A new “fan zone” could open at Huish Park in the coming weeks – if the club’s application for a licence is approved.
Director Stuart Robins said the club is looking to “take part of the marquee” which has been sat unused at the stadium since before the COVID-19 pandemic to create a structure behind the terrace.
He told Three Valleys Radio‘s ‘In Conversation With….’ programme on Tuesday night, that he hoped the zone would help improve the matchday experience.
He said: “In the short term we are trying to take part of the marquee and create a fan zone behind the Thatcher’s Stand.
“We still have to apply for a licence and then we can move part of the marquee to behind the Thatcher’s to create a better environment.
“It’s a semi-permanent structure, but it will be better than what we have at the moment. Our goal is to have some form of fan zone.”
The plans were mentioned by chairman Scott Priestnall in the minutes of the Supporters’ Alliance meeting at the end of June which quoted him saying: “Plans are in place to put a marquee behind the Thatcher’s stand where a bar and live bands can play before matches.”
In our most first monthly YeoGov opinion poll covering the month of August gave the matchday experience a below average 2.76/7 rating and Robins admitted the club was “trying desperately” to make improvements at Huish Park.
But, he added: “It’s not something that can overnight.”
The director also said that plans for a big screen at Huish Park would happen “before the end of the calendar year“, so watch this space on that one….
In the interview, recorded ahead of last weekend’s 1-1 home draw with Boreham Wood, the director said he believed manager Chris Hargreaves was “building something special.”
He said: “Out of the games we’ve played we’ve had two poor games, against York City we were poor and at Eastleigh we were poor.
“I still say Eastleigh was a good point. When you see we more than competed against Chesterfield, really well against Barnet and Wrexham.
“We’ve kept the spine and a number of players from last year, but we are playing a different brand of football and the players are still adapting to that.
“I was at training this morning and the guys looked sharp and hungry. I think Chris is building something special and I’m pretty confident we will build from here.
He added: “Have we got a team that’s ready for promotion? Who knows what’s going to happen, but you can’t fault the players for their effort. We are playing, for the most part, attractive football, most people who were at the game against Chesterfield (would say that).“