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| James Watts Talking To Supporters |
Hereford FC's newly appointed general manager, James Watts, has said that he hasn't come to Edgar Street for the short term. He hopes to be with the club for at least five years and see it back in the Football League
In an interview with BN, Watts was asked why Hereford.
"The history, the locality, I knew Jamie (Griffiths - Hereford's media man), I worked with him previously, the 21,000 that went to Wembley.
"It was a good point in my career, five years in the football league as a commercial manager.
"The job here will look good for my CV if I can do it.
"I think every football fan in the football league wants Hereford back in. People like coming here.
"It's the ideal job at the ideal time for me."
So how long does Watts expect to stay with Hereford?
"It's one of them. You judge it as you go along. I haven't come for the short term. I wouldn't have made a move here otherwise.
"I've openly said in every job I've been in that I think five years is probably where you get to your limit but I'm one of these type of people that when I think I've done what I can do, I would rather go out on a high than stay in and it become negative.
"As long as I'm taking things forward then I'll stay and if I don't think I can take them forward then I'll go."
Watts was previously commercial manager at Newport where he introduced lots of new ideas.
"What I've learnt is the difference between the levels, Conference South, Conference, Football League. The values of sponsorship, the legislation, the deals, the way the ticketing process changes, the way the website changes, the way the media changes in terms of how you portray yourself, how you need to up the level of what you do as you go.
"That's what I've already got, a vision of step by step where we need to go and I think that's what impressed the board when I spoke to them.
"I think the fans have been really good to me, everyone including the volunteers have introduced themselves.
"I think there's a very positive board of directors, great skills set on there across all backgrounds you need for football. I've been really impressed with that.
"I think the club is way ahead of this league already off the field, the results on the field are brilliant as well at the moment. We've got to make sure that hand in hand it works together and we get promotion this season and move on."
The stadium has been given a new lease of life recently but is quite expensive to run. Do you feel further improvements are required?
"Everything has to be cost effective so the usage of the stadium, the bars, the rooms, everything, we're obviously looking at driving more people to come here during the week. The facilities are really good. You've got the new shopping centre across the road so for someone to come and do a meeting at Edgar Street in the day and then go for a meal across the road in the evening or use the facilities here.
"We're in the centre of town so we should be pushing out to more sponsors about using the facilities here for parties, meetings, just a whole host of things, training days.
"That's why for me our website needs to have more photographic evidence of what facilities we've got because a lot of people see Edgar Street as just a football ground. It's a lot more than that and it needs to develop to get where we need to go."
Watts was asked about the current catering contracts at Edgar Street. Do you feel they're as good as they should be?
"No comment, I can't comment on any existing deals as they were put in place before I was here."
Anything else to attract more people to Edgar Street both to the football and other events?
"There's a whole host of things you can do. Firstly how we market the games, that needs to be looked at. Perhaps poster campaigns, social media, newspapers, potentially radio advertising, that's going to be crucial.
"A database of supporters details, learning spending patterns of supporters, what they are looking for. I think that's the sort of things I'll be looking at.
"As general manager you look at anything but I'm not going to go down specific routes."
Reminded that his salary will be an added cost to the club, Watts was asked whether his music connections could help.
"You have to look at all the potential things that Hereford FC and Edgar Street can do and people need to look at this and say perhaps I could use that for X Y and Z. Do a proposal, I'll look at it, the board will look at it. We'll make a collective decision and as long as it's financially viable and make the club stronger then we'll do it.
"At this specific time there's no in my head we're going to do this or that because I've only been here three weeks and I'm not going to tell them what they should do because I need to learn how Hereford FC runs.
"I was never going to come in and say I've done it this way and this is the correct way because every football club is different, every culture of people is different and for me it's going to be understanding how the people of Hereford see this stadium, how they see this club, how they see the community.
"I'll listen to any idea I think will bring money in but I'm not going to tell people you do it my way because that's not the way I work."