The board of Chester FC and City Fans United has issued a response to Jim Green's opinion piece published on November 5.

The Chronicle welcomes and encourages feedback from our audience and the article - City Fans United is at a crossroads. But where do Blues supporters go from here? - has stirred a debate among supporters.

We are grateful to the CFU board for submitting such a considered response, which can be read in full below.

What do you think about the original opinion piece and the response? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @ChesterFC_Chron.

City Fans United statement

The CFU board would like to thank Jim Green for raising these issues and giving the board a right to reply.

Jim rightly points out three vital areas which the board need to focus on in the future if we are to improve as a club and ensure the continued success of fan ownership in the city.

The board wanted to highlight the work which is going on to increase revenues, improve our community output and communication with fans, our owners.

Firstly revenue;

Clearly a vital area in the club's drive to be the best we can on and off the pitch. The first thing to say is that we don't have any debt as a football club and we are not putting the future of the club at risk by running at a loss like many other clubs in our division do. That's not to say we will never make a loss - all forecasts fluctuate - but due to our prudence and tight financial management we are less likely to.

Because of our financial stability at the start of this season we increased the playing budget. We subsequently had a crowdfunding campaign, which raised over £25,000. That has also been added to the playing budget, so we are increasing our revenues.

We will also be able to announce some very good financial news at the CFU AGM at the end of the month.

We are also working on a number of initiatives to improve our financial situation going forward. This includes going to Parliament with Supporters Direct in December to lobby Government to change the tax status for fan owned clubs.

We know that many fans are keen for the club to do more to increase our crowds, and we are trying, but this is difficult when we have limited resources for advertising. We often get asked to run billboard campaigns, full page adverts in The Chronicle or adverts on buses - the simple fact is, we don't have the money for that. So we have to try and get the word out in different ways - social media, partnerships with media outlets, help from sponsors.

We are improving our revenues, and it is vitally important that these are diverse so we are not too overly reliant on one thing, but this takes time.

Second, community;

The Community Trust under Jon McCarthy is beginning to flourish. The trust, which was set up a few years ago, had a slow start but since Jon has become chief executive we have started to deliver more and more to the community.

This includes - our fantastic soccer schools which take place over the school holidays in Blacon, Upton and Christleton, we even have a girl's soccer school for the first time in the summer; our silver surfers program; our walking football sessions; our girls and women's football teams which we have set up working in partnership with the Cheshire FA; our healthy eating programmes in Ellesmere Port and Neston which culminate in giving free tickets to the schools involved; our work supporting various charities and good causes including Chester Calais Aid, the white ribbon campaign, Movember, Chester Pride and more; our work with Sanctuary Housing to give children in the city the chance to visit and train on the pitch; our community day in the summer; and our work to promote active lifestyles in the over 60s.

All of this has happened in the last year, but yes, there is more we can do. The great thing about the trust is the more you do, the more grant funding becomes available in the future but, as with anything, things have to start off small.

The trust board and CFU board recently met to discuss our longer term strategies going forward and came up with four key areas to focus on.

  1. Promoting the club in the community

  2. Furthering the community sporting facilities project - the Trust recently met with the Council with a view to securing progress in this area.

  3. Attracting more young supporters to the club.

  4. Developing and maintaining a family area in the stadium.

If we are successful with these aims then not only are we improving the community feel of the club, but it will improve the revenue of the club as well and will therefore have a benefit on the field. After all, for example, getting a new community sports hub will decrease the club's overheads, as the youth and first team won’t have to pay for pitch hire, but will also be a huge boost to the city as we currently don't have enough football pitches to meet demand.

Thirdly communications;

Communication is a consistent criticism that all boards have faced but the current board do feel like we have improved in this area recently.

Our media volunteers work extremely hard to get fans the best possible coverage of the club and have made real improvements in the past year.

In our Big City Survey we had an increase of 20% for satisfaction levels when it came to communication, to 50%. We know this isn't high enough but we are moving in the right direction.

We now have a regular newsletter which goes out to our owners to keep them in the loop with what is happening off the pitch. Members meetings are now scheduled monthly throughout the season and both formal and informal gatherings give members the opportunity to ask questions of attending directors directly or via the Q&A session.

The club have also taken the pioneering move of streaming all of our CFU members meetings so CFU members who live away from the city or who might not be able to attend the monthly meetings can watch and take part in what is going on. This is totally unique in football and a huge step in improving the club's transparency.

Is there more we can do? Yes, certainly when it comes to the CFU, but we are steadily improving.

Finally;

We are getting better, slowly, steadily and making this club the best it can possibly be won't happen overnight. Probably the most important thing to remember is that almost everyone helping to run the club is an unpaid volunteer putting the club ahead of their family, their job, a good night's sleep. We do it because we love Chester FC and we want the best for the club. But to do that we need you. We need your help - give us your ideas, come to meetings, volunteer, nag your friends to come down to watch, donate, do whatever you can.

As a fan run club we are only as good as our fanbase can make us. It is Our City, Our Community, Our Club, no one else's. And you can make a difference.