HTSA - Latest News

The Board of Huddersfield Town and Ken Davy are pleased to announce that Huddersfield Sporting Pride Limited has agreed to transfer a 40% shareholding in Kirklees Stadium Development Limited to the Football Club.

Completion of the transfer is subject to the approval of Kirklees Council, the other shareholder in KSDL, and will require the three partners to agree the reshaping of the arrangements for ensuring the secure future for the stadium. All parties expect this to be completed early in the New Year.

On completion, Dean Hoyle will also acquire all the remaining shares in the Football Club not currently held by him from Ken Davy and Andrew Watson.

The Board and Chairman Dean Hoyle are also pleased to announce that Ken Davy has agreed to accept the Board's offer to become Life President of Huddersfield Town in recognition of his services to the Club. In particular, in taking the Club out of Administration and then over the period since 2003, restoring stability, providing funding and building foundations for the future success of Huddersfield Town during his time as Chairman before presiding over the Club's Centenary season and celebrations.

The club and HTSA would really appreciate your help in promoting supporters of Our Club to participate in this Football League survey. It only takes 5mins or so to complete.

http://www.sportswise.info/surveys/fla/fla.htm

So far around 400 have taken part – this makes us 17th out of 72 in the Football League.

It is a chance for those who pay their hard earned cash and are all together on the emotional roller-coaster every week to have some voice. From all the meetings and fans forums its clear there are lots of opinions out there! The survey gives feedback to the wider game and importantly specifically about Our Club. It will make a difference and help us make Our Club better.

Please give your honest views on Our Club – good bad or indifferent - the club want to know and need to know.

When the club get the results they will tell everyone what the views are - no nonsense or spin.

Official Notice

Notice is hereby given that the first Annual General Meeting of the Huddersfield Town Supporters Society Limited (known as Huddersfield Town Supporters Association) will be held at the Turnbridge WMC, St Andrew’s Road, Huddersfield at 7:30pm on Tuesday August 4th 2009 for the following purposes:-

1. Receive the Revenue Account and Balance Sheet for the previous financial period.
2. Receive a report on the Society’s performance in the previous period.
3. Discuss the future of the Reserve Fund of £10,000.
4. Discuss future fund-raising.

Robert Pepper, Secretary
Dated: 23rd June 2009

Accounts Summary

The Supporters Trust account was active from 24 March 2003 and up to closure a total of £387,810 passed through the account, with a closing balance of £6058.34 being transferred to the HTSA on 19 December 2008.

As of 31 May 2009 the following draft figures represent the balance on the HTSA account. Full copies of the Audited Accounts will be available at the AGM.

Nominations

Nominations are invited for members to join the Board of the Supporters Association. These should have a Proposer and Seconder and should be received by July 11th at PO Box 1908 Huddersfield HD4 6WT.

The following intend to stand for re-election:

Neil Brophy, Marcus Garside, Robert Goward, Steve King, Marcus Middleton, Carlton Midgley, Paul Newman, Sian Patrick, Robert Pepper, Richard Poulain and Michael Scott.

Gerald Bould, Dave Heatherill and Stuart Webster are co-opted members. The Board is limited to 15 so there will be an election if more than 1 nomination is received.

Reserve Fund

Members may recall that the former Supporters Trust fund of £50K was transferred to the HTSA and that this Reserve Fund was reduced to £10K following the acquisition of the Billy Smith memorabilia.

Item 3 on the agenda of the AGM is an opportunity for members to discuss how this Fund should best be used. Three options have been identified so far, i.e., a donation to the Development Association (for the benefit of the Academy), a donation to the Keep It Up campaign (50% Academy, 50% YAA) or the retention of the Fund for a future initiative. These are by no means final and members are invited to submit their suggestions for debate at the AGM.

Membership Renewals

Members are reminded that the financial year runs from June to May so renewals for 2009/2010 are now due. The full subscription remains at £5, intended to cover the running costs of the Association, and members are encouraged to complete a Standing Order to help reduce those costs. This should be submitted to your bank to pay £5 on June 1st of each year to HTSA, Sort Code 53-61-07, Account Number 61248738.

When the HTSA was formed, an attempt was made to contact all former members of the Supporters Trust to offer a choice of membership transfer. All replies received have been used to set the appropriate renewal date in the Association’s database, i.e., June 2009, June 2010, June 2013 or membership in perpetuity for those Life members who made that choice.

