PST Elections 2014: MARK TRAPANI

Many thanks to Mark Trapani for providing the following answers to my questions.

Are you a shareholder?  I am a shareholder and so are members of my family and a number of our local Businesses.

How do you think the PST and its Board can most effectively support and influence the future growth and development of Portsmouth Community Football Club?  Before we took over the Club we wrote a business plan that gave us a realistic working document with a number of targets to achieve over the first 5 years. Naturally the 1^st years trading is now behind us and we have achieved very much more than we originally set out to achieve. Most of our growth will come from Ticket sales and other areas of profitable trading. Reducing our operating costs was just as important as increasing sales and the two have to work alongside each other. Just look at our credit rating when we took over and look at where it is today. We pay people on time and do not commit to anything that we cannot justify or afford.

As a PST Board member what would be your top priority for the next 12 months?  My personal goals for PCFC are as follows:

• To maintain financial stability of the club, returning it to profit within two years.

• To return to the Championship within five years.

• To repay all football and other creditors in the timescales agreed.

• To improve the Catering and Kiosk sales on Match days.

• To increase player budget when prudent to do so.

• To improve facilities – Training Ground, Safety at Fratton Park.

• Build a New North Stand with Corporate Boxes when affordable.

• Improve facilities for wheel chair users

• Make The Academy Self-funding

• To improve our ties with the Ladies Football Team

• To really become a Community Club with greater ties to PITC and the community at large

• To forge greater links with the Portsmouth Business Community

What role do you think borrowing should play in Pompey's long-term financial strategy?  Borrowing to hopefully buy success is a dangerous game and one which I would not openly encourage. Our challenge is to grow 1^st team players from the Academy and to allow player trading to become a profit centre.  

How would you like to see the Trust improve how it communicates with members and prospective members?  Our communication with the majority of shareholders and members has improved and the new website is an enormous improvement. We are slowly encouraging all members to only receive electronic messages as ‘snail mail’ is just so expensive and slow. We are encouraging prospective members to visit the PST website through social media advertising.

What do you think should be done to increase PST membership?  When I look at the total fans that regularly go to games and compare that number to our PST membership totals, I am personally a little disappointed. In my opinion we should have more paid up members than we do however, a number of fans do not see the need to become members and that needs to become a real challenge for PST.

How do you think the Club can, once it has paid off its debts, give something back to the local charities and firms let down so badly by previous regimes?  Pompey fans and a number of local businesses were badly treated and often let down by previous owners of the club. We are working hard to build bridges with those people and to show people what a Community Club really means to our City. We cannot influence the previous two Administrations and the subsequent promises that were made to pay past creditors.

Pompey have drawn local rivals at home in the quarter finals of the FA Cup. History tells us it will be a glorious 4-1 victory. Everybody on the PCFC database wants to be there. On what basis do you think PCFC should allocate tickets?  The fair distribution of tickets to fans will always be an issue. I personally favour allowing people to purchase tickets based upon a number of key criteria. I would always favour those with a track record of support and our database is now able to track loyalty. I would also give preference to the Shareholders who frankly put their faith in us. Without this group of people none of us would have a Club today.

How often do you think a community football club should be changing its kits?  This is a really difficult question as we do have to be commercial as well as community spirited, I would personally like our kit to remain current for two seasons.

Do you have any commercial relationships with PCFC or any of its sponsors?  I have no commercial relationships with PCFC or any of its sponsors other than being a Director of the Club.

Mark is one of 6 candidates competing for 5 places. Votes have to be cast by September 5th. More details about the election, including the election statements of each candidate, can be viewed at http://www.pompeytrust.com/pages/pst-election.