Hereford FC Football Secretary Martin Watson has given supporters an insight into some of what he's been involved in recently.
‘It’s been several hectic weeks that’s for sure.
‘The things we’ve had to do to get the club ready aren’t in the thinking for most normal businesses.
‘We’ve not only had to seek to apply for an alcohol licence for the bars from scratch, we’ve had to apply for a whole raft of new licences to do various things. For example, this week we’ve been granted a licence from Ofcom to operate the radios the Stewards will use.
‘Mercia Radio have been really helpful in sorting that out and getting us new radios. We’ve got to get about a dozen licences for various things just to meet the terms of the Safety Certificate, and they’re all in hand so, barring a catastrophe beyond our control, we should be ready to open on schedule.
‘Obviously tickets for the opening friendly games are now on sale. They arrived this week and the Season Tickets are due to be with us in the first week of July.
‘Once we’ve sorted and labelled them they will be ready for collection or distribution. I’ve got to thank Steve Rivers, father of our new keeper Harvey, for his substantial help and expertise in getting the tickets sorted.
‘He does this sort of thing for his day job, as Rivers Media out at Bodenham, but he’s done all the design and sorted us out a supplier free of charge as the whole family are big supporters of the club.
‘We met the Midland Football League (MFL) officials a couple of weeks ago, and I’m due to be at their AGM on Thursday in Solihull.
‘The MFL officials say it’s bigger than the Football League in terms of the number of teams it contains, with over 100 teams competing in their various divisions. They’ve been really welcoming and keen to offer help if we need it.
‘So have the Herefordshire FA. They’ve told us their door is open if we have any queries going forward and they’ve given us massive support already.
‘There is a team effort going on to ensure we see a team cross that white line for that first game.
‘It’s not a team of a handful of people, it’s a team of dozens and dozens of people putting in their time, expertise, and experience to bring the ground and club up to scratch and get it ready for a new adventure.
‘And I, for one, can’t wait.’