Many Trust members had Standing Orders to pay £10 as the annual membership fee. These should have been returned because the former Trust bank account was closed. Please consider amending your old SO to pay the new subscription of £5 as above.

These first few months of the Supporters Association have been busy times and much has been achieved, i.e.,

• South Stand for Town fans
• Improved stadium catering
• Bottled beer now available
• Creation of regional supporters groups
• Affordable coach travel
• Purchase of Billy Smith memorabilia
• And more!

These are exciting times for Huddersfield Town with the new management team in place. Dean Hoyle has said that he wants to see a vibrant Supporters group to which he can relate and with which he can communicate. Huddersfield Town Supporters Association is the only independent group of Town supporters so please help to give us a strong voice by renewing your membership and by persuading others to join.

Fund Raising

We are keen to support the Club’s partnership with Yorkshire Air Ambulance and try to raise funds where possible for the Keep It Up campaign.

You have an opportunity to be Active or Passive - or both!

First, appropriately on Yorkshire Day, August 1st , we have organised a sponsored Abseiling event at the Galpharm. So you are invited to participate by asking your friends, relatives and colleagues to sponsor your abseil from the roof of the stand. Our suggested minimum sponsorship is £50 but don’t be shy to come forward with less. This event is being generously supported by Harratts Volvo and all reasonable contributions will be very welcome. Al participants will receive a T-shirt to mark their Active involvement and there will be a prize for the highest sponsorship raised. For more details and to sign up, please contact our organiser, Steve King, on 07753 634298 or by email to steve.jnr@kingscientific.co.uk

Secondly, everyone is invited to show their Passive support by sponsoring the HTSA Chairman, Marcus Middleton, as he cycles to Southend for Keep It Up with Dean Hoyle, Sean Jarvis and Paul Ramsden. This can be done on-line at http://www.justgiving.com/marcusmiddleton/ or by sending a cheque to HTSA at PO Box 1908 Huddersfield, HD4 6WT

BOOTHY JOINS THE SUPPORTERS ASSOCIATION!

Retiring legend Andy Booth has been given the title of Honourary Life President by the Huddersfield Town Supporters Association.

boothy

The 35-year old striker has scored 150 goals for his hometown club in just over 450 appearances and will now join the commercialteam behind the scenes as Club Ambassador and was heralded yesterday by Town's supporter group.

Booth is pictured above with HTSA Chairman Marcus Middleton (right) and Secretary Robert Pepper receiving his honour.

Andy told htafc.com that he was delighted at his new title:

"I've always been incredibly grateful to the fans of Huddersfield Town for the way they have backed me in my career and I am really honoured to have been made Honourary Life President of the Supporters Association. It means a lot to me and the certificate will have pride of place in my house!"

Middleton told the Club's official website that awarding Boothy this title was an easy decision:

"We have given Andy the title of Honourary Life President in recognition of his achievements for Town and the service he has given the Club. The title is from the fans - they have really taken him to heart during his playing career and we wanted to represent that."

You can join the Huddersfield Town Supporters Association now for just £5 a year - visit www.htsa.co.uk for more information on the benefits of becoming a member and to apply online!

Anybody who wishes to become a member of HTSA can pay now and be a member until the end of next season. To join, either call into the portacabin to fill out a form or visit our website www.htsa.co.uk to join and pay via paypal.

Please note – joining the HTSA facebook group doesn’t automatically make you a member of HTSA.

Supporters should also be aware that an open meeting will be held before the Easter Monday match (April 13), when there will be an opportunity to discuss the latest position on this issue as well as to raise any other questions of concern. The meeting will start at 1pm in the Upper Bar of the Turnbridge WMC (St. Andrews Road) and a snack lunch will be provided.

Huddersfield Town Football Club and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance have today launched the 'KEEP IT UP' campaign to help keep the charity's helicopters maintained and airborne. The pioneering campaign aims to establish sustainable income for the Yorkshire wide charity which has to raise £7,200 per day to continue their life-saving service.

Underpinning 'KEEP IT UP' is increased exposure for Yorkshire Air Ambulance whose distinctive red branding will appear on the front of Huddersfield Town's home shirts for the next three seasons. It will be the first time that the professional Football Club will have a non-commercial company occupying the traditional 'sponsors' position on the front of the home shirt.

