York City is to research more accurate information from its fans and improve its public relations.

These were just two of the key points to come out of a day-long workshop at Bootham Crescent yesterday aimed at raising attendances at the club.

The 12 members of the workshop - ardent City fans with a broad range of business skills - discussed all aspects of the club.

The workshop included a presentation by manager Neil Thompson about the difficulties he faced, director John Quickfall outlined the club's financial position and club chairman Douglas Craig spoke about how the club was administered.

Josh Easby, editor of the Internet newsletter 'There's Only One Arthur Bottom' chaired the workshop.

Promoting the club, facilities at Bootham Crescent, ticket pricing initiatives and setting up a database were also among the topics covered.

Craig said: "We had a full and frank discussion on all matters relating to the club and many good ideas were put forward throughout the day. Of course, the club now has to consider how to implement these ideas and one thing we all agreed yesterday is that there will be no overnight or instant solutions to the challenge of increasing attendances.

"The workshop participants and the club agreed that we need to plan at least three years ahead to get the benefit of the initiatives which were put forward.

"We would like to make it clear that we were not looking for glib solutions and we are very much aware that the most important thing is to create a climate to help make the team successful on the pitch.

"Our ambition is still to gain promotion to the first division and then be strong enough financially to stay there. Given our current results we accept we have a lot to do and we are going to need the help of all the supporters, not just the ones who gave a day of their time yesterday.

"The workshop studied everything from the club's image, facilities at Bootham Crescent, the match day experience, to making the team and players accessible to the public, particularly the younger fans.

"I stress that people should not have high expectations that things will happen overnight. Our intention is to add to our long term plans for the club by incorporating the very progressive ideas generated in the workshop."

Easby said: "I feel the club representatives were extremely frank about their desire to make use of whatever ideas were brought to the table. There is obviously a wide gap between what really goes on in the club and what some of the fans appear to think is going on at the club.

"That is one of the issues we discussed and I felt the club is committed to improving its performance in that area."

The workshop participants agreed to hold a meeting with the club later in the season to discuss progress.

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