courtesy of Lincolnshire Echo

In the close season earlier this year some guys were peeling back pitchside advertising hoardings in the stadium ready to fit new ones. Removing the boarding encouraging you to use the services of an estate agent, a much older sign urging us to visit a local lap dancing club was revealed. I gather that deal with the club was done in the early 2000s when I was on the board, but I have, of course, no knowledge of either this commercial arrangement or the activities undertaken in that establishment. Honest.
The club has grown significantly in recent years and the commercial side has had to grow too. While sponsorship and other contracts with individuals and small businesses are important, the staff need to attract big operators into the Lincoln City fold. The financial pressures of being in League One and wanting to go even higher makes this a necessity. You will see inside and outside the stadium evidence of the calibre of companies that now back the Imps.
This ‘step-up’ impacts on us supporters too. With average gates now three times what they’ve been for decades, you aren’t going to get the same relationship with staff, stewards, catering provision and so on that you had in bleaker times. We’re no less important as fans of course and we’re still well looked after but we need to play our part too. Arriving at the ground five minutes before kick-off and the seeing the ref start the game, or expecting to get a pint without waiting a few minutes aren’t realistic needs now. 
This trend may well continue. If it does we should embrace it, because it’s progress. It’s little Lincoln City but without the ‘little’ any more. I’ve heard a few people say the club is more ‘corporate’ now. They mean they’ve been supporters for a long time and now there’s lots of newer fans around them and income of all types is brought in using very sophisticated methods.
Directors in the boardroom aren’t the successful local builders or car showroom owners so much but entrepreneurs from foreign climes too. It’s the way the industry is going and here in Lincolnshire we’re lucky we’re part of the football revolution, and not left behind. 
If that means my hot dog takes a bit more getting, then I can flipping well live with that.