Gillingham’s season ticket sales have hit another record high – but now there’s a new target to chase.
Last season the Gills embarked on a mission to break the all-time record of 3,477, which they did. Despite the season failing to live up to expectations, there is fresh hope for the new campaign.
The club are now chasing an ambitious target of 4,000 season ticket holders for the new season.
Managing director Joe Comper recently said they were close to breaking last year’s total and chairman Brad Galinson confirmed at the weekend that they’ve now achieved that target.
Mr Galinson said: “We broke it last year and now we’ve broken it again, we are going to keep it going through the summer and hopefully get it up and up.
“We are mid-3s now and hoping to get to 4. That would be good.
“I have a bet with Ben Reeves our ticketing guy. If we break 4 he owes me Nando’s and if we go short of 4 I owe him Nando’s.”
The chairman joked: “We will see what happens. He is a bit conflicted now – he hangs up on people!”
It’s another summer where expectation levels are sky high.
Last year was the same but then-manager Neil Harris tried to keep a lid on it – not helped by a winning start to the campaign.
Harris was axed early on in the season as the board opted for a change of approach but his replacement Stephen Clemence was unable to deliver what the owners wanted either.
New boss Mark Bonner is now tasked with getting the Gills out of League 2 and at the same time keeping the fans entertained.
“Mark’s fantastic for us and for the fans,” Mr Galinson said.
“He is a really good guy and I think he will get the best out of the players.
“I think everyone is optimistic. We want to get out of League 2 but it’s football right? That’s part of the excitement.
“We got some things right (last season). We got more things right than not right, but there was a lot of things we needed to fix.
“I think a lot of what we did off the pitch we did really well, on the pitch we did partially well. We just have to continue and build, not start over but build on what we have already built.
“It is all forward momentum and I think everyone is quite optimistic about it.”
The Galinsons have invested heavily in the club since taking charge but they’ve now experienced just how tough the level is.
The chairman said: “When Shannon and I came in we knew it was a Championship club for five years, it’s definitely not a league 2 club, but you have to earn your way out.
“We have to do the hard work and we have to focus. Nothing is given to us. Everyone knows you just keep marching forward and you don’t take anything for granted.”
