I can't make the Forum night, and I suspect I would not be welcomed given my view on the competence of at least two of the new Board to run a Rugby team. They probably feel the same about me!! But I wish them all the success and luck for the future to ensure the Club moves forward successfully.

It is clear the forum will talk a lot of generalities, they always do, but I think there are two key questions (and one sub question!) that will determine the success of this new Group of owners and by definition the future of the club:-

- Given the fact the team last season was not good enough to gain promotion, how much additional budget with the Director of Football have to recruit appropriate players, all talk at present s about like-for-like recruitment? Does any of the Board have the required contacts to help ensure recruitment as Ian is no longer in the position?

- Once the "Category A" requirements are announced will the Board commit to publish a gap analysis and a detailed explanation/timeframe/costing of how they will achieve this level? My assumption if the will not is that they don't intend to do it despite what they say now.

Can I add, whilst I also had my differences with the parting Board, it cannot be argued that they managed to get the Club through some very difficult years, build a solid Championship side, and stabilise its position. A lot of this is down to the financial investment of personal funds of Laurence and the hard work of the others....although I suspect it will have been like heading cats.

I will watch the film of the meeting with interest.

I will be going to the forum and i am looking forward to hearing the new owners plans for the club. The best way to judge if this takeover as been a success or not is by there actions so we will have to see what they come up with and if they can then deliver it.

Anyone got anything to report for those of us unable to attend..?

Does it look promising?

Short version is that the board said we are currently in X position and the aim was to get to Y position. We got a list of where we are at this moment on a lot of different things like community work, crowds, etc and where we would like to be on each of these. There were multiple catogaries and I didn't take notes so this is off the top of my head but a lot of this was just common sense we need to be better sort of stuff. Now I don't want to put a dampner on things but we didn't really get much in the way of how we are going to achieve those goals. Just for example anyone can tell us that we need to be getting better crowds but coming up with a plan to actually do that is something different altogether.

Another point was that they are still looking for people to fill various roles and Im almost certain, although my memory is not what it used to be, that one of them was a finacial role and again just my opinion but I would imagine everything like that would have been in place before the takeover.

We heard a little bit about budgets but it were just the normal things of how we spend less than a lot of clubs but there was no talk of numbers although we heard from the new football director that we would be spending more this season than last season but nothing to say where the finances were coming from to enable us to do that and the amount of players leaving and comments from Simon Grix on the night suggests to me we will be running a skinnier squad that last year and they are still on the lookout to fill key positions(with signings rumoured I imagine we are having trouble filling the centre spots and re looking for late movement maybe from Leigh or other SL clubs).

On that note I know Dbvda mentioned about Ian Croad no longer been involved with recruitment and its a huge worry that we now have someone in that position with no experience and comments last night did not fill me with confidence and that along with budgets seemingly not finalised worries me a little when it comes to recruitment although with Karl Harrison back involved(I think this is a good move) and him having experience as a players agent Im hoping that lack of experience can be helped by having Karl involved.

Overall Im indifferent on one hand I think the old board had done a great job of steadying the ship and getting us competitive but we need fresh blood to take us to the next level, are the new board those people? I don't know, again we have people who care about the club in charge and Im a long way off saying its going to be a disaster but I also have my doubts that they can elevate us to the next level. Noises are good but we have heard empty promises before so lets see where we are in a couple of seasons.

Unfortunatley I left before they mentioned about buying the Shay, Im sure there will be a recap of that on the Town forum.

Season ticket information is now out. These are being kept at the same as last year's prices and there is the usual early bird offer so it would obviously help the club if those renewing, or new, purchased as soon as possible. I'm getting ours today.

Good afternoon Pete , Ihope both Di and yourself are well, it’s nice to Fax doing something hopefully more positive , and good to see you are getting season tickets .
It seems we will be playing a few games now on Friday, and Thursdays , so I’m hoping to come to the Shay a couple of times next season , I’ve a friend of one of your New Board ,band speak to him on a regular basis , he is in a positive mood for your future .
As for your playing squad , I think you could keep Lammy warm , as we have a big squad next season some of which may be available on loan , depending on your needs .
Anyway hopefully we will see each other next season , my own health has improved a lot recently and I’m in a much better frame of mind .Take care mate .

Good to hear from you Ian. Glad to see you're back on't horse and hope to meet sometime next season. As for Fax, we've done o.k. the last two seasons and I hope we can go one better this year. We shall see. Up The Fax!

My positive from the meeting was that it's a new group of people with renewed energy rather than the same old . When you get to the point of....well we have tried everything and it hasnt worked ...you know it's time to go which is pretty much where the old board were certainly after the york result which was the final nail in all their financial planning for 23. Muzza as assistant coach had to be put on ice and everything screeched to a halt. Having a new football director is not a negative if the person develops the role . Finances can be picked up by richard Durgin so I dont necessarily see negatives but then I have to overlay the realism that rugby league is becoming more and more a minority sport where people just cant be bothered to watch it . The world cup hasnt lit my candle yet but never say never if england progress. Top Mark's for the new boards courage, delivery will be hard work

Greg as done a good summary of last nights events. I do feel pretty positive about the future of the club after listening to what they had to say that's not to say that there is not a lot for the new board to get there teeth into on and off the pitch. As for the bigger spend on the squad for next season they did say that would be coming from there own personal investment in the club and simon would also be supported in bringing in any backroom staff he felt that he needed. The club will be going for promotion next season yes this will be challenging but they will do everything they can to achieve this. Also again this will take a big effort to achieve they will be aiming for the club to be a categorie A club when the img changes come in this is a big ask but at least they are showing some ambition for the future of the club. The squad builder is being relaunched they gave some figures that other championships clubs make and they want to do better on that and make people more aware of it. They will also be using there own staff from there businesses to help the club. Someone made a good point about the club not making any money from hospitality at home games. The tender for selling food and drink at the ground as already been taken for next season but what is to stop the club in the future for making a bid for some of these tenders themselves. All in all they have a very ambitious plans for the club on and off the pitch they will be investing some of there own cash to get the ball rolling but in the long run they need to generate more income into the club to make these plans sustainable.