Income streams for the independent charity will be established and driven by Huddersfield Town FC from which 50p in every pound raised by the Club will be donated to Yorkshire Air Ambulance, with the other 50p being donated to the Club's Youth Academy which actively promotes the development of future football stars from the local community. A calendar of high-profile, Yorkshire-wide events and other commercial activities will compliment the shirt naming.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance provides a rapid-response emergency service to 5 million people across Yorkshire. Their two helicopters, G-SASH and G-CEMS, fly three hundred and sixty-five days a year from Leeds-Bradford International Airport and Sheffield City Heliport. They cover a vast landscape that includes major cities, motorways and rural and isolated locations and it is estimated the helicopters are active in HD postcodes at least once a week with at least 34 patients being airlifted to hospital from the Huddersfield area in the last two years.

Huddersfield Town's Director of Business Development, Sean Jarvis, said: "The 'KEEP IT UP' campaign is the start of a new era for Huddersfield Town and the relationship with YAA is something I think all supporters can be proud of. Of course, it goes a long way beyond just Huddersfield Town and I hope that everyone in Huddersfield and in the wider area show their support for this worthy charity.

"From a supporters' point of view, I am delighted that our first team will have the word 'Yorkshire' across the front of their chests from next season."

Yorkshire Air Ambulance's Director of Fundraising, Paul Gowland also commented: "This is an exciting and innovative partnership for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and will help us to create a new, sustainable income stream for the charity. We are proud to be associated with such a great Yorkshire football club as Huddersfield Town and look forward to working with them and their supporters to promote the 'Keep It Up' campaign, as well as raising awareness of our charity"

HTSA Comment: " The Huddersfield Town Supporters Association wants to do as much as possible not only to support the Club's initiatives in the Keep It Up campaign but also to generate its own ideas in order to further augment the campaign."

HOME SHIRT FOR A NEW ERA REVEALED!

Huddersfield Town has today revealed its striking new home kit for the 2009/10 season.

Featuring broader blue and white stripes with a new red piping, white shorts and blue socks, the new home kit for the upcoming season features the logo of high-profile regional charity Yorkshire Air Ambulance thanks to a groundbreaking new partnership arranged between two of the county's iconic brands.

The new red trim features around the edge of the new logo, as well as across the shoulders and down the side of the impressive new shirt. The trim of the shorts also features the red piping, as well as a band across the kit's predominantly blue socks.

First team squad members Gary Roberts, Anthony Pilkington and Lionel Ainsworth are pictured throughout this article sporting the new kit for Town's new era.

The whole kit can be pre-ordered by dropping into the Stadium Superstore or the Sporting Pride store in Huddersfield town centre now, with an online pre-ordering facility soon to be available on htafc.com shortly.

The short-sleeved shirt starts at £39.99 for adults, with junior sizes starting at £31.99.

For further details on Town's new affiliation with Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the pioneering 'Keep It Up' scheme can be seen above.

As minuted at the HTSA Board meeting on March 11, there was general disappointment in the apparent breakdown in communications between the Club and HTSA over the plans for an Annual Awards event and specific criticism of the Club’s request for sponsorship for the honorary trophies.

It was noted that this request had now been withdrawn and acknowledged that this year’s event would go ahead as planned on April 25th but it was agreed to pursue plans for next year at the earliest opportunity with a view to organising a joint event at a reasonable price.

As a demonstration of continued commitment to partnership with the Club, it has been agreed subsequently to take up the table for 10 available to the HTSA as Player Sponsors at the reduced price of £350 + VAT. A random draw will be made for 4 pairs of tickets to be offered to members for a discounted price of £20 each, i.e., an average match-day price, which has been the general principle in previous years for the Supporters Club Player of the Year event.

Anyone who is interested in booking onto the coach call Michael Scott on the travel line on 07926 165863 between 8am and 8pm, email travel@htsa.co.uk or call into the portcabin (situated at the top of the hill by the barrier in the St Andrews Rd car park) before any match.

