Tickets for AFC Blackpool's Sportsmans's Dinner are selling out fast - as the main speaker is proving to be a major attraction for football fans on the Fylde.
The club have managed to secure the appearance of Blackpool FC manager Ian Holloway for the evening, which will be held in one of the function suites at the club's Bloomfield Road ground on Thursday March 18th.
The idea for the night was the brainchild of AFC Blackpool's Vice Chairman John Sanderson, and as a result the demand for tickets has been increasingly brisk since the date was announced. John explained how it all came about.
"In my younger days I played for the Seasiders A team, and when I took up refereeing I used to run the line in matches involving Blackpool's A and B teams at Bloomfield Road, and also acted as fourth official at first team games.
"I've always kept in touch with people at the club, so when Ian Holloway was appointed as manager, I rang the club secretary and asked if it was possible to get him to give me a ring, and she got back to arrange for me to meet up with him.
"We met up in a cafe and talked about all sorts of things. I told him all about my association with Blackpool and my refereeing connections with the club, my involvement with our club now, how the team was doing and all sorts of other things. As the chat was coming to an end I asked him if he would do me a big favour and do a Sportsman's Dinner for us and he said if he was free he would do it. I then spoke to the secretary to get some possible dates, and we got it arranged from there.
"I thought it was an ideal situation for us to get a really good turnout, and that is proving to be the case. It looks like it's going to be the most successful one we've ever done. Blackpool FC have been brilliant with helping to publicise the night. Every home game they've been announcing it over the tannoy, there's a poster in the club shop and in the ticket office, and the club themselves have taken about 50 tickets, which is really good.
"Overall we've sold around 250 tickets so far, which is brilliant, and enquiries are still coming in. One of the reasons for that is that Ian Holloway is such a brilliant speaker. He's so good that I've decided to put the comedian on before him, because I'm told he did a Sportsman's dinner at St Annes a while back when he came on before the comedian, and apparently killed the comedian dead as he was so good. So at our dinner the comedian is the warm up for him!
"Not only that, with professional speakers you pay a lot of money and only get about 40 minutes or so out of them. With Ian Holloway I know he won't be in hurry to get finished, and I've managed to get an extension on the bar just in case he goes on for a while.
"The interest we've had in the evening has been amazing. I've even had people who have been to Bloomfield Road for a game and heard about it coming round to my front door asking for tickets. For the past week or two I've had my mobile switched on from the minute I get up in the morning until last thing at night, because of the number of enquiries we've had. The good news is that there's still tickets left, so if anyone's interested in coming along, they should get in touch with me as soon as possible".
The event at Bloomfield Road on the 18th of this month starts with a reception at 7.30 pm prior to dinner at 8pm. Tickets are priced at £30, and anyone interested getting hold of one of the last remaining briefs should contact John on 07714 776239.
