Yesterday was the equivalent of having your wedding reception at McDonald's. What a cheap blue cross effort by the club. What thanks did the fans get? A bit of paper, red or white. I got white. I made an aeroplane out of it. What waS that fat dj all about? Never heard of him. Is he on hospital radio, do I have to have an operation to get to listen to his show. The two pub singers were awful as well, overdressed, and did not bang out anything recent. The stewards were their usual snotty self. Having a flourecent jacket does not make you Rambo. The whole day was an anti-climax and the club had a perfect marketing opportunity to sell itself but with that level of effort who is gonna come back? If you gave a flag away at 34p each, (I have costed flags before) I reckon 3 out of 10 would go on a wall or be kept. That would be something permanent for the club to build on and work with, but a crappy bit of paper with advertising some remote unheard of company. Come on charlton raise the bar. Don't go cheap. At least let the fans run on the pitch that is the stuff of iPhones which are kept and cherished memories, yesterday was just awful.
Typical I for one would sooner that we saved the money to spend on strengthening the squad for a good push next season. The red devils were apparently privately arranged by one of our well known supporters and didn't come out of the clubs coffers and you will probably find that young Victoria sang for free. We were, until yesterday, a third division club so we cut our cloth accordingly.
Cutting our cloth or sewing on patches? Look what swindon spent? They realise that marketing at the right level can be productive and fun too. We had an opportunity to party and sell season tickets, we did neither. The dj was an idiot , any second I expected him to say "let's rock" and play you ain't seen nothing yet. The entertainment was cheap and it showed. We want to be big time again, let's market the club properly. I don't expect U2 thank god but jim Davidson , squeeze, some local faces, give the punters something too remind them of locality not some unknown Korean opera singer who looked like she was going to shat herself any second.
I do agree slightly. I was really hoping for Squeeze and I'm sure if you'd have asked nicely they'd have done it. I can't imagine it costing much?
Swindon may have spent money but their aspiration is to get into league one and let them have a party to celebrate it. We have higher aims at the Valley and CP and the board know that pi##ing money away on a party doesn't get you promoted again next year. I would sooner the money was spent on reinforcing the back room staff who have done a great job on a shoe string. There was a distinct lack of wags and champagne on the pitch yesterday. I think those that turned up and were allowed on the pitch were wives rather than girlfriends and there wasn't the sight of players wandering around necking half empty bottles of shampoo. I think we have our priorities right and that, after seven years of pain, is something to really celebrate.
SVt your missing the point. A party is not for cafc players but for the fans. A thank you. A come again, your not just fans but part of us. And what did we get? bits of red and white paper and snotty over zealous security threatening to arrest us if we dare enter upon the pitch, my pitch, our pitch that we dug up and campaigned for in elections. That pitch is the property of the life fans not the temporary tarts that we employ to kick ball upon it. It will always belong to the fans. The clubs directors forgot that. 6 years of crap and we still came back. The directors owe us a drink and I don't care what it cost them, cost we spend much more and always will. As for swindons aspirations they far outshone ours when it came to community. As for pissing money away....it's our money. None of it would exist if it werEnt for us. And when exactly did cp say he would rather not have a big party?
I think I have to agree with you here SVC. Not against typicals idea of having something as little as flags, that would have been a sight to see, but I enjoyed seeing us lift the title and then an eventful evening in the local sharing stories. The club did mess up by having the speeches at the end. They too should have said that was the plans, rather than let CP address 4k rather than 26k. Swindon's thing just makes me laugh being honest.
Oh come on! What would a bit more of a decent celebration cost? One or two week's salary of a couple of new players. 34p for a flag times 26500 fans = £9000, nothing in the scheme of things or total running costs of the club. Come to think of it, a lot less than the money 'taken' by Mr Murray when he took us small shareholders' shares away without either compensation or a letter saying 'thank you for your donation to the survival of CAFC'.
