From the matchday programme

The following article appeared in the club’s official matchday programme for the game against Cambridge United (played on November 29).

Season ticket pricing: have your say

Dons Trust Board Member Mark Davis reports on the launch of a ticket price survey. There is also news of next month’s Dons Trust AGM, and a fundraising event that’s sure to prove popular.

Dons Trust members will remember a commitment made by the Dons Trust Board (DTB) to consult on the pricing of season tickets and matchday tickets. The first phase of our consultation should have been launched by the time you read this.

This first phase takes the form of a survey which will be open to all supporters – not just DT members or season ticket holders. We are asking some quite general questions about pricing, for example whether you think a supporter-owned club needs to go about this differently from other clubs, what you think about the differentials between different categories of ticket holder, and where our aspirations should lie. We are not, in this first phase, consulting on any specific proposals for how prices should be set or changed.

Once we have a better idea of where our supporters are coming from on these issues, we intend to launch the second phase, in which we will provide more information and ask more targeted questions. The questions we ask, and the information we provide, will be informed by findings from the first phase.

The information we gather from this exercise will not only help the DTB when it considers any proposals from the Football Club Board (FCB) for next season’s prices, but will also help inform our thinking on how we should, as a supporter-owned club, be exercising our influence in the world of football more generally.

To take part in the first phase of the survey, go to https://thedonstrust.org/ticket-pricing-survey. The multiple-choice survey can be completed online in just a few minutes; you can also leave more detailed comments if you wish. Alternatively, if you are unable to take part online you can collect a paper copy of the survey from the Dons Trust stall on a match day. The survey will run until 31 December, and we will announce the results in early 2015.

THE AGM

The AGMs of both the Dons Trust and AFCW PLC take place on Wednesday 10 December. As well as the announcement of the outcome of the DTB election and a raft of customary year-end business, there will be a resolution calling for timely publication of DTB minutes – an issue on which we as a board should rightly be taken to task.

There will be discussions on the way the DTB and the FCB are organised, and on the possibility of appointing associate directors to the FCB. There will also be a Q&A session, in which questions about the planning application for a new stadium will doubtless feature heavily. These are important topics, and I urge you to attend.

THE BOYS FROM THE BACKROOM

I am delighted to announce this season’s fundraising buffet evening. Following on from last season’s highly entertaining “Gossip, Goals and Glory” event, our special guests on 6 February will be the Boys from the Backroom – in the shape of Simon Bassey, Ashley Bayes, Stuart Douglas and Jason Moriarty. Simon is, of course, an old hand at this, having led a line-up of former players from the early days of AFC Wimbledon at a previous fundraising evening. We expect to see some familiar faces from the club’s past at this event too, but this time the emphasis will be on getting to hear from the characters who help drive the club forward from behind the scenes.

Tickets are on sale at £25 per person, or £200 for a table of ten, and can be bought via the club’s online ticket shop (www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/tickets/). Alternatively, send a cheque made payable to The Dons Trust, along with your contact details, to the club in an enveloped marked “Boys from the Backroom”. As ever, proceeds will go to the Dons Trust’s fundraising budget. Last year’s event was a sell-out, so do get your application in quickly.