Oxford United chairman Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth's notes from the Southend United programme are reproduced below:
Good afternoon everyone and welcome back to see us take on Southend United. I would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone from Southend who has made the journey today and I hope you enjoy your day with us.
It is the end of a very busy week where we have had three home games in seven days. If you have attended all three then thank you very much because it takes time and commitment to do so and we appreciate the support.
We want to build something special here and with that in mind we will be announcing season ticket prices early next week. Some of you may be asking ‘How can they do that when they don’t know which division they will be in?’ but I have total confidence in Karl and the players to keep us in League 1. If they show the same commitment and play the same way as they did on Tuesday night, then results will definitely follow. You know my passion for the club by now. I watched it at 2am in Thailand because I couldn’t get over for the game, and I paced the room and was so involved. I gave up on trying to get back to sleep, especially after the very cruel last minute.
It has been very interesting to be involved in the discussions for season tickets. I am not sure if fans know the process and how these things are worked out, but maybe I can shed a little light on things. There are many factors to consider: the goal is to give Karl a competitive budget for next season and because season tickets are a major source of income, we have to be practical with pricing. At the same time, we look at the prices that other clubs will be charging and we also consider any innovative ideas that have worked for clubs recently.
I think Oxford United is very forward thinking and I believe we have come up with some very exciting initiatives this year. I won’t reveal them in full here, but we are looking to reward you for your support this year and we also want to attract more fans who perhaps can’t attend every game. To make all of this happen takes the whole club. Whether it’s me as Chairman, Niall as MD, Mick Brown the secretary and Christine Greenough in the ticket office, or the commercial team, the marketing department, community and even the WSL staff; everyone has been part of the process and I hope you will like what you see when we unveil the plans this week.
First things first: everybody needs to focus their attention and their energy on today’s game and making sure we get a very important three points. I watched the game on Tuesday and was astonished how loud the fans were and how they tried to lift the players. That wasn’t just the final few minutes, it was the entire match. There was almost complete silence when the winning goal went in, and that was heartbreaking, but we have had time to recover from that, time to get ready for a new game, and if everyone pulls together than I know we can win.
Get behind us,
You can read the full programme online at www.matchdayfix.com/oufc.