Happy New Year Seasiders

Happy New Year to all Vital Blackpool members and guests!

This calendar year has been a fantastic one for Blackpool FC, with promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time in years, and then the performances this season that have seen us come away with victories at the likes of Leicester, Derby and of course, Preston.

The calendar year has also seen a great improvement to this website. The site has seen two new co editors – TangerineLordy and Sandgroanun – join the site, adding an extra angle to all things Blackpool.

In December, a dozen supporters connected with Vital Blackpool had a meeting with Chairman Karl Oyston after the QPR match, which was then audio taped and transcribed, giving the online BFC community a chance to read through what went on at the meeting.

Interviews have been conducted right through the year with people involved in the club, with Valeri Belokon’s question and answer session being the highlight, which was his third correspondence for the website.

The popular BBC Radio Lancashire commentator Ian Chisnall now writes a monthly article for us, previewing what lies ahead for The Seasiders, as well as astute forum member SuddickTheKing reviewing the month gone by.

Before every away game, forum member SeasideEssexXile gives his take on the ground we are visiting, and produces a layman’s guide to the ground, stating the best route to take, where to drink, and even what the police and stewards are like.

The first ever Vital Football Tournament was organised by editors of this site, on behalf of the whole Vital network, with teams coming from as far as Newcastle, Swansea and Glasgow. The tournament as a whole was a success, and we hope to continue to provide all vital sites with a tournament for this season.

The Fylde Coast Seasiders supporters association started up a month back, with its first away trip on Boxing Day to Sheffield United, with a big Vital presence on there and getting involved with the setup of the FCS.

Page impressions and hits have gone through the roof in the last twelve months, and the community we are building on the forums is brilliant, with more and more members joining up every week. A mammoth 677 members are now registered on the site, which represents about ten percent of the home support, a brilliant effort. I’d urge those guests and members who don’t post to get involved in the forums and have their say on all things BFC.

I’d continue to say keep posting on BlackpoolMad and the rejuvenated AVFTT, but also to look on TangerinePlanet, as the more Blackpool websites there are, the merrier.

Special thanks have to go to the above people who write articles for us, but also to the people who have put their money into Vital, and help with external activities. Money for football kits, the vital banner and printing the fanzine (with thanks mainly to Platos for that) doesn’t come out of thin air unfortunately!

Lastly, I’d like to thank Jerry, JCampbell, TangerineLordy and Sandgroanun for their (sometimes unseen) work that goes on to make the site what it is.

The future’s bright. The future’s Tangerine.

Happy New Year, and hopefully 2008 will be even better than ’07!
Toronto.