The MFT team

MONARCHS FANS TRUST LAUNCHED

NEWS Tuesday 24th February 2015, 8:00am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

A group of Monarchs’ supporters have been in talks over the last few months aimed at setting up a fund to bring greater stability to the club. It is now ready to be launched as the MONARCHS’ FANS TRUST and the club’s directors have welcomed the initiative as part of our plans to prevent the regular financial crises of the last few years.

All regular fans will know that the club has had some very difficult times in recent seasons, and it has already been stated that the club WILL CLOSE if there is a significant loss in 2015.

There are two important meetings planned which all interested parties are urged to attend – on Friday 6th March in the bar at Armadale and Saturday 7th March at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange, 10 New Market Road, EH14 1RJ. At these the MFT representatives will explain in more detail who they are and why they are forming the Trust.

Existing fans’ groups such as the MSSC, the Emmerdales and the Mingers are represented in the initial MFT committee but it is open to anyone. It is independent of the promotion and directors, but for the benefit of the Monarchs.

Monarchs’ first Armadale captain Kenny McKinna has given his support to the venture. He says “We know the Scottish clubs need all the assistance they can get and I’m pleased to hear what the fans are doing. I’m very happy to give them my backing.”

The Monarchs Fans Trust website is at www.monarchsfanstrust.co.uk and will tell anyone who wants to know just what the group is all about. It will also allow fans to make contributions through the website, as well as becoming members of the Trust.

Dave Harley is one of the prime movers and has also taken the role of being the group spokesman. To explain why the group has been set up, he says “We want to see a successful Monarchs speedway team running next year, the year after and in 50 years time.”

His colleague Scott Somerville added “We wanted to proactively inform the club that we are here to help.”

These two are also keen football fans and admit that recent moves by supporters of Hearts, Hibs and others have influenced their thinking. “Fans trusts have been appearing up and down the UK as people realise they support a club that has problems. Problems that individuals cannot resolve but bring a group of people together with the same passion and massive steps can be taken. We have been researching these types of organisations over the last few months and have been speaking to people involved in them. There is no one size fits all and as the first speedway club to attempt it we have different challenges and objectives but especially in the case of Hearts we can see what a difference it can make.”

Scott Somerville explained what the group see as their eventual aims. “We have to be realistic with our initial focus being to contribute towards stabilising the club’s finances.

“That said, should the trust be successful in this initial aim we indicated to the club that perhaps we can also contribute to initiatives to further the sport in the Edinburgh and Lothians area e.g. training track.”

How can fans get involved? Through the website they can choose a level of contribution in the same way that Hearts supporters have set up. Dave Harley says “Over the years the Monarchs fans have been one of the best sets of fans for rallying to the cause, a great example was in 2012 when a large number of supporters donated £500 each.

This helped the club pay for the shortfalls but was used up by the end of the 2014 season. Personally I couldn’t afford to do that but by committing £20 per month would mean I am actually pledging £500 every 2 years. If we could get over 100 people to do that we can transform the club, hopefully guarantee its future and build on the on track success of last year.”

It isn’t the intention to affect any fundraising which is already being done. Dave Harley says “We do not want to have an impact on any existing revenue stream and hope that fans will join the trust in addition to anything they currently do. We appreciate this is a big ask but firmly believe it is needed and that is why we ask supporters to pledge what they can and want to get as many involved as possible.”

The Monarchs’ Fans Trust was being discussed long before the news that we had lost our team sponsor. We are very hopeful of filling that gap, but a successful Monarchs Fans Trust would still be very important even if we have a team sponsor.

A representative of the Monarchs Fans Trust will be on the first Monarchs’ podcast which is due on Wednesday 25th February, and the group will be at the Video Night at the Thomas Morton Hall on Friday, with a stall plus some chat during the interval.