Programmed for success
by Alan Rowley, 14th May 2003

Chesterfield look likely to reap rewards from their latest initiative. The club are producing a match programme for all their home games throughout the season. The man behind the idea, Mike Taylor, told Sting how it came to fruition.

Mike said "My grandson started playing for a team last season and I agreed to try and find a sponsor for a new strip. Before looking round for a sponsor, I decided to mock-up a matchday programme to demonstrate to would-be sponsors that there would be a programme with advertising as part of the deal, albeit very limited circulation. I found a sponsor and produced programmes which were very well received."

"One interested person was my very old friend John Smith of Darley Dale fame due to his prowess with the ball in that team's heyday. John and myself had started watching Chesterfield CC and had been forced to muscle in on the players to find out what was going on, as in who the visitors were, any star players, league positions etc etc. John suggested taking the football programme idea on to CCC."

"Once suggested, skipper David Adams and Chairman Mike Goodwin were enthusiastic so just before the start of season I went to work. The programme grew and grew due to ideas for interesting topics and the need for advertising space. I produced 40 for first game, Clifton, and 37 were sold when not much of a crowd."

"We managed to get 15 advertisers, in only a couple of weeks, and revenue was about £1,100 for advertising plus 50p for each programme sold. I produced the programme at home with very expensive ink, so my guess is that cover price may not cover direct costs of production (ie paper and ink). However I am expecting a net surplus of over £1,000 which will go to support our new youth policy."

The front cover of Chesterfield's first match programme

The programme itself is an excellent read as I discovered during the many interuptions for rain in the Clifton game. At 28 pages, it is packed with information about the club, the visitors and the rest of the league. Sting even gets a couple of mentions - thanks for that guys.

Skipper David 'Grizzly' Adams, opens the programme with his 'Captain's Corner' feature. Adams says: "I am looking forward to this season more than any in the last ten years. We have a great amount of talent at our disposal. We have a tough season ahead because there are no easy games in this league. I predict that the title will be wide open and I hope that we will be in the mix come September."

Adams is also the 'Profiled Player' in the first week's programme. An excellent article by Mike Taylor which details Adams' career, with some impressive photographs from Taylor's collection. For his most memorable moment, Adams selects the time he dismissed his brother Chris when playing for Gloucestershire 2nds against Derbyshire 2nds.

The rest of the Chesterfield team is not overlooked, as the whole first team squad gets a brief write-up. The visitor's for the day also get a page which highlights their main players.

Also in the programme are club stats, league tables, fixtures, teams for the day and reports from the Premier and County Leagues. A page is also dedicated to recent club news, including the announcement that the great Sir Gary Sobers will be the speaker at the club's 3rd Sporting Lunch to be held on Friday 23rd May at the Chesterfield Hotel. For more information and tickets, contact David Drabble on 01246 416145.

All in all, a great read, and a perfect way to fill in those quiet moments during the game. What other grounds can you go to and find out who the visitors are and who is in the side?

Chesterfield should be congratulated on their initiative and other clubs should look seriously at following their example. They could find it very rewarding.

For more on Chesterfield, take a look at their official site - click here.