From: Ryan Anderton <ossetttown@live.co.uk>
Subject: Support and Help increase awareness of Wakefield Hospice.
To:
Date: Thursday, 19 March, 2009, 6:49 PM
Dear Sir / Madam

I write to you as Commercial Manager of Ossett Town AFC, Wakefield's highest placed senior football club and home to some of Huddersfield Town ex players (which include Simon Collins, Simon Baldry, Nathan Hay and Ross Hardaker) to ask for your support as we embark on one of the most exciting periods in the clubs history.

For the Wakefield Hospice's 20th Anniversary Ossett Town have donated our main shirt sponsorshp to the cancer charity in an effort to raise it's profile within the region and assist in it's fundraising efforts in this extremely difficult financial climate.

Additionally, Ossett Town FC are currently the form team in the Unibond Premier League and are have our sights set on a playoff place which would hopefully enable us to further promote the Hospice but also bring some further success to Yorkshire Football.

Because Huddersfield doesn't have any semi-professional football clubs and because of the number of ex Terrier players we have with us I would like to invite the members of the Huddersfield Town Supporters Club and Season Ticket Holders to our Ingfield Stadium to support / watch us in action.

Now I hope that we can put our true football loyalites aside to help support a well deserving local charity in the Wakefield Hospice but most importantly if your unable to travel away with Huddersfield we would love to see you at Ossett and with entry half price (with proof of membership) you can still enjoy an entertaining cost effective day at the football.

Normal Ossett Town ticket prices - Adults £7.00 - Under 16's ad OAPS £3.50.

To assist with the enjoyment of the games we have also designated our Main Stand as a Family area.

If you could please inform your members of this offer Ossett Town and Wakefield Hospice would be extremely grateful.

I hope that you are able to assist us in our community orientated venture and look forward to seeing you and some of your members at Ingfield Stadium.

Yours sincerely

Ryan Anderton
Commercial Manager
Ossett Town AFC

Mob: 07544201994

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE HTSA COMMITTEE - WEDNESDAY, 11 MARCH 2009 AT TURNBRIDGE WMC

Dean Hoyle wants a strong supporters group he can relate to and communicate with.

Huddersfield Town Supporters Association (HTSA), run by supporters for the supporters, is that group having achieved already:

Join now! Visit www.htsa.co.uk or matchdays at the portacabin outside the stadium.
Annual membership: Under 8's - Free, 8 to 13 years - £2, Over 13 years - £5
For further information e-mail us at info@htsa.co.uk

For those of you that didn’t attend the North West meeting before the Stockport match it was announced that for any fans wanting to join HTSA, you can pay now and you will be a member until the end of 2009/2010 season.

To join either visit our website www.htsa.co.uk and pay via paypal or call into the portacabin to fill out a form before a home match.

HTSA have sent the following to Ken Gillespie who is the Secretary for KSDL:

Dear Sir,

In your role as Secretary for Kirklees Stadium Development Limited, we would be grateful if you could also please forward this email onto all the other directors of KSDL.

Please confirm when you have done this and to whom you have sent my email.
As a matter of courtesy, please be aware that a copy of this email has also been sent to Huddersfield Town.

We await the considered response to our questions from all the directors of KSDL, including yourself.

In 2003 when Huddersfield Town FC was in administration, its supporters raised some £120,000, of which £60,000 was used to maintain the club’s existence by helping to cover the cost of administration. In exiting administration the sitting judge stated that it was the supporters of the club that were its most prized asset. With this in mind various Huddersfield Town supporters groups have tried to keep an active eye on the financial side of HTAFC and at times have asked appropriate and relevant questions of those who run the club.

Some of those questions were thankfully answered and allayed some of the fears supporters had. Other answers, however, led to further questions and some of those answers contradicted previous responses.
Questions of KSDL, and the stadium shares in particular, are at the forefront of supporters' minds.

Ken Davy, when he took over ownership of the club, stated that the shareholdings in the stadium company - 40% Town, 40% Kirklees Council and 20% rugby league club - would remain unaltered.

In 2005 a lack of communication between Ken Davy and the supporters, plus the announcement of some startling financial figures, led some supporters to start questioning once again what was occurring with our football club.

It was discovered that the football club's shares in KSDL had been transferred to a holding company in 2003 by Ken Davy. His response was "with KSDL’s debts of £8m, I sought to protect Town from these debts" and he added "the finances of KSDL are far from robust". The message from those in charge seemed to be that HTAFC and The Giants should be distanced from KSDL because of its financial vulnerability.

