BLOG: Talking Clan Towers 4 – with Gareth Chalmers

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Hi everyone,

As many of you may have seen on braeheadclan.com last week, the processing of 2016/17 season tickets is complete. Everyone who has applied should have heard back now re their seating allocations, if you haven’t yet please contact us urgently via tickets@braeheadclan.com or by calling 0141 886 6459. We’ve posted record season ticket sales once again, with an increase of almost 35% so we’d like to take this opportunity to thank every single person who has applied. The growth around the organisation has been phenomenal, going from circa 100 season tickets in season one, circa 400 in season four to 1,500+ now is outstanding. Season ticket holders are the lifeblood of any sporting organisation, so without your support we wouldn’t have progressed on and off the ice the way we have – thank you! I’d also like to thank Sean and Tracy in the Clan Office for working hard on the season ticket process. It can be a very time consuming job, however they’ve worked night and day to ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible for everyone associated.

We’ve had the shirt designs completed for the new season, once again working with our partners Warrior in Germany. We’ve gone for a similar design to one worn by a top European team, and from what we’ve seen so far, I’m really happy with the final product. We’re now entering our second year of a three year deal with Warrior and are delighted with the way the relationship continues to develop. With the continued growth of the Braehead Clan brand it’s important for us to be associated with organisations such as Warrior. The deal certainly turned a lot of heads in the EIHL last season and I believe we’ll not be the only team in the league during 2016/17 to embrace Warrior as an official partner. For those wondering when you’ll get to see the new 2016/17 jerseys, we’re hoping to announce our Player Introduction and Jersey Launch Evening very soon. Last week we also launched our ‘Design the Warm-up Jersey’ competition. Manchester also ran this competition a month or two back and I thought what an excellent idea! We’re looking forward to seeing some exciting designs and it could be your design that the players take to the ice come the start of the new season.

So how is recruiting progressing I hear you ask? We’re on schedule with the jigsaw coming together nicely now. I’ve previously explained it’s a waiting game and looking at what is available at this time of the year. We always do most of our import recruitment in June, July and August, that’s going to be no different this year. We’ve had a lot of very good players contact us about coming here and Ryan has a long list to work through and decide who best fits into what positions we need to fill. With the season over now for the NHL, AHL, ECHL in North America we’ll start to see the ‘trickle down’ effect start. Over the next four weeks we’ll know exactly who and what is available, Ryan knows what he wants and it’s up to us to ensure we do our homework and make sure they’re the right players for the Braehead Clan on and off the ice.

I am currently busy planning for the fixtures meeting which is next Wednesday. Definitely the most important and most difficult meeting of the year. All ten EIHL teams congregate for a long intense day of discussions around who has what dates available in their buildings and how we fit fixtures around those. Thankfully this season we have home ice for the whole of September, however we’ll be on the road for the whole of November due to the European Curling Championships taking place at Braehead Arena. At this time, we’re planning to have four standalone Challenge Cup games this season rather than two standalone and two that go towards the cup and the league. We’re still busy in discussions regarding home pre-season games and we hope to get everything eventually finalised and announced next week.

Thanks for your continued support,

Gareth Chalmers (@garethchalmers)

Hockey & Operations Director