Board Meeting online using Teams
Wednesday 5th August 2026, 7:00pm
PRESENT
Board: Stu Rogers, Mark Newman, Miles Hendy, Marie Day, Shahan Miah, Terry Hamlin, Jon Watts, Katrina Watts
Supporters: Tracey Carter, Christine Chard, Alan Payne, Wendy Rowland, Dave Clarke, Becs Sanchez
Bristol City: Jerry Tocknell (SLO)
Ashton Gate Stadium: Ross Wormald
Avon & Somerset Police: Tom Williams
Apologies: James Nicholls, Nathan Riddiough, Matt Seward, Jon Darch
1. Welcome
Chair Stu Rogers opened the meeting and welcomed attendees back after the summer break. Introductions were made to Ross Wormold, COO at Ashton Gate and to Becs Sanchez who will be the new City Women Fan Representative to the SC&T.
Stu confirmed that the meeting would be transcribed for ease of minute-taking.
2. Minutes and Matters Arising
The minutes of the May meeting were confirmed as a correct record.
Stu confirmed that all actions had been completed over the summer, with the following exceptions where updates were provided:
· Fundraising: Stu is still meeting with the Robins Foundation and the club. The Foundation were successful with their bid and have secured £40k per year over two years to set up health hubs around BS3. The SC&T is looking to support this with a complementary fundraising push alongside other supporters groups.
· Bar desk and signage: this has been left to the start of the new season. Ross will arrange the movement of furniture.
· Suicide prevention bench: Trina confirmed this will be delivered Monday and will be installed in the ‘well-being’ area outside the Atyeo. There will be a photo shoot at 1pm before the Millwall game and SC&T members are invited. Trina had had little joy with the Council in terms of additional benches. Ross will speak to a contact who may be able to help.
· Atyeo statue: this needs a tidy up. Club and SC&T will share costs. Stu will forward contractor details to Ross.
3. SLO & Police Update
3.1 SLO
SLO Jerry Tocknell said that the implementation of the new ticketing system had been the predominant issue for him recently. There were a number of questions and concerns from members, including difficulties with ticket priority entitlements, difficulties with family and friends tickets and with transferring tickets, difficulties making payments for tickets. Particularly concerning was the discovery of random fan tickets on Marie’s season ticket account. Also, fans are able to download other people’s tickets. This was flagged by Miles as a potential data breach.
Jerry said that there had been some significant teething problems, particularly with away games. Ross and Jerry agreed to review these areas of concerns and seek improvements to both the operation of the platform and to communication with fans on its operation. They will report back to the next meeting on progress.
Ross said that progress is being made but agreed that it is fair to be critical of the fact that the system has had to go live whilst testing and amendments are still being made.
There has been a high level of demand for supporter services assistance because of the problems, and the team have worked extremely hard to resolve these.
Jerry reported that physical tickets had been posted out to those who had applied for them. Only about half of those who had a card last season had responded to the email asking them to apply for a new one. Digital tickets will be sent at the end of the week.
Ross commented that the migration to digital ticketing is critical to the clubs “Premier League Ready” objective, digital only being mandatory in the PL from this season.
3.2 Police
Tom Williams reflected on last season, which had seen a good reduction in the number of arrests. There had been a similar number of banning orders to the previous season and City are around the average for the Championship.
Looking forward, the first month of the new season would see an enhanced police presence for the visits of Millwall and Portsmouth.
In response to questions about away and home fans sharing the Atyeo stand Tom confirmed that this did not automatically require an additional police presence inside the ground. Ross said that the intention is to sell seats in the Atyeo to new fans and/or to those who attend on a match-by-match basis.
4. Meetings with the club
4.1 Bristol City Women
Shahan Miah summarised the recent SC&T meeting with Hannah Buckley, the new CEO of Bristol City Women and Emma Jolliffe, Senior Operations & Project Manager. Debs Dilworth, Head of Women’s Football at the FSA was also in attendance. It was the first meeting for Becs to get to know them. Shahan felt that the meeting had gone well and they were impressed with the club’s commitment to fan engagement.