As you may be aware Huddersfield Town will soon welcome a new chairman (Dean Hoyle). It is our understanding, and hope, that Dean Hoyle would be happy to take this financial vulnerability on board and keep intact the original partnership agreement and the goodwill that went with it.

On behalf of Huddersfield Town Supporters Association, and the supporters of Huddersfield Town in general, we feel that it is now appropriate to ask you to address the following issues and we welcome your considered response:

1) When Dean Hoyle is chairman of HTAFC, how can the football club be adequately represented on the board of KSDL, given that four of the present directors are drawn from Huddersfield Sporting Pride, which is technically KSDL’s parent company, and HTAFC are not part of either company?

2) When Ken Davy moved Huddersfield Town's 40% share to protect them from KSDL's debts, who became responsible for these debts?

3) If the Joint Venture agreement is (as stated) 'set in stone', and HTAFC were in danger of losing its 40% shares and the right to play in the stadium if certain debts weren't renegotiated after administration, how can it be possible for an individual to merely move the shares to avoid further debt?

4) KSDL's role is to manage, maintain and procure the stadium on behalf of its partners. The Galpharm Stadium was originally built with Huddersfield Town, the Giants and Kirklees Council in mind, and community spirit was always at the forefront of the initiative and this is still being emphasised, e.g. the planning application for the HDOne project.
With HTAFC not being part of Huddersfield Sporting Pride, and in May consigned to being merely a tenant in the whole scenario, can this still be the case?

6) In 2003, supporters were led to believe that the stadium shares being valued at £2 was with a view to them being part and parcel of the football club, and to reduce the financial impact on the incoming consortium, so that the football club would benefit.
If this was not the case, and considering that the 2003 accounts for Huddersfield Sporting Pride show KSDL being valued at £15 million, how did the administrator come to this valuation? As co-owners of shares didn't the £2 valuation strike you as odd?

7) It may be, of course, that some of the answers to these questions are to be found in the Joint Venture/Shareholders Agreement but this is not in the public domain. Why not?

8) Why aren't any minutes published for an organisation (KSDL) with public responsibilities? We formally request, under the Freedom of Information Act, minutes of all KSDL meetings between December 2002 and December 2004, inclusive?

Marcus Middleton
Chairman
Huddersfield Town Supporters Association

The next meeting of the Spen Valley branch of the Supporters Association is on Tuesday 24th March at Millbridge WMC, Bennett Street, Liversedge, WF15 7ES.

The meeting will start at 7.30pm.

It is hoped the guest(s) at this month's meeting will be a player(s) from the squad who will chat and answer any relevant questions.

The group are planning to run a coach to Scunthorpe on Good Friday, 10th April. If anyone is interested please email Ian Lawrence (ian_lawrence@sky.com). A £10 deposit will be needed to reserve your seat, and this can be paid at the meeting.

To join either visit our website www.htsa.co.uk and pay via paypal or call into the portacabin to fill out a form before a home match.

Update 24th February 2009

MINUTES OF HUDDERSFIELD TOWN DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE MEETING, TUESDAY 10TH FEBRUARY 2009 12 NOON, THE FOOTBALL TRUST SUITE

BRISTOL VISIT REARRANGED

Town's postponed League One trip to Bristol Rovers' Memorial Stadium has been rearranged for Tuesday March 31st, kick-off 7.45pm.

The game was originally scheduled for last Saturday but was called off after the South West was severely hit by a bout of wintery weather.

This now means that Lee Clark's side faces two trips to the region in short succession - they are scheduled to face Hereford United at Edgar Street on Saturday 28th March.

Spen Valley Meeting
For any town fans living in the Spen Valley area there is to be a meeting to see if a group can be created for fans living around there. If you are interested in attending then it will be at Millbridge WMC, Bennett St, WF12 7ES, at 8pm, on Tuesday February 10th

BOOTHY JOINS THE SUPPORTERS ASSOCIATION!

Update 24th February 2009

MINUTES OF HUDDERSFIELD TOWN DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE MEETING, TUESDAY 10TH FEBRUARY 2009 12 NOON, THE FOOTBALL TRUST SUITE

BRISTOL VISIT REARRANGED

HTSA Stockport Meeting

Description