the 1903

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I (Brendan Ogle – Chairman) just had a long call with Bill Hulsizer:
Q – ‘is the club for sale?’
A – ‘everything is for sale on the right terms. But that does not mean we are selling, and if we do sell it will be on terms, and to people, who can do a better job for Dundalk Football Club than we can’
The call was to be introductory. I was determined to take the man as I met him. I found him forthright, friendly, wanting the best for Dundalk FC, fair to others, and self critical. I enjoyed the call. Some others things that were discussed:
– He believes we should be aiming for Cat 4 stadium, not Cat 3.
– Completely welcoming of the Supporters Club and I constantly made the point that whoever owns Dundalk, now are in the future, a strong Supporters Club should exist anyway. It should always have existed
– Thinks the next 3 games are ‘massive’ with Harps one the most massive
– Never picked team, or tried to, but used to give opinions which he realised were being interpreted as him trying to pick team. So he stopped giving opinions
He is clever. He understands that there can be cliques or ‘clans’ capable of holding us back. He doesn’t trust the FAI or believe that they have Dundalk’s best interests at heart. He is ferociously ambitious and frustrated. He admitted to making mistakes.
He has three cares in this order:
1 – Dundalk FC
2 – Those fans who wear the shirts and scarves of Dundalk FC
3 – The best for the LOI, which he says he cares less about as time goes on and that FAI should get out of it other than administration
He pointed out that the team that finished last in the Danish league gets more prize money than the team that wins our league.
I made the point that the Supporters Club needs to exist and be strong whoever the owner is. Complete agreement and support on that. I felt it was a positive meeting and I have met many people in the past from Taoisaigh, Ministers, CEO’s etc. It is what it is. He is who he is. Some might criticise me even for talking to him. I see that as our role. And it was a good talk.
We have to build this club people. Lee McConville has addressed the glitches now so please join and get others to do so. It’s up to us. We are the permanent feature here. Let’s build with that in mind?

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Today I had what was intended to be an introductory meeting between myself as ‘1903’ Chair and Dundalk FC. I met first with Jim Magilton, then with Jim & Paddy Casey, and then with Paddy alone. Aaron Lawless also joined us for a short time.
Firstly I found Jim Magilton to be open, honest, critical including self critical, and very very positive about working with the supporters club. We agreed that it would be a short term aim to avoid relegation and remove instability in the club between now and the end of the season. Anything in the Cup is a big added bonus. Regarding ‘instability’, we discussed instability about player contracts (obviously only in general, no actual players were discussed. That would be wholly inappropriate and is not our role), owners plans and communications, and instability in the fans relationship with the club and the owners. These were general discussions but open and honest.
The owners knew this meeting was taking place and had ensured in advance that Ailish passed on their regards and best wishes to the club and its new members.
I told Jim a bit of history about previous Supporters Clubs & groups and emphasised that ‘The 1903’ wanted to be ‘Permanent’ and ‘Positive’.
With regards to the relationship between the Football Club and Supporters Club I said we neither wanted to be a plaything of the FC and would not be, or completely separate either. We wanted to be independent but working in partnership for the all round good of the town and community and Dundalk FC.
I asked that they provide Oriel Park for our first face to face meeting. They agreed.
I suggested linking in with the Dundalk Brass Band, local clubs and schools re mascots, and working intensively on a better match day experience.
They advised of major improvements in the bar and food areas and asked us to help build the experience and atmosphere with them.
We agreed to put particular focus, a kind of ‘test’ to a new match day experience for the Shamrock Rovers match on 7 October. We also agreed to a monthly meeting going forward where a wider committee would attend if possible.
As I was leaving Paddy made it clear that video and publicity is available to us.
All in all a good day. ‘From little acorns…..’
Brendan Ogle
Chairperson

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So after months of work we are ready. We have democratically agreed fundamental, far reaching and longstanding aims and objectives. We have elected our founding committee. We have opened dialogue with the football club on stadium development and other matters. But we haven’t even started yet!
 
Today we launch our website and membership system. It’s time TO JOIN.
 
When you join the club you will gain access to the membership section and we will begin our work together. In the coming weeks you will be assigned a membership number on a unique 1903 ‘Founding Member Certificate’ for your wall in your home. We hope to have our first actual formal meeting together, in person, as soon as we have the members and health guidelines allow.
 
We can choose now to split and to leave our beloved football club outside of our control or our help, or we can instead get together, get mobilised and get active. We can decide to do the ‘Dundalk thing’ and pull together now to secure our clubs existence with our community and fan base working together becoming our clubs guarantor, it’s future.
 
Let’s get started. Dundalk fans uniting and mobilising for the future? What’s not to love?
 
Mon Da Town

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A response received from Dundalk FC to our letter yesterday. Meetings and contacts are being arranged over the next period. It’s up to us as fans and as a community to build up our supporters club now. The more we build, the more leverage and influence we will have…..

‘Brendan
Your letter and your support group has been well received. The board has been actively seeking more community support and help.
Covid has not helped in developing the inclusion of the community in running the club, and the advent of a vaccine and changes in Irish govt. rules is opening more opportunities.
To date we have formed a planning group to pilot us through the different channels of support and funding, locally and nationally.
Paddy Casey is the man spearheading this group, and it is important you contact him for details and inclusion in this group. I am forwarding this email to him under separate cover.
Likewise Ailish kelly is the person charged with volunteer effort , and I am likewise forwarding this email to her. I am sure she will welcome your support.
The board looks forward to a long fruitful relationship with your support group
Yours truly
Bill Hulsizer
Dundalk FC

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Thanks to the hard work and patience of Treasurer Damien Macken, assisted by Secretary Jane Waldron, the laborious task of opening our bank account is finally complete.
This will allow the website, with full functionality, to be launched almost immediately to admit membership.
Watch this space lilywhites……

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We are saddened to announce that Andrea McQuillian has resigned from her roll as Vice-Chairperson. We would like to thank Andrea for all the time and hard work she put into the club. We would also like to wish her the best in the future.

Statement from Andrea:

‘Sadly this post is to announce my resignation as Vice-Chairperson of the 1903 DFC Supporters Club.
It’s been an incredible few months, it’s hard to believe it all started with a Facebook post about bringing supporters from all sections of our fanbase together to form a truly unified supporters club. That idea snowballed into what has the potential to become a true and powerful representation of our amazing supporters.
It has become clear that my ideas on the direction of the 1903 are not aligned with the majority so the best thing for me to do is to step aside so that the remaining members of the committee can proceed with the work that needs to be done in a productive way.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my part in setting up the supporters club and it has been very satisfying to see the response we have had so far.
The website is built and almost ready for members to join, I will of course continue to support the committee on that front and I wish them well going forward.’