Chairman’s New Season Message

I write to you as a newly appointed and proud chairman of a club that I can already see has great qualities and strengths, which are necessary to address the many sporting and commercial challenges ahead.

As we all look forward to the start of the 2017-18 season on Saturday, I have come to question what the club’s purpose is and what the purpose is of our owners and supporters. Collectively, we all have an influential stake in a passion we share and one that we must now direct in different ways and aspire toward higher achievement. This is a very important time, for all sorts of reasons, within football and society at large and it is incumbent on us all to contribute to our club’s good and strong purpose and its positioning and influence within the footballing and social communities. We must all come together as One this season and remove all tensions and any impediments to progress and, ultimately, to success.

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any organisation and we depend very much on your greatly valued and positive contribution. At the outset, I would ask that if you can afford to purchase your season ticket now, please do so. This, along with any other way that you can support the club at this key time, will provide the essential funds for the club’s player recruitment strategy. We will have a long-term rebuilding plan in place soon and we are only at the very beginning of that, but the stronger we are at the start, the better.

I’d also encourage you please, with great confidence and pride, to introduce – or re-introduce – a family member or a friend to the honest, authentic and at times extremely rewarding experience of supporting Clyde. Owner, Member, Supporter – all as One with the same objectives and core purpose.

A clear understanding of what is important to the club is essential. All of the players will be made fully aware of their responsibilities and obligations to perform in an honest, happy and expressive way when they pull on a Clyde shirt. The management team promote and embrace this approach – it is their way and it aligns completely with the club’s policy and strategy.

Unwavering, solid and real support is the key to inducing good results on the park, which in turn helps strengthen our purpose and our community. We operate in a stadium that can easily accommodate a growing support, so let’s challenge ourselves and others to create the circumstances and conditions to grow together and progress.

The Board are acutely aware of the financial pressures families are under at the moment and we want to offer, in relative terms, significantly better value to them. We will be working hard and smart with NL Leisure to improve the overall footballing, sporting and community experience at Broadwood. We have plans being considered and will report further on this in the coming months.

In general, the Board’s work is focused on three primary areas:-

• Footballing success – creating the conditions needed to gain three points on a Saturday. First and foremost that starts with recruitment of good management, stronger characters and populating the club with good and improved players. We ultimately want to develop a new, better breed of Scottish footballer. This is the primary objective of our footballing purpose. 
• Commercial income – active commercial growth through increased ownership, attendance and spend through improved experiential engagement. We want you to be excited about coming to games. We know that supporting Clyde must give you something positive back and we are working on this on a number of fronts.
• Community good – the Clyde Foundation is a ‘river of good’! We should support and embrace this part of the club, as its success directly affects the development of the wider club within the Community.

So, your attendance, support and ownership of this great club is more important than ever.

To conclude, the club has a new chairman, a new management team and a substantially new first team squad. There are exciting plans ahead. Please do now action your support to all of this and encourage all those around you to do the same.

Yours for The Bully Wee, 

Norrie Innes
Chairman