York City chairman Douglas Craig has realised the potential of the Internet, and taken part in a ground-breaking question and answer session on one of the City websites, There's Only One Arthur Bottom.
Arthur is one of the most interactive of the sites and, remarkably, is run by a York City fan living in New Zealand, ex-city resident Josh Easby.
Questions were compiled by Arthur subscribers and put to Craig, whose answers were printed in full.
In the interview, Craig outlined the basic aim of the club, saying: "The mission is simple - stay viable and strive for promotion to division one."
But he admitted that, while financially the club had always done well in gaining good prices for players they had sold, "I am conscious that this is the best second division there has been since the League was re-organised."
The difficulty in gaining promotion was also a stumbling block in the proposed development of Bootham Crescent, said Craig.
He claimed that building a new stand at the Grosvenor Road end, seating the David Longhurst Stand and re-building the Popular Stand were still in the club's plans but until they won promotion to the first division it would not be finanically viable.
He also said the club would not be re-locating as the sale of the current ground would not cover the cost of a new stadium while the new training ground does not have good enough access for a stadium.
In terms of players, Craig said he believed adequate replacements had been found for all the players sold over recent years, with the exception of Jon McCarthy.
And he hinted young striker Richard Cresswell would be allowed to leave if the right club came along, saying: "Cresswell has to be given an opportunity to better himself and further his career prospects. He will only be transferred if the fee is right for the club and the buying club is right for Richard."
He also denied that City lacked ambition when it came to signing new players, and claimed they had made their best effort to sign Clydebank striker Gary Teale. The Scotland Under-21 international eventually joined Ayr United but Craig said: "We were prepared to match the fee paid by Ayr United but we were not prepared to match the personal terms Ayr United offered the player."
A number of fans were quick to criticise Alan Little but Craig again defended the manager and said: "Alan Little has a form of rolling contract and he has always enjoyed the support and backing of the board."
One of the areas which seemed to concern supporters the most was the lack of promotion and marketing carried out by the club, and their failure to boost attendances.
Various suggestions were put forward including more entertainment before matches to attract families children and families, special ticket pricing initiatives, drawing tourists to matches, advertisements around the city, linking up with the universities and colleges and raising the profile in the community.
Craig admitted the board needed to take more action in this area and said some of the points would be examined.
Many of the points raised, particularly in relation to finances, have previously been reported in the Evening Press, but Craig did admit they were keen to encourage more openness between the club and the fans, including revealing transfer fees.
It was also suggested that York City should set up an official website, an idea which Craig revealed they would be prepared to discuss, so yet another site could soon be added to the ever increasing list.
All the questions and answers can be viewed in the November archive of the site which can be found on http//citylist.ml.org. Fans can also subscribe to Arthur, which is in the form of a newsletter e-mail, on Josh@ihug.co.nz.
Now the subscribers are looking into ways to help sponsor City in some form or other and is currently the subject of some dicussion in the newsletter.
Easby emigrated from York to New Zealand in August 1970, the day after a lifeless 0-0 home draw with Notts County.
Even though he is almost 10,000 miles away from his beloved Bootham Crescent he keeps in daily contact with activities at the club via his network of contracts both in York and other parts of the globe.
Immediately after each City game fan and fellow surfer Bristol-based Gary Morton, who also runs a website, e-mails him a match report.
So, even at the other side of the world Easby, an avid Evening Press reader has all the up-to-date City facts and figures at his fingertips.
Will power on the information superhighway
A 15-year-old York City fan is creating waves on the Internet - after setting up his own unofficial website.
Will Thornton, from Bishopthorpe, manages the Blue and Red Net, a professional-looking site which features all the latest news and stories from Bootham Crescent.
The Tadcaster Grammar School pupil only got his computer in September and decided he could do a better job than the other City sites on the Internet - so set about teaching himself how to create his own.
His most recent venture is a survey, asking for opinions on the future of manager Alan Little and chairman Douglas Craig, which will be presented to the local media and York City's board of directors once the results have been compiled.
It asks the questions:
Should Alan Little remain as York City manager or, if not, should he be retained in some capacity?
Who should replace Alan Little as City manager?
Would a new chairman benefit York City Football Club?
The majority of the early responses are not in favour of Little being retained as manager, while most would like to see a new chairman at the helm.
There are several suggestions for who should replace Little if he was to leave, with former City boss John Ward a popular choice to return.
So far around a dozen responses have been received but there is still chance for fans to register their thoughts.
Also on the Blue and Red site is the latest news from Bootham Crescent, club facts, results and fixtures, match reports, a chat page for fans to talk to each other on-line and even a jokes section.
Thornton, who states Jon McCarthy as his all-time favourite City player and Steve Agnew as his current top man, first watched City in a goalless draw with Doncaster Rovers in the old division four in 1992. He has been a season ticket holder ever since and travels to most of the away matches.
His love of City has led him to develop strong views on the running of the club, which can be read on the home page of his site.
As with all unofficial websites, opinions of the authors do not reflect those of the club and are likely to provoke interesting talking points among other supporters.
While Thornton is critical of the running of the club at present, and hopes the opinion poll may prompt action to be taken, another site, There's Only One Arthur Bottom, has remained neutral and refused to get involved.
Josh Easby, who runs the e-mail newsletter, says Arthur wants to remain as a provider of information and allow subscribers to voice opinions, but does not wish to take sides.
The Blue and Red Net can be contacted on www.geocities.com/yosemite/geyser/9285/subindex.html
The number of York City-related websites is growing all the time, with six currently devoted solely to the Minstermen and two others - the Nationwide and Evening Press sites - including City among its features.
The Evening Press offers a York City service, featuring all the match reports and latest club news the same day as it appears in the newspaper as well as background information, player profiles, fixtures and results.
The Nationwide site allows football fans to look up news and reports of any team in the Football League, including York City. Though the information provided on the club does not go beyond the basic, the site is professionally produced and has plenty of information on the League in general.
Of the unofficial York City websites, most are set up and run by fans of the club and how often they are updated varies between sites.
Minsternet has all the usual information and also runs uncensored comments from fans and has a fun 25-question quiz to test your knowledge of City.
The City Zone runs daily news and stories from the club, along with match reports and facts and figures.
Gary's York City Site is run by lifelong City fan Gary Morton who now lives in Bristol and has rekindled his love of the club in recent years.
Joe's York City Site, run by Joe Stoddart, is limited in its information but provides the most comprehensive and easily accessible links to other York City sites.
They could soon be joined by City's own official website as the club are looking into the possibility of setting one up.
For any York City fan on the Internet, the recommended course of action is to check out all the sites. Many offer the same information but each have something different which is well worth a read.
Or if you think you can do better, why not take a leaf out of Will Thornton's book and set up your own.
www.alma.demon.co.uk//ycfc.html
www.shout.demon.co.uk/ycfc.html
www.geocities.com/yosemite/geyser/9285/subindex.html
http://citylist.ml.org
and of course, www.thisisyork.co.uk
see SPORTSMAIL
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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