The regional side, which is about to celebrate its first birthday, stated at the beginning of the summer that it intended to seek the views of supporters to gain vital feedback on the club’s performance to date and also gain supporters’ input on changes that could be made at the regional side.
The consultation exercise itself will commence on Friday (27th August) with the publication of a wide-ranging questionnaire in local media and the simultaneous posting of the questionnaire on the Ospreys’ web site. Following on at 7:00pm on Friday 27th, the Ospreys will hold a consultation meeting open to all members of the public in the St Helens suite of St Helens rugby ground in Swansea.
The open forum consultation meeting will take the form of a “Question Time” style question and answer session, with a panel consisting of Ospreys joint managing directors Mike Cuddy and Roger Blyth, club chief executive Andrew Donald and team coach Lyn Jones.
The St Helens venue has been chosen for the meeting in order to follow on from the Ospreys’ pre-season barbeque, which is also taking place at St.Helens on the 27th between 4pm and 6:30pm. The afternoon event will see Ospreys players modelling the side’s recently unveiled new strip, give supporters the chance to meet players and backroom staff over a flame grilled bite to eat, along with children’s and adult entertainment on hand from a motorised bucking bronco to childrens’ inflatables and slides.
Ospreys chief executive Andrew Donald said:
“We’re now nearly a year into the establishment of the Ospreys and a huge amount has happened in that time. We’ve successfully created a new brand for Welsh rugby in the area and embraced the essence of regional rugby in a way no other side in Wales has been able to do to date. But we don’t want to become complacent and that is why, as promised, we now want to fully engage fans in our continued development by taking stock of activities to date and seeking views from supporters on where we go from here.
“The consultation will be exactly that – a listening exercise. We want to know from supporters what they think we’ve got right and where we could do better. We’ll want to know what they think of the Ospreys’ identity and branding, as well as obtain feedback on the Ospreys’ future facilities and how they can best be utilised to encompass the whole region. We hope as many supporters will take part as possible in this programme, from completing the questionnaires, to coming along to the open forum meeting on Friday night to give their views in person.”
Following on from the consultation exercise the Ospreys plan to formally report back to supporters on the findings as well as acting, wherever possible, to implement changes as soon as possible.