Pleased that S/T prices are staying the same and i will be renewing before the deadline even though i dont know how many matches (if any) i will be able to see.
Less than impressed that Postage has gone from £1 to £4.95 !1 I know every penny counts but crikey

I can pick yours up Mick. Don't pay that.

This is not having a go at ‘Fax Panthers, but the Halifax “we support the football team” Courier,
2 days since the ‘f f f’ and not a peep or an inch of ink devoted to it, had it been FC Halifax Town, there would have been front page, back page and maybe even a special souvenir pullout describing in great detail every word of the event.
If the Panthers want more exposure one surefire way would be to have equal parity on reporting.
Do Fax have a captain's column?, or minute by minute live reporting on each game? NO and NO they do not, Come on marketing or whoever is responsible put pressure on the Courier to give more ink space to the whole Panther family, like the cliche charity begins at home, well our home is Calderdale,

Imagine the Bulls not having space in the T&A or Huddersfield or Leeds not in their respective press?

Rant over for the moment!

Couple of interviews conducted by seb sternik ( who I believe sub contracts to the courier) https://youtu.be/u1kLpuzD17Q https://youtu.be/_4tvtclxwEc

Couple of interviews conducted by seb sternik ( who I believe sub contracts to the courier) https://youtu.be/u1kLpuzD17Q https://youtu.be/_4tvtclxwEc

I have talked about this before the Editor of the Courier is a massive Town fan. When he goes
On radio Peeds he talks about the football very rarely Fax. To be honest I don’t even know what amount of people read the courier nowadays. The hard copy comes out once a week so all the articles are a week old. It is a sh*te publication

@Listenup94,, I had an email from Tom ‘fcht’ Naylor who did say as you point out Seb Sternik is sub contract as the courier are strapped for cash and cannot afford a full time RL reporter.

@Faxlore, living in Malaysia it is my only contact now with my hometown, therefore I still like to read online,

Quote ="Listenup94"Couple of interviews conducted by seb sternik ( who I believe sub contracts to the courier) https://youtu.be/u1kLpuzD17Q https://youtu.be/_4tvtclxwEc'" Very interesting and as always the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Let's hope this latest initiative is the one that takes Fax back to where we all believe we belong. Up The Fax!

Quote ="Listenup94"Couple of interviews conducted by seb sternik ( who I believe sub contracts to the courier) https://youtu.be/u1kLpuzD17Q https://youtu.be/_4tvtclxwEc'" Very interesting and as always the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Let's hope this latest initiative is the one that takes Fax back to where we all believe we belong. Up The Fax!

Im not quite sure what happened to the Courier. Town fans always used to complain that it was biased towards the rugby club, but I would agree that it now appears to favour FCHT. It can be days before a Panther's match report goes online whereas FCHT is on within minutes of full time.

Its a shame whats happened to the Courier. It used to be an integral part of Calderdale but I bet its a year since I read a physical copy and it took me a couple of minutes to flick through.

I have now watched the Board Forum.

Big positives are their clear understanding of the present position and what needs to be done.

Big negatives are lack of real in-depth discussion on financial position, lack of significant upgrade in player investment for 2023 and plans on how they will achieve their goals.

For me the verdict is very much still out.

In the short term seems like Grix will be getting a bigger playing budget than last season and considering we finished 3rd that’s a positive. It’s obviously a competitive market and as Grix said we’re not finished with our recruitment and a lot of our success will depend on getting them deals over the line . Very difficult to assess how the long term plan plays out given they’ve only been there a few weeks but they seem very ambitious and enthusiastic.

@Dbvada, to an extent I agree with you, however it was a fan’s forum not an Annual General Meeting, also they are still only 3 weeks into the job and they did say wait until December for IMG next release, also Simon would not say who he is after if not concreted signings.

Regarding exposure, I wrote to the club and mentioned my son is doing a sports media degree at the Man City facility (UCFB) and that he would be keen to offer his writing services, especially as he is an ultra keen fax fan. He has interviewed Salty for his course and written articles on SL for a RL magazine in Australia. He wouldn't charge much and would enjoy doing so - be that for the club or the Courier. There could be all sorts of features to attract interest, things like 'meet the player' interviewing the lads about their families, history and interests outside the sport etc.

If anyone wants to make this happen, I can speak with him.

All I got from it was the club needs to reach out to a different audience (demographic). I do think there is an audience out there but choose not to go to games. These are the ones we need to attract back somehow.

That’s a fair comment.

Although if I recall when Posner started these Forums a few years back he always had a few slides on finances. It’s when Boards don’t give real numbers I get concerned.

My concern is that the enthusiasm equates to naivety. Where it not for Turner’s personal investment and Steele’s before him the club would not be anywhere near where it is now, I hope they realise the true cost of their ambition.

Well to be fair the signing of Maher certainly answers a lot of questions and s good start for the new football manager and the board .