The Swindon Town Supporters Trust Vice Chair has said that he does not believe the club are fully aware of the scale of negative feelings among supporters.
James Phipps, the newly elected Vice Chair of the Trust, was speaking to BBC Radio Wiltshire and said that the new board was hoping to canvas supporter feelings as widely as they could to help bring those concerns to Swindon.
He said: “I have spoken to lots and lots of fans who for the first time in their entire life are looking at not having a season ticket next year and that makes me deeply sad and very frustrated.
“What you are trying to do is make sure that we are bringing all voices because you can sometimes have a very vocal few, but we are there to represent all.
“We need to make sure that every single one of those is heard so that there are sensible conversations and sensible things that we can go back to the club with and say, ‘this is black and white, you are going to get a tough job in renewing season tickets for next year’.
“Let’s put a number on that because we have got enough members now that we can give you a number that is very indicative that it will be tough.
“Whereas I think that the club felt with a few wins, etcetera, it will be ok, and I am not sure they understand in some ways the level of feeling around the fans.
“So, we are there to encompass all of those people and then when we are talking to the club, we are giving them very clear, very concise, and factually led conversations.”
Phipps said that the Trust had to walk the line between being critical and working with the club, but the new board had already made their feelings clear.
He said: “What we are trying to do is things that will help in the medium and long term and to do that you do have to maintain a working relationship with the club.
“What I can tell you is that some of those conversations since the new board have come in have been very direct with the club.
“We are very clear in our statement that there are some red lines we are starting to put in and if they do certain things then we will react to that very publicly and very clearly.”
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