Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey Club - Time For Change

It is with regret that I feel it necessary to contact you directly to outline my desperation at the situation at Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey Club. If you wish to discuss any aspect of this letter with me personally you may do so by contacting me at [email protected] I am more than happy to supply you with a contact telephone number or alternatively I am also willing to meet you in person, in London or Nottingham, if that is preferable.

Whilst I have written this letter personally I have also asked other fans who agree with the points I have made to indicate that agreement via the petitiononline.com website. You can see the results via the following link: (a link to this online petition has been added to the hard copy of this letter)

I am sure you are aware of the current strength of feeling of a large majority of the fans. I am unsure, however, how much of an insight you have into the varying factors which influence that feeling. Ultimately I feel that the club cannot move forward unless both Corey Neilson and Gary Moran are relieved of their duties at the club.

With reference to Coreys position I do not think it can be denied that he is a dedicated man who has given us many years of loyal service, my thoughts now do not tarnish my belief that Corey has tried his best at every juncture both as a player and as a coach. That said it is clear something, as we stand now, is very wrong. The results, and moreover the performances on the ice show that to be the case.

I was present in Belfast when players, one of whom supposedly idolises Corey, broke the curfew set for the entire roster. I believe this showed a complete lack of respect for us the fans, their teammates but also, more worryingly, a similar lack of respect for Corey. This surely must give rise to questions over Coreys man management ability and the togetherness of the dressing room. The high player attrition weve seen this season must, surely, also raise similar concerns.

Whilst I appreciate that Coreys immediate departure would leave the club playing at least two imports short (given Daniel Tkaczuks ongoing injury) I feel that the club should be making a statement about its current position, to make it clear that this level of return is simply not acceptable. I do appreciate that the timing of Coreys departure is a decision you and you management team must carefully consider.

A more controversial belief but one I do genuinely hold is that Gary Moran is a huge part of the reason the club is not achieving the success its resources should elicit. Let me be absolutely clear and state upfront that I do not for one second wish to belittle Garys efforts over the years. He can be rightfully proud of the part he has played in making Panthers into the club they are today. I do not, however, believe that such pride in what has gone before can mask what is happening now. There are a number of aspects of the day to day operation of the club which we, the fans, are becoming increasingly bemused by.

The media output from the club is, in my opinion, awful for a club regularly cited as the biggest in the league. It is also, in my opinion, woefully short of the quality put out by Braehead or Newcastle; one an expansion team and the other a financially crippled organisation. It appears as if Nottingham Panthers make no real use of the hugely influential social networking tools such as facebook and twitter but instead rely on direct e-mail marketing something which, although useful, needs to be complimented by a more dynamic approach to be successful.

There is also a huge level of annoyance amongst the fans at the perceived spin that is applied to anything which comes out from the club. The match reports after we have lost a game are seldom a fair reflection of the game that many of us have witnessed and can more accurately be described as a chronological run down of the goals interspersed with a number of excuses as to why we were hard done by. To top that off many of us received an email earlier this week referring to a Panthers win in Cardif. The spelling mistake aside the fact we actually lost the game seems to have escaped the attention of the creator of the mail shot.

I also have to question why the clubs website articles contain so many spelling mistakes on a seemingly daily basis. It is a small point in the grand scheme of things but it is surely unacceptable for the clubs main media presence to be littered with mistakes so frequently. It makes the club look unprofessional and slapdash. I have spoken to fans who, with a background in the relevant area, have offered proof reading services to Gary. Their offers were declined.

I would also be interested to know your thoughts on areas such as merchandise which I believe could generate significant extra revenue for the club if the items available were more plentiful and varied. I have spoken to several fans who have suggested this to Gary, some with specific and relevant skills that have gone to the extent of offering their services to help make it happen, only to be rebuffed without any substantial reasons as to why.

That last point is one which represents a recurring feeling amongst many. There is no other way to paint it than to say that many feel Gary is very arrogant in his manner and I have no real argument with that, I can only wholeheartedly agree. I fully appreciate that business success often requires a modicum of hard nosed negotiations, perhaps some bullish attitudes however we are fans of a hockey club who just want to see it succeed. For so many people to feel they are dismissed as nothing but thorns in the side of the club surely indicates an issue that is more than just a couple of personality clashes.

Ultimately Neil, I feel that the culture of the club is wrong. Gary has to carry the can for that. Regardless of what happens on the ice any organisation has to have someone who exemplifies what it is about in actions and attitude. Those actions and attitudes set the tone for the rest of the club, they permeate to all levels. Currently it is hard to argue with anyone who suggests that the consistent stream of excuse laden spin that Gary feeds to the fans does just that. Our on ice performances, much like the aforementioned website articles, are littered with mistakes and appear totally disjointed.

I would conclude by saying that I totally respect your position as the owner of the club and therefore I absolutely respect your right to run the club as you see fit. What I would say, however, is that there are people out there, myself included, to whom the club is not just Saturday night entertainment. I am immensely proud of the city I was born and raised in and equally proud of Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey Club. My concerns and feelings in this letter are my honest opinions, born not out of personal vendettas but of genuine concern for a club I love.

Please do contact me if you wish to discuss anything, whether contained in this letter or not, in more detail.

Yours Faithfully,


Elliott Stanley

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The above is a word for word copy of a letter which will be sent, by first class recorded mail on Monday 7th February 2011, to Neil Black, Chairman of Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey Club. You can indicate your support for its contents by clicking the link below.