Cobblers set to announce new fan initiative to help offset 'significant cost' of play-off challenge

Kelvin Thomas shares a joke with Derby County owner Mel Morris during the FA Cup tie fourth round replay at Pride Park earlier this year.

Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas says the club are exploring various options to help offset the 'significant cost' of playing in the play-offs, including a new fan iniative set to be announced in the coming days.

Potential opponents in the play-offs, Cheltenham Town, recently announced their own crowdfunding project which aims to create an 'artificial army' of 500 supporters for the home leg of the semi-final.

Fans can pledge £25 to add their own 'cardboard cut-out' to Whaddon Road. The club have so far raised just shy of £20,000, way above their original target of £12,000.

Thomas has since confirmed the Cobblers plan to do something similar and more details will be announced in due course.

"Playing in the play-offs will come at a significant cost but we'll do what we can to mitigate it because we've committed to it and we're ready for it," said Thomas.

"We've got some wonderful partners and sponsors and we'll also be talking to fans about some initiatives that we can do. James (Whiting) has been working on some stuff and we'll definitely do something because we want to involve the fans.

"We've been speaking with a lot of supporters throughout this process and all different fans from different groups so we're excited to do some stuff and by the end of this week I think we'll be ready to announce an initiative and we know that the Shoe Army and the Cobblers fans will be behind us going forward."

Thomas also revealed that the cost of staging the extra games could be shared by clubs in League Two to avoid paying a rebate to Sky, who hold the rights to broadcast the play-offs.

He added: "The clubs in the play-offs have been on a call with the EFL and we talked about the details and our challenges and our needs and hopefully we can work through all those.

"Part of the conversation has been about mitigating the costs of the play-offs as clubs and as leagues and there's been some positive discussion around that.

"As we've said before, these are unprecedented times and unprecedented events. No one planned for this, no one was ready for it and no one has seen it before.

"It's easy to say 'let's do this, this and this' but we don't know what the ramifications will be. I think the league are looking at ways they can help because there's some questions around the play-offs.

"Delivering the play-offs for Sky TV is important to any sort of potential rebates from the league that we'd have to pay back so there's always been a desire to at least play the play-offs if you can't finish the season.

"As clubs, we're taking on that financial challenge, but I think League Two has shown a lot of solidarity in our initial indicative vote because it was discussed at that meeting with regards to how clubs would all contribute towards some of the testing costs.

"There's a lot of will to do that but there'll still be a cost to it because these games don't generate any income with no fans in the ground.

"But we'll tackle those financial commitments head on and hopefully we'll have some success in the games as well."