How many of you knew ( without checking ) that the same dispute, when we played Stoke in January, wasn't resolved until one day before the match ? Well thank you Gillingham F.....C.... ! I've gone from miserable after watching a pile of shi - excrement on Monday, to furious at the prospect of not knowing what the hell will happen until 2.59pm on 21st April.
Well perhaps we should all send PS a letter asking for a refund on our season ticket for that game. Again your always right. We have committed to buying the ticket months before and we don't know a week before if we are going. Can't help but think that if I get another season ticket for next year and we find ourselves in a position of nearly being promoted would we be denied seeing the seasons crescendo because a large crowd want to go. With all the shananigans that have been going on lately including threats of games behind closed doors,whispers of moving away from Medway not to mention piss poor performances I find myself questioning my own loyalty and willingness to put my hands in my pocket again at the expence of my wifes clothing account
I'm wondering, that IF the order has come from Medway council are they fighting back against Scally and his protest against the Chatham dock redevelopment / Mill Hill stadium thingy?
Only thing I can criticise at this point, is the lack of information or intent to provide a statement from the club. Who knows the full story? If the club is sticking up for itself against unjust/unfair charges, then I'd rather we fight it than just accept it
On a personal note I hope that this gets sorted out in plenty of time. As a birthday present my daughter has bought a hospitality package for me, herself and her boyfriend for the match. As we will be traveling down by train the train tickets need to be purchased in advance to get the best value. In the unlikely event that the match does go ahead behind closed doors I'm sure that cost of the hospitality package would be refunded, but even at advance rates the cost of rail travel from Rochdale to Gillingham for 3 people would be a heavy cost for nothing. Actually I really can't see this not being sorted out - as others have pointed out the income from the traveling Swindon fans will be quite substantial, but without knowing the numbers involved it's impossible to enter into any discussion here. It's also of note that at the moment there doesn't appear to be any mention of this situation on the OS.
If the game doesn't go ahead I will eat my collection of hats. I would imagine it will be brought forward to 1pm kickoff though
That is something I was thinking, because that is something they normally do, but what I don't get is that every club has to pay council tax at a higher rate and I haven't heard about any other club having this problem, if it was the worry of any violence and trouble and every council was like this Millwall would have an order put on all their games.
I find the idea that this is a vendetta against the clubs by the Council and/or the police is laughable. It is a health and safety / policing matter nothing more. I expect it all to be sorted out by the end of today.
Lol. Maybe it is the eternal optimist in me but I would like to think that the club has learnt from the Stoke experience. I feel that the club not making knee-jerk statements to the press is a promising sign that discussions are being held, but the lack of information from the club is causing some panic amongst the fans. In Scally We Trust (hopefully)
MAYBE THE POLICE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE SAFETY OF THE GILLS FANS WITH MR DE CANIO IN THE STADIUM POSSIBLY "PLAYING UP"
Is there a law against holding clubs to ransom... I say let it happen.....we might just get a result !
Swindon fan in peace, I find this so very strange , if we bring say 2500 to your ground thats worth at least £50000 to your cofffers plus all the little extras that fans buy whilst inside the ground. I do understand that there is a history between the 2 sets of fans , we both have dickhead supporters, but for the majority of fans all they want to do is come and see a (possible) great game of football, and if we win and get the championship, celebrate, and if you win , you might well be in the play-offs, its a win , win situation . All the best for the rest and next season
I completely agree with your sentiments. I have been very reserved in my judgement on this at the moment, despite feeling the need to go in to a complete rant. I like many other supporters are not happy about this and it needs too and probably will be resolved. Any silence at the moment on my part is temporary, if this should be played out behind closed doors, then a vocal backlash should be expected. The authorities maybe worried about trouble, however, ALL involved are making themselves a BIGGER problem then any said hooligans or any other concerns there maybe, in the eyes of this genuine supporter. It needs to be sorted and NOW!
To be honest I am not 100% sure what the club could have done under the circumstances (a statement I am no doubt going to get grief for but hear me out). Up until Tuesday or Wednesday the fans were happily going about in ignorance of the situation. However the club would have been busy holding discussions with the police and the council. The major cock up happened when the whole fiasco was made known to the press, causing all the aggro amongst the fans. The club then come out and say the are in discussion with the police and council to sort out, no new developments there, and balantly obvious to most sensible fans (as opposed to those who are using this to damn the club, Scally et al). The club was limited to what it could say because a) any comment to the press/public may be detrimental to the discussion and b) if the problem is police intelligence the information is obvisously sensitive and can't be released. As annoyed as I am with the situation what more to fans expect the club to do? I think the council are to blame for leaking the story so soon
BSG - it makes a lot of sense what you are saying and if it had not been leaked to the press, then maybe we would have been none the wiser. I do not blame the club for this leak but lay the source with the communication links within authority circles. I will say no more. Sadly this does not make me feel any better as a supporter and the blame will obviously be directed rightly or wrongly in the heat of the moment in certain directions.
What is it with your idiot chairman at your club all teams have games that are various categories and always when there is your idiot chairman never want to cough up the extra funds required. Whatever your away end holds we will sell out and he is going to make extra revenue from it. You had the same problem with Stoke and i hope the FA get involved to sort this Prat Scally out. With the return of Rooney and us potnetially clinching the league that day it should make a good atmosphere and from what i understand you lot arent too keen on Scally either. I know theres rivalry between us which goes way back but i think Scally needs to get his house in order and sort it out.
Hornet in peace. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only thing the club cannot do is actually admit fans unless a safety certificate has been issued? While I am not for a second suggesting that the Gills knowingly try to cause trouble, surely there are plenty of things the clubs can do (or make the point during negotiations that they are capable of doing) which would attract fans to the town on matchday whether the stadium is open or not? Given that the club wouldn't be responsible for those costs, if that were to happen wouldn't allowing fans to attend the game make more sense from the police's perspective? That's undeniably a nuclear option, and it wouldn't be sensible to go down that road if this is a one-off. But it's something the club should seriously think about if the authorities ever dare to do this again. If there is a repeat in future, the implication would be that Gillingham are not allowed to host big games. What on earth would happen if you were playing the likes of Nottingham Forest and Millwall on a regular basis? That could quite realistically happen in League One in 2013/14.
On this thread I would like to publicly announce that I have not been alwaysright ! When this fiasco became public, I assumed that Gillingham FC would be considered a laughing stock. I was wrong - because that would be to suggest that there was an element of humour in the situation. Clearly, from the reaction that has been provoked, the Club is only an embarrassment - thank goodness nobody's laughing at us. ( and they're still accepting applications for tickets for the game as we 'speak' )
