I’d like to start these notes off by welcoming Stephen Ireland to the club.
Stephen is a hugely experienced and talented player with plenty of Premier League experience and I believe he will be a tremendous asset to the squad as we head into a very busy period of fixtures.
We welcome him to the team and are looking forward to seeing him take to the field.
It was a pleasure for me to have met up with our supporters last Saturday before the Blackburn Rovers game and to be able to answer the questions they put forward.
It is important that we have this two-way dialogue.
On Monday, I followed this up with interviews for the Bolton News and Radio Manchester and hopefully all the questions have now been answered and we can move on.
One of the common themes was about the price of match tickets and I’m pleased to say that we have fully taken these points on board.
The club has discussed a range of initiatives which we believe will make the opportunity of watching Bolton Wanderers more affordable for certain matches whilst also not adversely impacting the value of those who purchased season tickets before the current campaign got underway.
For the Swansea City game on Saturday 10 November, all season ticket holders will be able to purchase up to four additional tickets for the match, at a discounted price of £10 per ticket. Tickets for this fixture will go on sale on Monday 15 October at 9am and more details will be announced later this week. We hope that many of our loyal season ticket holders take advantage of this offer and bring their family, friends and colleagues to help boost the attendance and atmosphere.
Half season tickets, which will commence on Boxing Day for our fixture with Rotherham United, will go on sale next week and those who sign up for them will benefit from some incredible savings as opposed to buying tickets on a match-by-match basis.
Prices will be confirmed on the club’s website in the coming days and those who commit to a half season ticket early, will also be able to benefit from the season ticket holder offer for the Swansea City game as mentioned above.
To further strengthen the benefit of being a season ticket holder, we will also be introducing a ‘bring a friend for free’ offer for a home game in the New Year. Again, this will be an opportunity for a Wanderers season ticket holder to bring a close associate with them at no extra charge. This offer will also be extended to those who purchase a half season ticket.
Our Community Fixture for this season will be the Ipswich Town game on Saturday 6 April and in conjunction with the Bolton Wanderers Community Trust and their partners, Bolton At Home, we will be donating 1,500 tickets for this match to the local community. Further to this, I am delighted to confirm that we will be returning with our ‘Community Fiver’ pricing policy whereby all tickets for this match will be priced at £5.00. I really hope that the game will be sold out and that the University of Bolton Stadium will be greeted by a very special atmosphere.
Please stay tuned to the club’s communications channels, where all the information will be available in due course.
As always, if you have any comments or suggestions please write to the club or email our head of marketing and communications Paul Holliday at pholliday@bwfc.co.uk.
Your feedback is very important to us and we do listen and take on board your comments.
Next week, the Bolton Wanderers International Football Programme (BWIFP) will be hosting its Elite Pro Club Experience (EPCE) at the training ground and Bolton Whites Hotel.
Over the duration of the past year, the BWIFP has delivered its talent ID clinics in countries such as the USA, Canada, Colombia, Italy, Australia, UAE, South Africa and Poland and has engaged with over 900 participants from under 9s to under 19s.
The high achieving players from these coaching clinics have been hand selected to take part in the prestigious EPCE which is held annually at the club and hotel.
The players involved will work with the club’s Academy staff on a variety of sessions, seminars and strength and conditioning built in and around a competitive games programme as well as playing a variety of academy opposition over the duration.
The EPCE has grown annually with this year’s event set to welcome 26 of the best players (under 14s to under 17s) they have engaged with.
This year’s participants will be the strongest cohort the EPCE has seen so far and the coaching team are all looking forward to the intensive week of training and fixtures ahead.
I cannot praise enough the work the Hotel and BWIFP staff undertake to make this programme a massive and continued success.
I am hugely proud of them all as not only does the IFP bring in additional revenue but it also attracts and generates some fantastic PR for the club and town all over the world.
Special credit must go to Suzanne Speak, Margaret Graham, Danny Clarke and James Ward for their drive to make the IFP the success it is, whilst praise must also go to Sam Redshaw and Peter Alymer who have both been instrumental in supporting the success of this programme.
Please follow them on social media to witness at first hand the excellent work they do both here and overseas. They can be followed on Twitter at @BWIntFootball and Instagram at bwfip. For further details please click here.
Finally, I would also like to take this opportunity to praise our Head Groundsman Chris Simm and all the groundstaff. Following a very busy summer schedule with the concerts and Rugby League Challenge Cup semi-finals, the pitch still looks in top shape at this stage of the football season.
This is down to Chris and his team’s diligence and expertise which is appreciated by everybody connected with the club.
Best wishes,
Ken