Member Article

Wirral Chamber goes Behind the Scenes at Tranmere Rovers

Wirral Chamber of Commerce and Tranmere Rovers Football Club joined forces to present a special Behind The Scenes evening to members of the Chamber.

Around 50 Chamber business guests visited Prenton Park, the home of Tranmere Rovers, to have a look around and hear first-hand about both the sporting and business cultures within a professional football club.

The Behind the Scenes event was extremely timely as over the past few days the club has undergone a major change in ownership with Mark Palios, a former FA Chief Executive and a former player with over 280 appearances for the club to his name, becoming its new owner.

Key presentations made by Tranmere Rovers CEO, Jeremy Butler, and Team Manager, Rob Edwards, who spoke about the future of the club as a business and its ambitions for the new season before taking a question and answer session from the Chamber members.

This was followed by a guided tour around the ground, to see such Behind the Scenes areas as the home and away changing rooms, referee room, medical centre, the boardroom and directors’ box, and the club’s corporate hospitality facilities.

Jeremy Butler highlighted that as a local club how Tranmere Rovers was already engaging in the business community but would like to develop this, he said: “Tranmere Rovers is a professional football club, one which has a great tradition and over the years produced and signed some great players, and now with our new owner our personal goals as a club have made us raise the bar to an even greater height. Importantly, we are a key member of Wirral’s business community, and as such, we were absolutely delighted to welcome so many of the area’s leading business people to Prenton Park.

He added: “We are looking to play our part not only on the football field but also in developing new contacts, local supplier links and initiatives which will help us develop as a football club and also as a business. Over the coming months we will be in dialogue with Wirral Chamber of Commerce and our fellow members to see how best we can all work together for the benefit of Wirral.”

One of Wirral Chamber of Commerce’s key roles is to develop stronger local supply chain links, for which Jeremy Butler agreed wholeheartedly, highlighting that several of the Chamber members have already provided services to the club, including, Hankinson Painting Group, Peerless Brewery, Redfearn Morrison Thomas, and Digitel Europe.

Paula Basnett, CEO of Wirral Chamber of Commerce said: “We have always been supportive of our local football club, and as a growing Chamber we see the partnership between ourselves and Tranmere Rovers as one which will develop positively over the months ahead. We are very happy and proud to have Jeremy, Rob, the team and all the staff at Tranmere Rovers as part of our membership and we will be delighted to work with the club in the future.”

Wirral Chamber member, James Wallis of Wirral People, which promotes local businesses online, commented: “Wirral Chamber of Commerce has provided great support in arranging events such as the Behind the Scenes at Tranmere Rovers and many others throughout the year. This event has been absolutely fantastic, we met the management of Tranmere Rovers and heard about their plans and ambitions for the future, it was a unique event and a great opportunity to network with other businesses - thank you Wirral Chamber and Tranmere Rovers.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Maddrell .