We are now in a position to push ahead with one of our first initiatives ‘The War Room Project’. Whilst the concept of an independent supporters club is something many UK football supporters embrace, in Blackpool’s case a prime motivating factor was the anguish many fans experienced during the dark and divisive final years of the Oyston regime.
Consequently we felt it appropriate to acknowledge the efforts and sacrifices of all the Blackpool supporters who contributed to what is widely regarded as ‘the most effective boycott in the history of British football’.
To that end we are hoping to create a group of Blackpool supporters to design, cost and deliver the project. The intention is to create a high quality environment to be proud of that supporters will want to visit. We expect this to be quite an expensive endeavour so once costed the intention is to set up a Crowdfunding page with the proviso that if the target is reached any additional monies will be used to support local amateur football in Blackpool.
Initial thoughts are to decorate 3 of the 4 walls of the War Room with a wallpaper timeline reflecting the period from 2015 to 2019 culminating in a homecoming wall painted by our friend and local artist Rob Purdon.
The vision is to create a full colour mosaic following an anti-clockwise timeline of key moments during the campaign. To achieve this we require your input in the form of mainly photographs but also documents, headlines, articles and quotes which represent what the campaign meant to you.
In addition to the wall covering enquiries are underway to carpet the floor with green astroturfing and markings of a football pitch. One additional suggestion is to create a perspex underfoot walkway around the perimeter through which memorabilia can be displayed- ambitious but interesting.
So to get the ball rolling please search your personal archives and send us your best photographs. We would really appreciate quality over quantity – so for instance if you have 20 photos from JD1 please just select the best one.
We hope there might be a lot of submissions and we need to file them all correctly, so we politely request that every digital photo you send is saved on your device with your name an estimated date when it was taken and location.
So for instance your prize JD1 photo should arrive not as a random IMG or jpeg but with the notation – Ash Knowles JD1 2_5_15 behind the West Stand.
For those unable to digitise please send hard copies to the War Room Project, The Armfield Club, 9-17 Bloomfield Road, FY1 6DH.
On match days this room is to be the HQ of the BFC Ex-Players Association and home for the broadcasts of Lee Charles TV. During the week it will be available to supporters and community groups.
We are determined to make The Armfield Club a special place all supporters will enjoy and somewhere all supporters and the people of Blackpool can be truly proud of.
In the weeks leading up to this announcement we have been working with Blackpool FC, the Blackpool Community Trust, Lee Charles TV, Blackpool Supporters Trust and other fan groups and organisations.
We would like to thank everyone who has assisted the project so far and look forward to building a community endeavour we are all a part of.
UTMP
