Salop Leisure has shown its faith in Shrewsbury Town Football Club by renewing its sponsorship for the coming season.
The company, which is based at Emstrey, Shrewsbury, has agreed to sponsor the South stand at the club’s Montgomery Waters Meadow Stadium for the eighth season in a row.
Next season will be a historic one as Shrewsbury will be the first club in England to introduce safe standing in the Salop Leisure stand.
Salop Leisure’s chairman Tony Bywater, a long-standing supporter of the club, is hopeful that Shrewsbury will again be competing for promotion next season after suffering the heartbreak of losing in the promotion play-off to Rotherham at Wembley last month.
Mr Bywater said he was pleased to see more Shrewsbury businesses come forward with sponsorship for the new season and urged others to get behind the club.
“The football club plays a major role in our local community and does a great job in promoting our town,” he said. “It’s important that everybody gets behind the team to drive them forward to further success next season because they rely heavily on sponsorship to be able to compete with much bigger clubs.
“We are obviously disappointed, like every other supporter, that we didn’t win promotion which we think the club richly deserved after finishing third in the league.
“But we are very happy with the way the club is moving forward with a strong financial base due to the excellent work of the chairman Roland Wycherley, director James Hughes and chief executive Brian Caldwell.
“We look forward to another successful season both on and off the pitch and hope many other Shrewsbury businesses will join Salop Leisure and fellow sponsors in supporting their local club.
“We are proud that Shrewsbury Town is the first English club to introduce safe standing in the stand that we sponsor.”
Andrew Tretton, Town’s commercial manager, added: “On behalf of everyone at the football club, I’d like to thank Tony and Salop Leisure for their continued long-standing support, which we all appreciate.
“After a lot of hard work by our chief executive Brian Caldwell and our Supporters’ Parliament, particularly Roger Groves and Mike Davis, we are very proud to be the first English club to install safe standing in The Salop Leisure Stand and are looking forward to seeing it in action.”
The Supporters’ Parliament-led initiative raised £65,000 for 555 rail seats made by local company Ferco Seating.
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