The club is recruiting a Sporting Director. There is no official SLO for City Women at the moment, but Emma said she can be a contact if needed, although that may change.
Becs said that she had also felt reassured: there is a great deal to do, following the separation from Bristol Sport, and still few people to do it, but they are confident that things will improve.
Stu proposed, and it was unanimously agreed, that Becs be co-opted to the SC&T Board as the City Women Fan Representative. Stu will meet with her to go through the induction process.
Shahan asked whether the SC&T would be subsidising away travel this season. Mark Newman proposed that, instead of funding losses on travel, we should provide a subsidy per ticket for coach travel this season. This was approved.
4.2 Bristol City FC
Stu reported that the recent meeting with the club had covered a lot of ground. In attendance was Charlie Boss, CEO; Amelia Griffiths, Fan Engagement Manager; Dave Barton, Bristol City Communications Director and Jerry Tocknell, SLO.
There were a number of ticketing related issues:
– The challenging implementation of the new ticketing platform
– Season ticket sales are below last season but the expectation is that the final number will not be very short. Average season ticket £284 (up £23) versus Championship average of £289 (up £62). Match ticket average £16 (not increased in 5 years) versus Championship average £19 (up £3.50).
– The upward creep of away prices: although ours have increased but they have gone up less than others and we are now around the Championship average.
– The 2026-27 fan engagement plan has been published. A great deal of hard work has gone into this and will go into its delivery. Stu particularly welcomed the work that the club does with young fans.
– New financial rules: FFP is replaced by SCR: the club intend to put out a briefing for fans on this.
– The SC&T suggested potential venues for an away forum later this season.
– The club are committed to discussing 2027-28 ticketing and marketing strategies with the SC&T and FAB much earlier this season and in time for those groups to have real influence.
5. Other Supporter Groups Updates
5.1 Robyns Round
Tracey Carter updated on a quiet summer, with one meeting. Members of the group are going to Birmingham. The group is working on supporting Leah Davis by spreading the workload. A website is being developed and membership engagement is being developed.
5.2 Fan Advisory Board
Dave Clarke advised that the group was meeting with the club the following week. The agenda included the matchday atmosphere, mechanisms to protect the club heritage assets (name, colours, ground etc), the development of a Disabled Supporters Association.
After so many personnel changes at the club during the first 9 months of the FAB’s existence, we are hopeful that we can now move into an era when we develop more long-term relationships.
The joint approach by SC&T and FAB on the issue of safety rails had produced a much more positive response from the club.
Mark Newman asked about the potential for a ‘travel exchange’ resource on OTIB: Dave will contact Mark about this.
6. Governance & Finance
Stu advised that governance and finance work continues behind the scenes and good progress is being made with financial administration, streamlining payments and record keeping.
There were no financial or governance decisions required at this meeting.
7. AOB
· Christine Chard reported significant disruption to the AG buses for the Newcastle friendly as a result of road closures on the Portway. These had been very inconvenient and for some fans – especially away fans unfamiliar with the area – quite worrying. There are further Portway closures planned and these will cause more disruption. There are also rail closures affecting the Severn Beach line during August and this will doubtless increase numbers choosing to drive and park.
· Christine also commented on the helpfulness of the stewards at the Swindon Town pre-season friendly. Jerry will pass on appreciation to his counterpart at Swindon.
· Shahan asked how we are communicating to members on changes to the bar arrangements. Stu will draft some comms for all to share, but it was agreed that this wait until after the Millwall game so that we can see how it plays out and whether any adjustments are needed.
· Jon Watts said that he is taking over from Jon Darch in regards to the management of our ‘fans of the future’ tickets.
Actions
· RW to arrange furniture moves in bar area.
· RW to speak to his contact at the Council about suicide prevention benches.
· SR to forward contractor details for the statue to RW
· RW and JT to report to next meeting on ticketing platform improvements.
· SR to meet with Becs for induction as new Board member.
· DC to contact MN about travel exchange resource on OTIB
· SR to draft comms on bar changes after Millwall game.
Minutes recorded via transcript, reviewed and written up by: Dave Clarke on 8th August 2026
Next meeting: September 2026. Exact date TBC