A trip to the Town Hall

This coming Tuesday, July 6th, there will be a meeting at Manchester Town Hall, hosted by Manchester Phoenix. Now, what it's about I'm not at liberty to say (basically because I don't know all the info and I don't want to put my foot in it) but suffice to say that it's going to be an important meeting and that Phoenix are urging as many people as possible to be there.

The problem with calling a meeting in this way comes from the fan base. Naturally, everyone is curious as to what the meeting is about, which is fine, but the problem comes when the speculation starts, and people take a guess at what the news will be. Then other people read that speculation and take it as probability, and a discussion builds. This can (and usually) does result in people debating something which isn't even a part of the meeting, which ends up with people asking "why wasn't xyz discussed?" after going to a meeting which was about abc instead.

Now I'm not saying that the fan base of Phoenix are a problem - far from it. The fans of Manchester Phoenix have proven to be a devoted and hardy bunch. We all went through the mill when Manchester Storm folded, and we fought tooth and nail to get Friends Of Manchester Ice Hockey up and running, with our two stated aims of creating a new top-flight hockey team (which we did, with Phoenix) and a new Manchester-based venue (which we're still working on). We've banded together when we've come under attack from nay-sayers who want to decry the efforts of so many people with stories based on 'facts' which turn out to be hogwash ('Phoenix won't get ice time at the Arena', 'Phoenix will fold my Christmas', 'Elite League won't be allowed to run' etc), and we've sat in a big empty arena screaming our team on all the way to the Play-Off weekend last April.

And now we find ourselves in a position where Neil Morris, the Phoenix MD, wants to address the fans at a Fan Forum at the Town Hall. A Fan Forum isn't just a public address, it's a meeting, a consultation if you like. The plans for the future of Manchester Phoenix are about to be put before the fans, to see what they think. What those plans are, and what they are about, will be revealed on Tuesday.... Be there!