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| Jon Hale, Second From Left, Watching The Game |
Jon Hale, chairman of Hereford FC, was very pleased with the turnout of over 700 for this afternoon's charity match at Westfields.
"Absolutely amazing, over 700 people and a lot of talk about the new club here today," Hale told BN.
"Fantastic to see everyone enjoying a game of football and a beautiful afternoon as well."
The interview then turned to the subject of the leases of Edgar Street and whether they will be signed on or by next Friday.
"That's the plan. Both sets of solicitors are pushing on so we think we might be signed maybe Thursday or certainly Friday.
"Then we can push on and hopefully get the season tickets selling and do a bit of commercial stuff as well.
"There are problems with the electrics at the ground. There's quite a bit of work to do before we can open the ground in its full state but certainly to start with we're hoping to get the club shop open so that we can use it as an office and a shop at the same time.
"We are in no great rush for the rest of the ground as football won't take place until July.
"We know what we problems are and we've just got to work through them stage by stage. Hopefully we'll get the Starlite and Addisons open as the next stage after doing the shop.
"And at some stage in June hopefully have the whole stadium open.
"It's a case of working through things but the most important thing at the moment is to get the leases signed so that we can get season tickets on sale."
How do you keep the momentum going given there's still several months until the first game of the season?
"We've got to manage expectations and there's a lot of things going on in the background that we haven't been able to say anything about because everything was coming back to getting these leases firstly agreed and then signed off.
"So there's a lot of things we are holding back with at the moment, season ticket prices being one of them, kit deals, kit sponsorship.
"All of those things will come out over the next couple of months.
"It is absolutely key to get the momentum of the supporters up and then try and keep it up as we want to sell season tickets.
"There is a great atmosphere about the place, you can see that hear today."
Would the price of season tickets depend which league Hereford FC are in?
"We've basically taken a decision whether we are in step five or step four we've decided on the level. Maybe a bit of tinkering to do. Hopefully we'll announce season ticket prices sometime in the next few weeks.
"If they decide to put us in step four we wouldn't change the season ticket prices."