New Season Update

Swans Trust

With the new season now well underway and the summer holidays rapidly coming to an end I thought I’d update everyone on some of the work the Trust Board have been doing over the past few months and a few of our plans for the season ahead as we enter our 25^th anniversary year since our formation back in 2001.

New Co-opted Board Members

With the announcement last month here of the 2026/27 Trust Board Nomination results we began the process of looking for co-opted board members to help bolster our work and I’m delighted to confirm the following appointments were approved at our board meeting earlier this month:

David Allchurch
Brian Hoskins
Wayne Jenkins
Joel Matthews
Liam Smith

The new co-optees all range in ages from 16 upwards to help bring a balance of views, experience and knowledge to the Trust which will invaluable to us in a variety of areas over the next 12 months or so.

They have already begun work and been assigned mentors to help them gain an understanding of the work we are aiming to deliver this season and some members and supporters will have met a couple of them at the Trust kiosk at our first home league game of the season against Sheffield Utd last weekend.

Over the coming weeks we will be collating their biographies and updating our “Meet the Board” pages on our Trust website to help members and supporters learn more about them.

Trust Volunteers

While we have a very hard-working group of volunteers in place on the Trust Board we are always looking for more members and supporters to support us in the wide variety of work we are responsible for.

In particular we currently have a vacancy for our Secretary position and if anyone is interested in learning more please visit our Trust website here or come and see us at the Trust kiosk before any of our home games.

Trust Membership

Can I say a big thank you to everyone of our Trust members who have already renewed this season either online here, via direct debit or in person at the Trust kiosk.

If you haven’t had chance yet it takes just a few minutes to renew/join for no more than £5 for the season and we are always looking for new members to join us.

All your subscriptions and donations go towards a wide variety of projects and sponsorships such as those mentioned below and you also become part of the Trust with our permanently protected stake in the Club and two seats on the Swansea City AFC Board of Directors.

All current members will have received a renewal reminder earlier this month but if you haven’t yet seen your please check you spam folder or email us at info@swanstrust.co.uk and we’ll re-send it.

Or you can quickly sign up or login to check and update your Trust members account here. And if you ever have any questions you’d prefer to discuss in person just pop over and see us at the Trust kiosk next to the Club shop before any of our home games.

Trust Online Raffle

Thanks to the work and generosity of our Board Members and local companies we are busily collating an exciting range of great prizes that will be available to all our members and supporters in our 25^th Anniversary Online Raffle that we’ll be announcing more details about and how to enter in the coming weeks.

The prizes available so far include:

Flat screen TV
Gas fired BBQ
Match tickets
Club store vouchers
Plantasia tickets

All proceeds from this online raffle will be going towards the Swansea Veterans Hub who we are proud to support in whatever way we can for the coming season.

Swansea Veterans Hub

As mentioned above now that the new season is underway our chosen charity partner this season is the Swansea Veterans Hub. They are an amazing group of volunteers who aim to bring veterans out of isolation and give them a place to socialise and make new friends.

We are delighted to support them where every penny of what we collect from our team sheets and programme notes we produce on match days will go towards their amazing work.

We are also very pleased that their CEO and founder member Wayne Jenkins is now a co-opted Trust Board member and we are looking forward to working closely together over the coming season.

Trust Member Events 2026/27

To help celebrate our silver anniversary as a Trust we are planning a number of events that all Trust members and their families will be invited to at various venues over the next 12 months or so.

Some of the events we are considering include:

Family Footgolf Event
Tenpin Bowling Night
Quiz Evening
Race Night

But if anyone has any other ideas you’d like us to consider just email us at info@swanstrust.co.uk

Supporter Advisory Board (SAB)

Over the past couple of weeks, the Club have been providing more information to Swans supporters over the planned new SAB that they are introducing. More details are available here

Understandably this has raised questions from some of our members and supporters as to where this fits into the role and work of the Trust?

Firstly, the Swans Trust is 100% behind this initiative and have supported and advised the Club in preparing for its launch and how it will be run. The new Independent Football Regulator (IFR) was formally created under the Football Governance Act. It has been created with fans at its heart; to ensure fans have a say in key decisions about their club’s identity and to oversee supporter engagement, ensuring that every club maintains a structured and meaningful dialogue with its fan base on key issues. The SAB is an extra level of supporter consultation and complies with good practice, giving additional assurance as part of the IFR licence process. Every club in the top five tiers of English football — Premier League down to the National League — must hold a provisional IFR licence ahead of the 2027/28 season.

Secondly, the new SAB is – in our view – a natural successor to the Matchday Experience Working Group (MEWG) the Trust set up back in January 2024 which was made up of a panel of representatives from the Club, Trust and supporters.

This group helped with a number of initiatives all designed to help and improve all aspects of supporters matchday experience. More details of the MEWG and all the quarterly meeting reports can be found on our Trust website here

Thirdly, the remit of the new SAB will in our opinion form another valuable gateway into the Club for the voices of our supporters to be heard and for the panel (which will include a Trust Board member) to help on a variety of supporter related matters.

And lastly, the work of the SAB will not impact in any way to the ongoing and extremely productive two-way communication processes we have with CEO Tom Gorringe and the Club’s senior management team. We are fortunate to have built up an extremely professional relationship with key Club representatives that help both ourselves and the Club address key areas that we believe are of importance to the Trust and Swans supporters.

These areas of regular discussions and meetings include:

Season Tickets
Match Day Ticket Pricing
Travel
Accounting & Finance
The Stadium and our Training Facilities
Supporter Engagement & Events

Think Fan Engagement Index

Earlier this week it was announced by the Club here that they had improved still further in the Think FE Index by moving up one place to third in the table for the 2025/26 season.

