An open letter from Ehab...

Yeah maybe it still upset him that little, tiny, miniscule Hull City had turned over the West Ham all-stars....
Great player in his time but positively one of the worst TV pundits ever to stick a mike in his cake hole.

 

What a great post , you are wasted on here, ever thought about writing a book Richard ?

 

Someone asked me how you buy a ticket if you wanted to see City, I honestly, don't know..Then someone said its easier to split the atom..!

 

Smaller places than Hull have larger stadiums. No reason it couldn’t be bigger. Other than other places have more people who care about the football team perhaps.

 

Disprove it then. I know that James Mooney worked his bollocks off trying to find them alternative venues.

 

This is what I have a problem with:-

- the Allams have made mistake after mistake in their relationship with the fans
- they've bungled ticketing/admissions so it's a ball ache to get in
- they've shrunk the club and its turnover
- they've made the A-Z of errors that someone will get a MBA in Football Club Strategy citing their countless mistakes as how NOT to do it

Everybody on here gets this, and we've all picked through the bones for the last half decade or so. What I don't get is how the above prevents so many people attending home games.

I once attended a night game at Hillsborough in the 3rd tier in December along with 7,500 others. Through Hull rush hour in the dark, into Sheffield rush hour in the dark, chaotic street parking (actually got changed in the street, half a mile from ground) and plenty of others had similar tales, missed kick off outside Leppings Lane, but still got in paying cash to some spotty teen. People back then found a way.

People also found a way to get Wembley, when all the trains were booked up and big money needed to be laid out.

Where there is a will there is a way.

Don't get what stops people leaving their front door, holding their noses but supporting THEIR club - not the Allams club - THEIR club.

Where there isn't the will, there are usually excuses.

 

Someone once said it's a funny old game, well more interesting is to study the support of the game. Were all the 7500 at Sheffield that night supporters or was there another spark? On a few occasions teams take more to an away game than their usual home support, it happens for a number of reasons and sometimes inexplicably, the key is to take those sparks and turn them into a fire not pour cold water on them as our owners seem to have a talent for.

 

It’s that bit where you hand over your cash & it goes to them.

It’s a principle & value thing, they have none that are in line with mine. From the name change to the Airco to concessions it’s all been a self centred strop, childishly & petulantly targeting those who can’t fight back making them undeserving of my hard earned.

I’m doing what’s morally right for me. I don’t expect you to understand.

 

We parked in Meadowhall and trammed it. It was a piece of piss, though got in with 5 to spare....The chaos was at the turnstiles...I see that massive club have been told to get their act into order regarding Leppings Lane.. sadly about 30 years too late.

 

It was about half our home support...in the month of December when money is tight. An exceptional following but there were plenty of disincentives to attend that night, but if the will is there, people can often find a way.

"I'm not attending any more, the owner is still steadfastly refusing to apologise for some heartless words 5 years ago" would never influence my decision to attend or not.

 

Another great post

 

I know the 7500 wasn't bigger than our home support, my point is the principle that small sparks need to be nurtured into a fire.
Of course there will be some die hards who will follow the mantra, it's my club and nothing or no one will stop me following them but most aren't like that. Call them PL band wagoners, glory seekers, part timers whatever you want but the bottom line is if you treat your customers badly they will walk away.

 

Yeah I know all that...

Everyone (except seemingly them) knows they have needlessly ****ed up the fanbase.

Back when we had previous **** owners, we were already down to the hardcore who would not let it lie.

Doubly depressing that we've let such a massive opportunity slip, and for me, grown such a flimsy fan base.


No one will ever know how large a proportion of absentees are principled fans who will return, and how many are fly by night 'fans' who use the Allams as a convenient excuse.

I know fewer of the former and plenty of the latter.

 

Or if they are peddling a moribund product.

 

If the customers of any other pastime or business where treated with contempt they wouldn't return !
Bad treatment in a Restaurant = No Return!
Bad Treatment in a shop = No Return etc .

 

"Hello Dragons' Den? I think you've lost one of your dragons"

 

Don't apply for a job in public relations or promoting future support of Hull City will you !
Refering to potential fans as Fly By Nights wouldn't be a good starting point .

 

Ah but I support the team not the regime, it's my club not theirs, and so on. Funny old game.

 

People attend - or don’t attend - football matches for all kinds of reasons. If you are searching for a common thread that links all the decisions made, you won’t find one.

The question is surely this - what are the Allams doing to get fans back behind City? People like you who won’t be cowed into not attending are the minority - what are the Allams doing to attract the majority?

Not very much, that I can see.

 

I was at the game at Hillsborough, the queues and the lack of turnstiles open that night, with thousands waiting to get in was quite disgraceful for all manner of obvious reasons......

With regards to the crowds......whilst the Allams are definitely an issue for a lot of people......which we don't need to go into.....we were like a runaway train back in those heady days.....like a rolling snowball.

Football in general was an upward trend with Sky, we had the new stadium, we had a winning team.........the people turning up at the sparkling new stadium saw us winning every week, and rise through the leagues........people back a winning team, quite often a team pushing for promotion from one division, often get bigger crowds than when they were struggling in the division above.

After all the years of trying......we get in the Premier League, and lets be honest.....got outplayed and beaten most weeks..........all the people who used to enjoy us winning all the time suddenly saw us only win a handful of games a year. The newer fans...some would say plastics (not me), diminished....

A losing team combined with the annual Allam cull of players leaves a team even less likely to win as the seasons went on............this coupled with the Allams divide and conquer strategy of moving people back and forth, breaking relationships built over seasons then left just the absolute die hards with a Membership.

Then they have applied a huge increase to the remaining die hards, cutting the crowds further still.

With a new owner in place, and sensible pricing structures (ala Bradford and Huddersfield) it is repairable, if the will is there.