Spartans Trust Update | June 2025

Hello all and welcome to the first summer update of 2025!

With lots going on over the next few weeks including our upcoming AGM (more on than later) this will be the first of two proper summer updates. This one will be to catch you up a bit on what’s been going on over recent weeks, and update everyone on what’s to come across the rest of the summer and beyond.

Supporter Survey

Firstly, I’d like to once again thank everyone who completed the survey this season. While some of answers are always a touch interesting, as a whole it’s worth it’s weight in gold. The results have been presented to the board (after a battle with powerpoint) breaking down each area of the survey, with some background information based of responses in previous years. The core issues’ mentioned across the survey (some of them long-standing ones) were summarised and hopefully, we can make some inroads overcoming some of those issues and improving on other areas across the next 12 months or so.

In the not too distant future, we’ll also be looking to poll Spartans Trust members on certain specific areas and ideas, ranging from moving to a 3G pitch, stadium naming rights and more. More information and links to said surveys’ will be available later in the summer.

Upcoming Events

I’m delighted to announce that in late November/early December, we’ll once again be hosting a fundraiser at the Spartans Clubhouse to raise funds for Operation Elf. This year we’ll be hosting ‘An Evening with Harry and the treble winners’ – as both Harry Dunn and Graham Fenton will be returning to club for a talk in, as we look to celebrate 20 years since they led to the club to one of it’s greatest ever achievements.

The playing squad and staff members from that season will also be invited along, for what will no doubt be a very good night indeed! Full details and ticket information will be following shortly.

For those waiting to hear about a date for the rearranged ‘Evening with Brian Slane’ fear not! We should finally have a date in August/September to set in stone very shortly. As ever, please keep an eye out for an email and information on the website and social media.

Finally, in the early parts of the summer and in the supporter survey, some of you expressed an interest in some form of ‘Play on the Pitch’ initiative. While it’s obviously something we’ve never done before or even really explored, it’s certainly something that we’re happy to explore – as it would be a new and fun way of raising some funds. A provisional date for this would either be either Saturday July 26th or Saturday 2nd August, and if you’d like to register your interest, you can do so here.

Regardless of your ability, if your interested in taking part please do let us know! To make the event a bit more interesting, we may even recruit a pair of players to be managers for the event.

Club Shop

You’ll be pleased to know that our new home and away shirts are due in within the next month! So far roughly 150 shirts have been pre ordered, with the home shirt slightly outselling the away shirt at the moment. Once they’re in stock and ready to go, the shop opening times will of course be communicated at the earliest convenience.

You can still pre order a new shirt here.

As ever though, it’s recommended you order a shirt that 2 sizes above what you normally wear – due to errea’s tight fitting. As in previous years, exchanges can be sorted at a later date, and you’ll be free to try one on in the shop if you wish to wait until then.

Circling back to this years supporter survey for just a moment, one of the things highlighted by a few was the lack of ‘smaller’ or ‘cheaper’ items that are a bit more unique. Previously the main issue has simply been meeting the minimum order for suppliers, who often require you to order huge numbers of items. This is something that’s being looked at however, as some new options for placing smaller sized orders with different suppliers are currently being explored.

AGM

As you may have seen on earlier in the week, our first ever AGM will be taking place on Thursday 24th July, 7pm at the Spartans Clubhouse. Full details can be found here with more information on elections to follow this weekend, however if you have any questions about getting involved in before that information comes out, please feel free to drop myself an email – danrolls94@hotmail.com.

As mentioned in the above referenced post, to help make the Trust’s voice as strong as possible going forward, we need to have as many supporters as we possibly can come together to help contribute. For those of you wishing to sign up or renew for the 2025/26 season, you can do so here.

Membership packs (pin badges, cards and other items) will be available to collect on the night. However, if you can’t make the evening one of the many ‘exiles’ that follow the club fear not – as these will be posted out to you following the AGM.

Volunteering

On behalf of everyone at the club, we’d like to thank those supporters who came along on Saturday gone (21st June) to assist with the renovations in the clubhouse. More work is set to be taking place this Saturday (28th June) so if you’re interested in coming down to help, please email generalmanager@blythspartans.com.

In regards to other volunteer roles at the club, this is something that was highlighted a few months ago – and a comprehensive list of volunteer roles should be made available shortly. In the meantime, the club is still seeking some general help on the media side of things. So if you or anyone you know is interested getting involved, please drop media@blythspartans.com an email.

Away Travel

As you will likely have already seen, we already have our first away bus planned for the 2025/26 season – as Colin Myers’ new look Blyth Spartans travel across to Scotland, to take on Lowland League side Gretna 2008. We still have plenty of seats available at present, with members seats costing just £20, and non members seats costing £25. Full details of the trip across the border can be found here.

For next season, you can expect to see a few changes to away travel operates due to some recent issues. Those will be communicated at a later time however, we’ll once again commit to trying to ensure supporters get the best value transport possible in this day in age – as we’ll again try to ensure we get as many supporters busses going as possible (though you’ll have to settle for X7 to Blyth Town away).

We’re also open to getting as much feedback as possible, to ensure we get as many supporters as possible using supporters busses for next season and beyond.