This is an excellent achievement where every one of the 116 men’s football clubs in the top five divisions are scored out of 240. The Swans achieved a very impressive overall score of 210 and this is testimony to the efforts from everyone at the Club to engage and consult with supporters as often as possible.

We are pleased to play a small part in this and the excellent working relationships we have with so many inside the Club allows us to ensure the voices of our members and supporters can always be listened too as well as the Club being always able to openly discuss with us regarding matters that directly impact our supporters.

Home Match Shuttle Bus Service

The Trust were delighted to see the announcement here by the Club before our first home league game of the season last weekend of a new matchday Shuttle Bus Service.

This is something we’ve been in regular discussions with the Club about for a good while as we feel it’s an important aspect of allowing as many supporters as possible to be able to easily and safely attend our home games.

This is still very much in its infancy as a trial project so if you have any comments on how the service can be improved or modified just do so via the Club’s online feedback form here or emailing the Trust at info@swanstrust.co.uk

Away Coach Travel

In the first half of last season, we helped arrange an away coach service with the kind support of Daniel Vaughan at Vaughan Voyage. Once the new away coach service was set up by the Swansea Jack late into 2025 the demand for this naturally fell away making it unviable for Dan to continue running the service.

We’ve continued to monitor the position and regularly discuss it all with both the Swansea Jack management team and Dan and they are also keeping in touch with each other to try and ensure away supporters who like to travel by coach can be adequately provided for.

Trust Heritage Projects

As many of you are aware the Swans Trust has spent a great deal of time over the past few years on a wide variety of Heritage related projects such as:

Releasing the highly acclaimed “Ivor Allchurch – Golden Days” film which was also featured very positively on a recent Socially Distant Sports Bar Podcast
The new International Wall that supporters can see outside stadium reception that now recognises every Swans player that has also represented playing for their country
Work to restore the former players entrance at the Vetch Field here
Telephone equipment box murals to duly recognise some of our most renowned former players here
The extremely popular heritage talks compiled and presented by award winning author, film producer and Trust Ambassador David Brayley

We now have an established Heritage working group made up of Trust Board members, supporters and senior representatives of the Club who meet up on a regular basis and some our plans for the season ahead include:

More murals/street art around Swansea to recognise the achievements of our former players
Reviewing and updating images and photos in and around the stadium
Further heritage talks later in the season
Being part of a launch of an exciting new book
Relocating (and adding to) the Robbie James Wall of Fame that will soon go up outside stadium reception

Global Jacks Initiative

Thanks to the efforts of Trust Board members and our Global Jacks working group which includes Swans supporters from all over the world this initiative is going from strength to strength.

We are all looking forward to the next scheduled Global Jacks event in Swansea in October which will take in the Norwich home game, Millwall away, and for those wishing to stay a little longer maybe West Ham at home?

For anyone interested in learning more about this event or being added to our Global Jacks mailing list just send me an email to globaljacks@swanstrust.co.uk

We also have a very active Global Jack Facebook group that now has well over 1000 members as well as a presence on X and Instagram so if you do live further afield from Swansea and want to get involved just get in touch.

We are really keen to ensure Swans supporters from all over the UK and the world can feel as close the Club as possible and if you ever need any guidance whenever coming to watch the Swans play just let us know as we are more than happy to help.

Grass Roots Football Sponsorship

Last season the Swans Trust awarded nearly £10,000 in sponsorship to support regional junior and youth grassroots football in and around Swansea. We’ve been doing this for well over a decade but have significantly increased our sponsorship in the past couple of years thanks in no small part to the membership fees and donations from our Trust members.

Organisations like the West Wales Women and Girls League, Swansea Junior Football League, Swansea Schools’ FA, and the Swansea Senior Association Football League (under 15s/16s) all benefitted from awards.

At next month’s Trust board meeting we will once again be looking to find the necessary funds to sponsor these leagues and we’ll provide more details in due course.

Working Collaboratively

Those of you that have got to know me over the past few years are aware that I am a firm believer in collaboration, especially within an entirely voluntary organisation like the Swans Trust.

While we all share the same passion of supporting the Swans we need to work closely alongside other important areas of the Club and the community. It may not always be apparent but the Trust now hold permanent positions and/or close working connections with:

We are also pleased to continue supporting the excellent work of Julie Jones and her team of moderators who manage the Swansea City Supporters Group on Facebook by sponsoring their increasingly popular “Guess the Gate?” competition before every home game for the 2026/27 season.

Schools and Colleges Programme

I’m really pleased that this initiative continues to grow as it heads into its 9^th year since its launch back in 2018.

The Trust is extremely grateful to the Club for continuing to consistently provide room hire and stadium tours to participating local schools and colleges free of charge without which the experience for the young people taking part would be greatly diminished.

More details of this initiative can be found on our website here or by emailing Trust Board member and project leader Roger Goodwin at roger.goodwin@swanstrust.co.uk

Trust Reports and Minutes

Members and supporters are reminded that every month we produce detailed reports in our board meeting minutes that are always available to read and digest on our website here

Trust Strategy

Last season we were delighted to consult with members and then widely share The Swans Trust of the Future, our five-year strategy that sets out a renewed vision for how the Trust will continue to represent, support, and strengthen the voice of Swansea City supporters both locally and globally.

It’s available to read on our website here and there is also a link for anyone to provide your own feedback which we are always grateful to receive.

Finally, on behalf of myself and all of us on the Trust Board thank you for your continued messages of support and emails that we endeavour to reply to a quickly as we can.

And let’s hope we all have a season to enjoy following the Swans at the .com and all over the country.

Dave Dalton, Chair

Swansea City Supporters’ Trust

27^th August 2026