Another season dawns. The much maligned League of Ireland will soon be up and running again, hoping, probably in vain, to emerge from the turmoil and upheavals which have been its constant companions for many years now.

Domestic soccer is a million miles from the glamour and celebrity of the international team and almost primitive in comparison to the multi-million pound industry of the English Premiership yet it continues to retain an affinity with a large proportion of the country’s population.

The financial difficulties encountered by many of the country’s leading clubs and the sometimes shambolic administrative shortcomings have tarnished the image of the League in recent years and the great tragedy is that all the negativity generated by these setbacks have overshadowed a lot of progressive developments.

The substantial upgrading of soccer stadiums, the installation of fllodlighting at grounds throughout the country, greatly improved playing surfaces and training facilities, and a discernable improvement in the standard of football have all contributed to increasing the quality of the overall product. The brave foot soldiers who support their local clubs through thick and thin each week have noticed and appreciate the difference but the message is not getting through to the wider community and therein lies the nettle that has to be grasped.

The challenge of spreading the good news about their own club in particular and Irish soccer in general has prompted Sligo Rovers to launch a fans’ forum, an initiative the club hopes will ultimately expand its support base, attract new members at administrative level, generate new and innovative ideas on how to progress the club going forward, and forge stronger links with the local soccer family and the wider community.

The forum, which takes place in the Clarion Hotel on Sunday next, is the brainchild of Chairman, Dermot Kelly. A consultant at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin, he doesn’t fit the typical profile of a League of Ireland Chairman but his enthusiasm for the job is boundless and the twelve months he’s served in the hot seat have intensfied rather than diminished his sense of ambition for a club he’s supported since childhood.

He’s convinced everybody at Rovers and, more importantly, the Sligo public share his ambition and Sunday’s forum, he says, will afford an opportunity to harness the goodwill that exists for the club and to explore fresh proposals on how to meet the challenges of not just maintaining but progressing a professional football club in these demanding economic times.

Rovers officials will outline their plans for the coming season at Sunday’s gathering but nothing is written in stone at this stage, according to the Chairman. Indeed the timing of the forum was deliberately scheduled for a date before the club’s AGM, in advance of the close of the transfer window and before the start of the new season, so that any proposals or suggestions put forward at the gathering can be taken on board before plans for the new campaign are finalised.

‘We’re still formulating our plans for the 2010 season and we’re open to suggestions from our fan base and the wider community,’ stresses Mr. Kelly. ‘If there are people out there with ideas on any aspect of our operation, or who would like to get involved on a voluntary basis in any of the club’s activities or on the management committee, now is the time to come forward. That’s the whole object of Sunday’s exercise,’ he explains.

He adds: ‘There used to be an impression that Sligo Rovers was a closed shop but I can absoloutely assure people that is not the case. The club’s annual general meeting is, of course, only open to members but we’re interested in hearing the views of, and getting the assistance of a much wider base. That’s why we’re holding the forum at this time so that people with a genuine interest can come along, engage in an open debate about the club, and possibly consider getting involved’

The club’s capacity to capture the imagination of the Sligo public was graphically illustrated by the overwhelming interest generated by the team’s appearance in last season’s FAI Cup final. Match tickets sold out in record time and it’s estimated that over 6,000 of the 8,000 attendance at the game were Rovers fans. Last season’s Europa League game at the Showgrounds also attracted a massive crowd. These fixtures were an indication of the club’s pulling power but the trick is to entice the majority of those fans to home games on a regular basis.

‘The support at the FAI Cup final and the Europa League game was phenomenal and greatly appreciated by the club but it raises the question as to why we can’t attract those sort of crowds more often. There are other issues to be addressed too – why aren’t more young people in the 12 to 15 years bracket coming to our games?; why isn’t a game at the Showgrounds considered a social night out for the family?; what can we do to change all of this and make coming to the Showgrounds on a regular basis a more attractive option for people. To my mind, an admission price of €15 to our games represents excellent value, even in a recession. These are the sort of questions we would like to address and see if the public have any views or proposals. ‘Basically, what we’re looking for are fresh voices, fresh faces and fresh ideas.

We’re throwing the doors open, so to speak, and we’re hoping the public will respond’ As an idea of the sort of back-up support he has in mind, the Chairman points out that it would be a massive benefit to the club if, for example, people with marketing expertise gave a couple of hours a week to advise on marketing and promotional ideas and how they might best be implemented. This is just one area where assistance from the wider community could be utilised, he points out.

‘Everybody has a contribution to make’, he says. ‘The club has plans and ambitions but if we’re to succeed in making them a reality, we need to be proactive and get more people involved across a whole range of activities. What we’re aiming for is greater inter-action with the community.

‘Sligo Rovers don’t belong to any one person or any group of individuals. It belongs to the community and we’ve got to engage with that community.

We’re trying to build a football club, not just a football team. This involves creating stronger links with youth and junior football, developing training facilities at the Showgrounds, encouraging people to avail of what we’ll have to offer when our development plans come to fruition, and generally building towards a secure future for the club, ‘That is our project but if it does not have support it cannot be delivered. We can’t go on banging our heads against the wall or living from hand to mouth. We’re never going to make progress if we keep looking to the past. Everybody with a genuine interest in Sligo Rovers has a right to make a contribution and to be listened to. Twelve or fifteen people can’t run the club – we’ve got to open up a bit. That’s what Sunday’s forum is all about. People who have had an active or passive interest in the club in the past or those who would like to get nvolved for the first time – those are the people we want to hear from. It’s important to have fresh faces and new blood in any organisation. We would love to recruit more people and Sunday’s forum is a first step in that regard’

The Chairman confirmed that Rovers would operate on a substantially reduced budget in 2010 but said he was convinced they could compete with the top teams in the League.

‘We’ve brought in some good people and, overall, I would say the squad is stronger now than it was this time last year. We would be reasonably optimistic of doing well this season’, he says.

*Rovers forum takes place in the Clarion Hotel on Sunday next at 5.30pm with RTE’s Tommie Gorman as MC.