Sat 6th Aug 2-3pm.

We have had major supply problems with Puma as have most clubs. As a result we have severely limited stock of replica kits. Any available kits that are remaining are in the club shop. We are taking details of any pre-orders which would be on around four-week lead times for any stock that isn’t currently available. I am also told by Puma that the setup of our online Puma store to allow supporters to order online will be completed this week. 

Our first game of the season is Guiseley away on 13th August. We are to run a supporters coach to this game and tickets can be purchased on the following link https://marinefc.ktckts.com/event/mne2223awa01/guiseley-away-coach-travel. We will look to run supporters coaches to as many away games as possible but we need the supporters to sign-up to enable them to run. 

To update everyone on a few things;

Squad

Following our promotion Neil has been bold and has looked to make a lot of changes to the squad for the coming season. Hopefully, compared to when we played them in the league twice last season and came out second best on both occasions, the Bootle friendly demonstrated the desire from everybody to push on again from where we were last year. We still have a number of signings we are looking to make before the first game away at Guiseley. We have finalised and are awaiting paperwork for two strikers from EFL clubs. The first will be announced over the next couple of days. The second is on a European tour with the EFL club and will join us on his return on the 14th August. We have other players we are hoping to finalise this week. We don’t rush into signings and as Neil says want to make sure they will improve us and they are the right fit for us. This strategy has helped drive the success over the past few years.

Stadium plans

We have been working with the council for the last 12 months on plans to maximise the stadium. They include a covered stand at the Crosender Road end, more turnstiles and an additional seated stand next to the current College Road stand. We are due to receive further comments from the council over the next few days. 

We have just this week received a £20k grant to change our floodlights to LED. This will give us big cost savings as we increase pitch usage and the work will be completed over the coming weeks. 

We have had installed a new CCTV system within the ground free of charge thanks to a local company. This is a great improvement to security and will mean we can monitor every corner of the stadium 24/7.

We have purchased a food hut and a drinks bar stationed at the far end of the ground. We are just awaiting the electricity feed to be extended from the College Road end to the far end for this to be operational. It will be completed through August/September. 

Marine In The Community

MITC has been a massive success over the last few years and continues to grow. We are delivering coaching in most high and primary schools in the local area. MITC now employees 10 people and we are to recruit a full-time Head Community Coach within the next 14 days. Any interested parties should find the link below: https://uk.indeed.com/cmp/Marine-Football-Club-1/jobs?jk=4a280be7be181f27&start=0&clearPrefilter=1.

Marine Women’s FC

I am looking forward to a successful season under Dave and Vonn. The squad is continually improving and I have no doubt that they will push for promotion to the North West division. Our relationship with Crosby Stuart also continues to blossom and Frankie Meadows has been a crucial part of the Women’s team development over the past couple of years. 

Marine U23’s

I am enjoying working with Sean O’Hanlon, our new manager of the U23’s. Sean has a great pedigree having played 400 football league games. In pre-season, Ben Jones and Toby Jones (both aged 17) have made appearances for the first team and have promising futures.

Marine Academy

Recruitment has been really strong for the Marine Academy which is now to be based at the MTA rather than at Jeffrey Humble in Fazakerley. This is a big step up for our players who will receive their education at the club and will train every day on the new 3G pitch.

Club Shop

We have looked to renovate this in partnership with Merseyside Police and UK sports shop charity Sports Traider. The renovation works will be completed for the South Shields home game. We will look to sell not only Marine merchandise but general sportswear. The shop, when finished will be open 9am until 5pm Monday to Saturday. This will contain substantially more stock than previously, we are just waiting for the final structural elements to be finished.

Pitch

The feedback from fans re: the look of the pitch and from our first team and others who have played on it has been positive. We did our best to make the finished product as close as possible to the feel of a grass pitch. The pitch I hope for first team matches will mean better and faster-paced matches. 

1894 Bar & Bistro

This summer we finally started our food menu serving breakfast and lunch from 9am to 5pm. There is a final piece of equipment that has been extremely delayed that is expected to be delivered in August, which will allow the extension of food to include evening meals and we will then be open from 9am to 9pm. We will host weekly curry and burger nights to name a couple. 

We are a club on the up and that will only continue as the local community continue to back us. Neil and co are working harder than ever to bring success to our football club.

If anyone has any questions please get in touch at james@marinefc.com

Thanks for your continued support,

James

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