I must say, i agree with both sides of this argument. I personally think the entertainment would have been better if we hadn't bothered with the Korean bird, she just looked like she had wandered into a cupboard and we were on the other side of it. Martin Toal and the other girl (her name escapes me) were not too bad i reckon, but it wasn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. Dave Berry i thought was up for a laugh but having a DJ come down to essentially talk a few times and get someone to press play on a CD player was a bit pointless. The paper wasn't meant as a souvenir, it was meant to be held up and i thought it looked class, but that does then make me think, well where was our little souvenir? To be brutally honest, all that crap is irrelevant anyway, what made yesterday a disappointment was that we were again discouraged from going onto the pitch. I am actually very angry about this, as The Valley is OUR stadium, i don't care whose name it is in, it is mine and all of yours, without us there would be no club, no stadium, nothing. I have seen every single other side celebrate promotion with their loyal fans running onto the pitch to celebrate with the players, that is how football should be! The way they speak against it with regards to us almost makes me think that they feel we would start an all out fist fight with members of our own squad, because besides that what risk is there? Slater and co should have told the FA to p*ss right off and given us all little bags to put round our shoes or trainers to minimise the amount of mud and grass we had to clean off them when we got in.
Typical What a miserable, glass half empty initial post...and responses! Yesterday was a great day, one that will stay in my memory for a long time. Great atmosphere, dancing smurfs, the feeling that the club is beginning to find its feel again, and the strengthening bond between supporters, players, manager and the Board. Fantastic. Some of the celebratory details could have been planned and executed better. But where mistakes were made there was no bad faith, just inexperience. After all as a club we're not exactly used to trophy awards. Thank you Charlton. Roll on next season.
The smurfs were the best things about the entertainment. My boy was more interested in them than the Korean soprano-funny that. They were free. Why did the club not invite our fans to dress up? Would that have been too much for the party atmosphere. Far too many of you want to kiss arse the playing staff which is fine. The board and directors did a sterling job this season but so did the 500 fans that got up at 5am to got to Carlisle and Exeter where was their tahnk you? Are the players paying for their drinks tonite? I don't begrudge them a drink but when it comes out of petty cash but slip the odd freebie to the fans. Don't take them for granted. Our support is outstanding and is the sole reason we are not a lost cause, a brentford or a palace. The board take on the risks but is there financial interest more than the single dad i know who paid for the season tickets on a loan? The players and directors can pat themselves on the backs and good for them. All I wanted was a flag and a pitch invasion. The players are gonna fack off and the board are gonna take a tax loss on the club, and the cycle continues, that is the nature of the beast. We have one day in the sun together, the board, the fans, the club and what happens? The smurfs steal the show.
One minor point to illustrate the lack of thought and effort put into our party. Stadium announcer Dave smashy, "ladies and gentleman we want you to welcome the Divisision 1 champions put your card in the air and put your hands together and welcome Cafc" Pathetic.
SVC - I'm just putting it all into context. I'm not saying we have an off-field party or anything like that, just a small souvenir like the flag Typical espoused. It wouldn't cost that much extra. As for the shares being appropriated, I'm fully aware of the situation. Again I used it for illustrative purposes. How much did Murray save by not paying for the shares? I don't know and I don't care, I lost money but for a good cause. It irks that we never got an acknowledgement of the sacrifice. However my point was that Murray made money out of those shares so why not chip in a few grand for a souvenir. As Nick Gray used to say 'he can always find a few bob down the back of the sofa".
All around me I could see people smiling and enjoying themselves who were intent on watching the game and Charlton winning and seeing them lift the trophy than the other side show. I hope Sheffield Wednesday are fined for their fans breaking FA rules.
It's was a bit of the disappointment that brings out the moans. Reading the e-mail flyer the club sent out on Thursday, with all the events listed, got me quite hyped up about the day. The fizzle out at the end was how I'll remember the day, normally I leave the ground buzzing.
