Hereford chairman Chris Ammonds has released a personal statement about the proposed name change of the club.
'First of all, I want to say how lucky our club is to have supporters who are so passionate about it. It is no surprise though.
I’d also like to remind fans that the Hereford FC Board, as a group, does not have a vote on whether the club changes its name or not. As with anything that relates to a change to the club’s articles, the Board would act on any decision taken by shareholders. It does not have the power to make a decision of this significance itself.
Importantly, I need to make it clear that the following message is an entirely PERSONAL view, but one offered with the benefit of some insight into the day-to-day running of our club and I feel I want to continue to try to be as open as possible.
I respect the outcome of last night’s vote from HUST members and whilst I don’t have a strong view either way on the name change, I would like to offer a few initial thoughts on both the current position, and what a potential name change would entail.
I again emphasise that these are PERSONAL views and that I am not speaking on behalf of the Board nor the club. While I currently have the privilege of being Chairman of this great club, first and foremost I am a fan (who is neither a shareholder nor a HUST member), and a father of two children who are growing to love the club as much as I do (I apologise to them almost every day for this.)
· Firstly, it does not sit comfortably with me that a decision could be made on a name change when only 171 fans have formally voted in favour through a HUST vote.
The figure of 230 HUST members who took part in the vote is equivalent to less than 10% of our average attendance and I believe that the views of the wider fanbase deserve to be heard. After that, if a majority is in favour of a name change, I think the picture is very different.
· Should a name change ever be decided upon, taking into account my knowledge of the work required at Edgar Street, my view is that the club would need two full seasons to prepare for implementation.
As it stands, that would mean that the 2027/28 season would be the earliest realistic time for a change. I mention this timescale because any name change would require a huge amount of work and therefore time needs to be put aside to complete this (whilst also trying to focus on driving the club forward through business as usual.)
Our staff already work incredibly hard to run our club on a day-to-day basis (which continues to be the sole focus right now) and unless you are involved, you simply cannot understand how much effort it takes to run the Hereford FC business.
I would not be willing to put the welfare of our staff and volunteers at risk by asking too much of them and I hope all Hereford fans would support me in that statement. To be honest, I would rather walk away from my role with a clear conscience knowing that I had tried to look after people and treat them properly, than ask them to do even more work to rush through a name change.
· The administration work required to rebrand the club would be enormous and commercially we’d need to do things properly in terms of sponsors, contracts/agreements that are in place and planning our future retail strategy.
This would require a lot of individual attention and cannot be done by unpaid workers. The same point stands for changes required to marketing materials and media/social media platforms, which makes it obvious that all this comes at a cost, both financially and through the resources required.
· The recent costs put forward for the change are not realistic in my view. In addition to the true cost of the working hours that would need to be dedicated to makes changes in administration, infrastructure, commercial and media/marketing areas, a further example is that at the end of October the cost of the stock held in the Club Shop was more than £30,000.
It is inevitable that if a name change was imminent, old stock would not sell (unless significantly reduced in price at best) and that there would be a period where all sales would stagnate while newly branded stock is awaited.
This would clearly have a significant impact on our club’s income for that period, particularly taking into account how consistently successful the club shop has been in the past 18 months.
These are just a few of my initial thoughts, but my biggest concern is the fact that this issue has the potential to divide our fanbase. So much work has been done to rebuild the bond between the supporters and the club (the team) in the past 18 months that I couldn’t bear to see fractures returning again.
I don’t believe anyone is right or wrong here. I respect those who want to change the club’s name back to Hereford United. I respect those who don’t. I also respect all those people who aren’t bothered either way and just want to enjoy watching a team representing ‘Hereford’ on the field, hopefully successfully.
Deep down I truly hope that’s what we all want.
I emphasise once again that these views are simply my own, but they do come from a position where I now have a decent amount of experience about quite how complex running our club is and I would appeal to every fan – no matter which side of the fence you’re on – to respect each other whilst this debate is ongoing.
And when it comes to other potential votes further down the line (whether for fans or shareholders), please remember that everyone is entitled to their own individual view. As long as that view is genuinely held, a person should never be criticised for holding it.'
Best wishes,
Stig